The Berlin key

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The Berlin Key (French original title: Inscrire dans la nature des choses ou la clef berlinoise ) is an essay by the French sociologist and philosopher Bruno Latour from 1991. The essay deals with the anchoring of social behavioral expectations and normativity in everyday objects. To illustrate and explain this phenomenon is of the double-Latour bearded for Berlin typical Berlin Key used.

With the essay on the Berlin key, Latour first deals with the application and function of the key. He then uses this artifact as an object of explanation for his actor-network theory and his approach of the “ sociology of associations”. Both dealt (among other things) with the redefinition and emergence of the social (togetherness). For Latour, the social ultimately emerges from associations or from the intertwining of people and things. This interdependence is explained and illustrated using the example of the Berlin key.

Berlin key - description, application and function

Berlin key with holder

The Berlin key or push-through key is an invention of master locksmith Johann Schweiger from 1912. It is a key with two identically shaped key bits at both ends that was originally used in Berlin apartment buildings. Another characteristic feature is the groove on both key bits, which can be found on the opposite side of the key bit.

The application steps for using the Berlin key are described by Latour with the help of a fictional person and with great technical detail. In the essay, an archaeologist goes to Berlin and comes across the Berlin key. It is initially unknown to her how it is used. Only through the help of others does she find out about the two different uses of the Berlin key: During the night, the door lock mechanism is modified by the caretaker using a master key. The Berlin key must then be inserted vertically into the lock and rotated 270 ° counterclockwise. The key remains in this position and in the next step is pushed horizontally through the lock and turned again by 270 ° on the other side of the front door. The previously opened door will be closed again. Only then is it possible to remove the key from the lock. During the day, after the door has been modified again with the master key, the second type of application applies. The key can open the front door, but not lock it. The caretaker, key and lock thus regulate the user of the key, making the front door compulsory at night and leaving the front door unlocked during the day. A schematic representation of the usage process can be found in the original Latour article and in the English translation.

Sociological explanation and core thesis by Bruno Latour

At the beginning of the essay, Bruno Latour explains that for him there are neither subjects nor objects. He is of the opinion that objects contain collections of social practices and action scripts or programs of action. Because of this, they take on the role of a "mediator". In this context, the mediator is not only responsible for the transfer of communication between material things and social practices. Its action is rather the mediation between people and things. As a result, “the meaning [of an object] is no longer merely conveyed by the medium, but partially constituted, shifted, newly created, modified, in short: translated and betrayed”. The mediator becomes a social actor.

In the example of the Berlin key, this object carries the action program “Please close the front door behind you at night, but never during the day”. With this action script, the key not only transports this disciplinary relationship between person and object. Rather, its existence and its role as a social actor are the cause of this behavior and discipline. But only with language can the programs of action and action between people and things be revealed. The theoretical conception of the Berlin push-through key is not sufficient to understand how the key works. An ignorant person first needs an instruction manual in order to be able to use the key.

The core thesis of the essay arises from the actor-network theory . This states that technical things and people cannot be viewed separately from one another. They are connected with one another and attribute properties and abilities to one another . Actions or social togetherness arise from the interwoven interaction of people and things. The mutual role assignment and role assumption of both actors creates a relationship. Latour calls this relationship a network in his theory.

This relationship can be found in the case of the Berlin key. Latour explains that “the social cannot be built out of the social, it needs keys and locks. And because the classic locks still leave too much freedom, you need double-bearded keys ”. For Latour, the meaning of an object cannot be found before the technical devices. Therefore, the Berlin Key becomes both a means and an end at the same time. It not only ensures that the users of the key lock their doors behind them at night. It is also the trigger for this discipline. This “steely” and disciplinary relationship between the two actors illustrates the interdependence between people and things and Latour's theory of the formation of the social.

History of appearance

The Berlin Key appeared for the first time in 1991. It was published as an article in Alliage magazine under the title Inscrire dans la nature des choses ou la clef berlinoise . Two years later, in 1993, the text in La clef de Berlin et autres leçons d'un amateur de sciences , a collection of various essays by Latour, was published again by La Découverte. In 1994 the first German version of the “Berlin Key” was published. This was translated by Gustav Roßler and published in a series of publications by the Berlin Science Center for Social Research . As in 1996 also the anthology published in 1993 with texts by Bruno Latour under the title The Berlin Key. Explorations by a Science Lover appeared in a German version, Roßler's translation was reprinted in it. In addition, Latour's essay on the Berlin Key has been translated into English (1991), Dutch (2009) and Spanish (2017), among others.

reception

Since its publication, “The Berlin Key” has been taken up and quoted in various contexts and different academic disciplines. In education , for example, the concept of the Berlin key is used to explain and justify education through things. As in the Berlin Key, the delegation of human admonitions is materialized in things and no longer conveyed through language. In design is also resorted to Latour. It is assumed that design products are also not completed and unchanged objects. Conditions affect the result of a work or a product and help shape it. The use of the object and technical progress lead to constant further development of the design product. The topic of the Berlin key was also dealt with in various daily newspapers, on websites and at universities.

