Douglas Booker
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douglasbooker.bsky.social
Douglas Booker
@douglasbooker.bsky.social
490 followers 580 following 180 posts
Lecturer in Indoor Air at the University of Leeds, researching all things air quality and environmental justice.

Co-Founder & CEO of NAQTS | Regional Clean Air Champion in the UKRI Clean Air Programme. Views my own.
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douglasbooker.bsky.social
Slow work day for my office mate
A border collie curled up in his bed
November 12, 2025 at 3:00 PM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
What an excellent day at the UK Indoor Air: Research at the Science–Policy Interface conference: I am sad to miss the second day!

It is unthinkable to me that an event with this much focused UK research on indoor air quality (and momentum!) would exist without the Clean Air Programme.
Prof Nic Carslaw standing at the front of the room introducing the aims of the meeting
November 5, 2025 at 6:51 PM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Cool @uniofbradford.bsky.social / @bihr.bsky.social event as part of the Bradford Science Festival: get down to @mediamuseum.bsky.social to see if you can catch the Bradford Air Bandits!
Bradford Science Festival poster with cartoon air pollution characters and kids. Dates: October 29-30, 2025. Venue: National Science & Media Museum. Poster for Bradford Science Festival featuring cartoon characters Ollie the Ozone Ogre, Noxious Nigel, and Penny the Menace on a map. A woman holds a sign inviting collaboration with Dr. Data. Includes logos of City University, University of Bradford, and Bradford Institute for Health Research. Text encourages exploring maps and designing a machine to catch air quality "bandits."
October 29, 2025 at 9:02 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Funded PhD opportunity with the CHILI Hub! (www.chili.ac.uk).

The project will use systems thinking approaches to understand barriers in the delivery of Net Zero schools, to optimise heath, environmental, and justice co-benefits.

Info here: lnkd.in/egz9bJ-N

Get in touch: d.d.booker@leeds.ac.uk
CHILI Hub Logo
October 22, 2025 at 9:52 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Spot the indoor air quality monitors (including a new one I am particularly excited about)
A picture of a book case with colourful books, to the left is a Van Gogh painting and a fireplace. Two indoor air quality monitors are in the picture, one a canary bird, the other a white AirGradient sensor
October 12, 2025 at 3:14 PM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Noni Madueke…
“I Owe You an Apology. I Wasn't Really Familiar With Your Game” meme
September 13, 2025 at 12:06 PM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Are you from a Commonwealth country & interested in studying for a PhD on air quality & environmental justice?

If so please get in touch to discuss your project ideas: d.d.booker@leeds.ac.uk

Info on my research: eps.leeds.ac.uk/civil-engine...

Scholarship info: cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/scholarships...
A wheel displaying five different dimensions of environmental justice. At the centre of the wheel in grey: Indoor air quality and environmental justice. On the edges of the wheel are the types of environmental justice, with the inner part of the wheel providing some explanatory phrases. These are as follows: Epistemic Justice: lay vs expert knowledge, lived experience Distributive justice: who is exposed? who is emitting? Procedural justice: How decisions are made, access to information Recognition: Environmental racism, marginalisation Capabilities: Agency vs structure, resources for mitigation
September 11, 2025 at 4:58 PM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
I've been reading a lot of Brazilian literature and recently picked up Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist' in a charity shop for £1

It's part of World Book Night 2012, and the idea is to read it and pass it on, so... if you're based in the UK and want it, let me know and I will post it to you!
Me holding Paulo Coelho's the Alchemist
September 10, 2025 at 11:07 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Had a lovely weekend back in the home city of Oxford frustrating my partner while I ask for pictures next to air quality monitors
Me standing next to a roadside air quality monitor
September 8, 2025 at 6:40 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
I used ANT to investigate the human & non-humans that influenced the questions that my research asked, and how they were investigated.

This included tracing the transformations I did from the air into the final scientific figures I presented.

eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/21...

🧵 12/12
The 'circulating reference' for my air quality monitoring project, detailing the stages I went through to go from the air to the final representations of it presented in scientific figures. The numbers above each step illustrate their position in the sequence. See From (Particulate) Matter to Form: Opening the black box of doing PhD air quality science (Paper 1), p.70 onwards https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/213755/6/2023bookerphd.pdf
September 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
One of the great things about doing a PhD was the opportunity to learn from a wide range of disciplines, and it was fun trying to distill ANT into an accessible format

Personally I find ANT very useful, and indeed I used it significantly in my PhD. Some examples on the next couple of posts

🧵 10/12
September 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
In ANT, all networks are made of actors, and all actors are themselves networks. So in principle, you could go on forever….

🧵 9/12

* ANT scholar counters to these points in the Alt-text
My script: For the final criticism that ANT often receives In ANT, all networks are made of actors, and all actors are themselves networks. So in principle, you could go on forever…. In reality this just means that when describing phenomena, scholars must use discretion in determining the level of complexity of their network, and how far down they wish to go. This decision is usually made by looking at moments when a network is made or it breaks down and focusing on the actors that make a difference, not just those that hang around in the background unnoticed not changing a state of affairs.
September 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Through making everything the result of network-building, objects cannot be said to have any real scientific properties or technical properties to do anything until they are in a network!?

