Building Collectives, Worlds, Interfaces: on the Prospects of Political Ecology through the Prism of Bruno Latour’s Book “Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy”

Abstract

The article offers an interpretation of the key theses of Bruno Latour’s book “Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy,” focusing on their development in the idea of an empathetic interface. The aim of the study is to reveal how Latour's critique of modernity, the idea of hybrid collectivities, and the reconsideration of the role of science, form the basis for understanding interfaces as tools for symmetrical interaction between human and non-human actants. The methodology includes a hermeneutic analysis of Latour's text, a comparison of his ideas with postmodern philosophy (Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari), as well as drawing on examples from ecosystems (mycorrhizal networks, coral reefs) and digital technologies (algorithms, blockchain). Particular attention is paid to the deconstruction of anthropocentrism and rethinking the agency of non-humans. The key result of the article is the idea of an empathic interface, which emerges as a synthesis of Latour’s theses. It presupposes a parity dialogue (the interface becomes a mediator that recognizes the agency of all members of the team, people, technologies, ecosystems); dynamic adaptation (the ability to interpret multi-format signals, from environmental sensor data to animal behavior patterns); political-ecological function (integration of the “voices” of non-humans (forests, rivers, algorithms) into decision-making processes through technologies (sensors, AI, visualization). The findings highlight that the empathic interface is not a technical tool, but a socio-political act redefining interaction in the Anthropocene. It eliminates the hierarchies of modernity, replacing them with hybrid networks, where democracy is impossible without taking into account the interests of all actants.