Gabriel Tarde and Contemporary Social Theory

After a century of obscurity, the work of Gabriel Tarde is once again attracting the attention of social theorists. In particular, Bruno Latour has been a fervent advocate of Tarde’s work as a form of sociology, which, he claims, anticipates actor network theory and which is therefore appropriate for an era of globalization. Rejecting Durkheimian appeals to an autonomous and preformed social reality, Tarde focuses on dynamic and hybrid processes of individual imitation and interaction. This article reexamines the work of Gabriel Tarde to assess the validity of Latour’s interpretation. It claims that Latour’s reading is inaccurate and Tarde’s work is problematic because ultimately it is individualist and teleological; it offers the contemporary social theorist little of value beyond its undoubted historical interest.