🧵 8/12

* ANT scholar counters to these points in the Alt-text
My script: Concurrent to criticisms of ANT’s non-human agency, is its problem of realism. ANT holds an ontology that sits in between the classical divide constructivism and realism. Realism which believes that things exist independent of us perceiving them, and constructivism which argues that it is only through perception that things become real. Through making everything the result of network-building, objects cannot be said to have any real scientific properties or technical properties to do anything until they are in a network. It is not until they are in a network that they really exist.   Latour details this situation in Louis Pasteur’s discovery of the anthrax vaccine whereby he argues that we should not see anthrax as a thing ‘out-there’ to be discovered by the human ‘in-here’; rather, it is the co-construction of a socio-natural network that allowed anthrax and Louis Pasteur as a ‘great scientist’ to emerge (Latour, 1983). This represents a quasi-realist position, whereby Latour grants an active role to anthrax rather than it being merely the social construction of Pasteur. Latour also does not presuppose anthrax bacillus’s existence before the experiment: rather the social and the natural are co-constructed, or as Latour puts it ‘they mutually exchange and enhance their properties’ (Latour, 1999b, p. 125)   This approach whereby scientists and engineers help to create the properties of natural things, and technological ideas do not have force of their own accord, runs against the arguments of realism, whereby scientists discover the properties of natural things. At the same time, through taking non-human actors interests seriously, it presupposes that the natural world does exist independent of humans.
September 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
I then mentioned a few specific critiques:

Humans can reflect on their own position within a network: non-humans can't!

ANT is a 'privileged epistemology' that does not challenge racism, classism, sexism etc..

🧵 7/12

* ANT scholar counters to these points in the Alt-text
A slide with the title "Who / what has agency", with the words below what about intention?, politically useful?, and a privileged epistemology? On the right is a picture of quark, with a quote below "...calling a quark a quark makes no difference to the quark (Bloor, 1999, p.105) My script: Now for some criticisms. ANT’s distribution of agency, particularly its treatment of non-human agency, is perhaps its most controversial feature.   Intentional agency is often a key stumbling block for many people as they state humans can reflect on their own position within a network, and can intentionally attempt to alter a network’s shape. Whereas non-humans cannot. However, ANT theorists would argue that they do not attribute intentionality and similar properties to nonhumans, that their conception of agency does not necessarily imply intentionality, and that the agency of actors in networks does not belong in the human actors or non-human actants in a network, but to the associations between humans and non-humans. Such a claim asserts that what matters is not the intentionality itself but how intentionality is shaped (allowed, encouraged, blocked, rendered possible) by an extension of causal relations between humans and nonhumans. Another critique of non-human agency that has been raised relates ‘not to the meaning, but for the use’ of different sociological methodologies. They argue that ANT may merely provide a privileged epistemological position, rather than an effective position for social action. By dismissing such social factors such as race, class, gender, and postcolonialism it is argued that ANT is incapable of challenging the power of racism, sexism, etc.   However, it can be countered that these criticisms about political usefulness may not be necessary, as moral and political positions are possible, so long as one describes the network before taking up such positions.
September 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Social relations are ‘flat’: this is an attempt reconcile where things happen: is it micro individual actions? or structural levels due to global forces?

"Macro no longer describes a [..] larger site in which the  micro would be embedded like some Russian Matroyshka doll” (Latour, 2005)

🧵 6/12
Now the final key principle that I will highlight today is something called a ‘flat ontology’ . What this means is that questions of scale between local and global, or micro and macro are not preordained. Instead, all social relations exist on a ‘flat’ plane. This is an attempt to solve the age old sociological dilemma of where things happen: Does it occur on the micro level by individual actions? or does it happen at structural levels due to global forces? For ANT, The global, the national, the communal, the organizational, and the individual levels are not considered concentric domains contained in each other, but  rather  networks of elements that  become  larger or smaller depending  on  the  range of  their associations. Bruno Latour, one of ANT’s inventors and key proponents, uses the Russian  Matroyshka doll to make this argument: “macro no longer describes a wider or a larger site in  which the  micro would  be  embedded like some  Russian  Matroyshka  doll, but  another equally local, equally micro place  which is connected to  many  others…” (Latour 2005, p.176). In practice this underpins that entities are always simultaneously actors and networks. For example, the Young Group can be seen as an actor in a Lancaster University network, but also as a network itself consisting of all of us, the computers we are using, the chairs we are sat on, etc etc
September 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Scientific 'facts' shouldn't be privileged, instead they should be analysed the same as those of anyone else.

Anything that changes a state of affairs should be considered as an actor. This includes NON-HUMANS (animals, technologies, roads, door stoppers: you name it!)