Bruno Latour has continued to work on the actor-network theory since the publication of the Berlin key and in 2005 published his book Reassembling the Social (German A new sociology for a new society. An introduction to the actor-network theory ). Gustav Roßler wrote that the topic of the Berlin key and the essay of the same name "like in a nutshell" contained Latour's sociological concepts and could be found in his book on the "new sociology for a new society". The Berlin key is therefore used again and again in the following academic readings and debates as a prime example for the actor-network theory and for the method of action of the artifacts. In 2013 Bruno Latour received the Holberg Prize for his "ambitious analysis and reinterpretation of modernity, regarding fundamental categories such as the distinction between modern and pre-modern, nature and society, human and non-human". The guiding principle of the Berlin key is therefore still tied to a certain topicality and relevance in today's literature and science.

literature

Primary literature

  • Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key . Botopress, Berlin 2014, ISBN 3-946056-00-8 .
  • Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key. Exploring a lover of science . Akademieverlag, Oldenbourg 1996, ISBN 3-05-002834-3 .
  • Bruno Latour: La clef de Berlin et autres leçons d'un amateur de sciences . La Decouvert, Paris 1993, ISBN 2707122742 .
  • Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key or How to Do things with Words . In: PM Graves-Brown Matter, Materiality and Modern Culture. Routledge, London 1991, pp. 10-21.
  • Bruno Latour: Inscrire dans la nature des choses ou la clef berlinoise. In: Alliage 1991, No. 6, pp. 4-16.

Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This is the future of the key. Retrieved January 11, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key . Botopress, Berlin 2014, pp. 13-19.
  3. ^ Bruno Latour: La clef de Berlin. Retrieved January 18, 2017 (French).
  4. ↑ Bruno Latour: The berlin key or how to do words with things. Retrieved January 24, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key . Botopress, Berlin 2014, p. 10.
  6. ↑ Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key . Botopress, Berlin 2014, p. 24.
  7. ↑ Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key . Botopress, Berlin 2014, p. 22 ff.
  8. ↑ Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key . Botopress, Berlin 2014, p. 22.
  9. ↑ Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key . Botopress, Berlin 2014 p. 23 f.
  10. ↑ Gustav Roßler:  Social Realization. Keys, people, things. In: Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key. Botopress Berlin 2014, p. 40.
  11. ↑ Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key . Botopress, Berlin 2014 p. 6 f.
  12. ↑ Gustav Roßler: Social Realization. Keys, people, things. In: Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key. Botopress Berlin 2014, p. 35 f.
  13. ^ Ingo Schulz-Schaeffer: Actor Network Theory. On the coevolution of society, nature and technology . In: social networks. Concepts and methods of social science network research . Edited by Johannes Weyer. Munich and Vienna 2000. p. 187.
  14. ↑ Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key . Botopress, Berlin 2014, p. 24.
  15. ↑ Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key . Botopress, Berlin 2014, p. 24
  16. ↑ Bruno Latour: Inscrire dans la nature des choses ou la clef berlinoise. In: Alliage 1991, No. 6, pp. 4-16.
  17. ^ Bruno Latour: Publications of the Berlin Key. Retrieved January 18, 2018 (French, English).
  18. ↑ Arnd-Michael Nohl: Pedagogy of Things . Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2011, p. 129 f.
  19. ^ Annika Frye: Design and Improvisation: Products, Processes and Methods. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2017, p. 30.
  20. ↑ Article in 'Der Tagesspiegel': This is the future of the key , accessed on December 13, 2017
  21. ↑ Blogger Marc Engels: What is a Berlin key? , accessed December 4, 2017 .
  22. ↑ Caspar Clemens Mierau: “Of humans (M) and non-human (NM) beings” Bruno Latour's “The Berlin Key” as a theory of things , accessed on December 4, 2017 ( PDF ; 437 KB, German).
  23. ↑ Gustav Roßler: Social Realization. Keys, people, things. In: Bruno Latour: The Berlin Key. Botopress Berlin 2014, p. 35.
  24. ↑ Benjamin Köhler: Actor Network Theory in Agile Software Development: An Example on Continuous Delivery - A contribution by Emine Aslan. Retrieved January 29, 2018 (German).
  25. ↑ Gustav Roßler: The share of things in society. Sociality - Cognition - Networks. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2016.
  26. ↑ Bruno Latour. Holberg Prize, accessed on January 29, 2018 .