🧵 4/12
A slide with a picture with the question 'who led the digital transformation of your company' A) the CEO, B) the CTO, C) COVID-19. The C) is circled. The slide has the title Key Principle 2 - Generalised Symmetry. With the words below "treat scientific / non-scientific propositions equally, non-human agency, actor = "anything that does modify a state of affairs by making a difference (Latour 2005: 71) My script: The principle of symmetry has a long history in the social sciences. Perhaps most famously by scholars who sought to unpack how scientific knowledge was made (or dare I say constructed). The principle of symmetry calls for researchers to treat “scientific” and other types of statements in equal terms. Scientific propositions were not to be privileged because of claims to truth, instead the social analysis of the hard ‘facts’ of science should be the same as those of anyone else. This is not to say the scientific facts are untrue, but to show how they are made, and what claims they are contingent on. ANT took this one step futher, and turned these tools on sociology itself. ANT argues that a full symmetry should not give the language and categories of the social sciences, such as class, power, society, or culture, a  privileged  position  either. ANT scholars argue that in order to apply the principle of symmetry consistently, we need to redefine what we mean by the  term  “social”.   The main act of redefinition undertaken was the attribution of agency to objects, or non-humans as it calls it. This redefiniton implies that social relations and actions are not strictly determined by traditional social categories but are made through the associations between humans and non-humans. If we remember the first principle of a relational ontology, something is nothing other than the set of all its relations with other objects, and ANT theorists think that “any thing that does modify a state of affairs by making a difference” should be considered as an actor.
September 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
An object is nothing other than the set of all its relations with other objects

Objects are what they do, or how they act in a network

ANT argues that the special qualities we often associate with humans are the outcome of complex networks / nothing can be said to act alone!

🧵 3/12
A slide with a picture of Archimedes in a bathtub having his 'Eureka' moment. The slide has the title "Key Principle 1 - Relational Ontology" with words below "what something is, is always in relation to other things, relations over objects, challenges 'lone geniuses'" My script: The first key principle of using ANT is that it uses a relational ontology. Ontology is concerned with the nature of being. For ANT that nature of being is always in relation to other things. In this view, an object is nothing other than the set of all its relations with other objects. The most important thing is the relationships between objects, and objects are what they do, or how they act through their distributed networks. This challenges the historical accounts of great achievements, in particular the idea of lone geniuses, who through sheer force of will discover or invent incredible things. Whether that be Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, or Marie Cure, ANT argues that the special qualities or abilities we often associate with human beings are actually the outcome of complex networks, and that nothing can be said to act alone.
September 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Social forces don't exist in of themselves: ANT argues that they exist through an ever shifting set of relations between different actors

Sociology should not be a ‘science of the social’, but instead the ‘tracing of associations'

🧵 2/12
A slide with a picture of a capitalist with many arms. On the slide is the title "In a nutshell" and the words below "ANT, social forces do not exist in of themselves, A sociology of associations' My script: ANT is a theoretical and methodological approach that attempts to describe the processes by which things come into being or conversely fail to materialise. That could be a piece of technology, why societies form and why they change, or pretty much anything you can think of. Social forces do not exist in of themselves: At the centre of this approach is the argument that social forces do not exist in themselves acting as an invisible, untraceable, ubiquitous, and total force. Therefore, they cannot simply be invoked to explain social phenomena. This challenges the way in which grand sociological theories attempt to explain large scale relationships and answer fundamental questions, such as power, patriarchy, capitalism, white privilege…among other things. ANT proposes a ‘sociology of associations’: Instead, ANT argues that our social world exists through an ever shifting set of relations (or associations) between different actors. In doing so, ANT attempts to redefine sociology 'not as the ‘science of the social’, but as the ‘tracing of associations’ . ANT argues that sociologists should be accounting for how society is held together rather than using a notion of ‘the social’ (capitalism, patriarchy etc.) to explain phenomena. The job is therefore to trace the networks of actors.  
September 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Gathering material from old presentations & came across this Actor-Network Theory (ANT) explainer I did for my PhD lab group w/ @pjyng.bsky.social

My attempts to explain ANT to atmospheric chemists/mathematicians/data scientists in ~15 mins

🧵 1/12

*look at alt-text on all slides for more info
A powerpoint slide with the words: Actor-Network Theory (ANT) Douglas Booker 11th July 2022
September 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
I’m in love
Me standing in front of a stone house behind a green Brompton bicycle
September 1, 2025 at 4:26 PM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Exciting!
Picture of a cardboard box with the words “nothing folds like a Brompton folds”
August 29, 2025 at 7:01 PM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
I have been — slowly — working my way through all 214 of the Lake District Wainwrights. Here is me from earlier this week on number 100. Just a few more to go...
A picture of me smiling at the top of High Tove, with my border collie dog "Gil". A cairn is visible in the foreground, with views of other hills behind me..
August 8, 2025 at 9:07 AM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
Current mood
Ian Wright wearing a “I love the lasses” t shirt
July 27, 2025 at 5:53 PM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
What in the over-engineered, capitalist nonsense is this!?

Just give us a bloody water fountain
Water refill vending machine
July 25, 2025 at 5:19 PM
douglasbooker.bsky.social
I’m in London today at the Future Fit Global Consortium Workshop

It was really interesting to hear from CIBSE’s Dr. Anastasia Mylona on their work on hierarchies of sustainable cooling
Anastasia standing in front of a slide with an inverted triangle showing the hierarchy of cooling
July 25, 2025 at 11:04 AM