Reassembling the social an introduction to actor network theory xii 2005. Reassembling the social an introduction to actor network theory. This book offers an introduction to actornetwork theory for educators to consider in three ways. Actor network theory and after, edited by john law and john. The routledge companion to actornetwork theory will be an inspiring and lively companion to academics and advanced undergraduates and postgraduates from across many disciplines across the social sciences, including sociology, geography, politics and urban studies, environmental studies and sts, and anyone wishing to engage with ant, to. Alas, the historical name is actornetworktheory, a name that is so awkward. According to jarzabkowski 2010, the actornetwork theory represents one viable approach for studying how nonhuman artifacts are engaged in strategy as practice. Its most innovative claim approaches these networks outside the anthropocentric view, including both humans and nonhuman objects as active participants in a social context. This controversial and pathbreaking volume extends ant beyond studies of technology, power and organization to the body, subjectivity, politics, and cultural difference, and puts it into cuttingedge dialog with feminism, anthropology. Once the cfp was written, confirmed and transformed into a pdf, david started to send it out, as did we. Actor network theory and material semiotics john laws. Actor network theory for dummies august 27, 2014 uncategorized morgandavis2108 when i first came across the ant theory the notion was very daunting and complex, with a diagram that resembled a closed hoberman sphere more than a social theory. The purpose of this paper is to assess the current and potential future contribution of the theory to is research. Reflections on actornetwork theory, governance networks.
Combining poststructuralist insights with robustly empirical studies of subjectivities, technologies, organisations, power, and social ordering, it has challenged and helped to set intellectual agendas not only in sociology and technoscience studies, but also in anthropology. Actornetwork theory ant, originally a social theory, seeks to organize objects and nonhuman entities into social networks. Further back still a different kind of actor was introduced in the form of the postal system or perhaps the postal worker who enabled people to communicate over vast distances by sending a letter that might. Ant is a conceptual frame for exploring collective sociotechnical processes, whose spokespersons have paid particular attention to. This essay makes a case for the value of actornetwork theory ant to. Actornetwork theory and anthropology after science. An actornetwork theory analysis of policy innovation for.
Latour french sociologist of science influential theorist in sts developer of ant influenced by harold garfinkels ethnomethodology, generative semiotics of griemas and maverick sociology of gabriel tarde. Covering a breadth of topics, michael demonstrates how ant has become a major theoretical framework, influencing scholarly work across a range of fields. Actornetwork theory ant is an increasingly influential, but still deeply contested, approach to understand humans and their interactions with inanimate objects. Pdf the basic argument presented in the paper is that actor network theory has often been forced to adopt the ontology of interpretivism and thus. Ingunn moser university of oslo and john law lancaster university. Actornetwork theory and its role in understanding the. Edquist 1997 stressed that institutions have come to be viewed as a main character in explaining innovation in the innovation systems theory. Actornetwork theory ant is a framework for the study of sociology that emerged in the early 1980s with the work of bruno latour, michel callon, and john law in the field of science and technology studies sts. Actornetwork theory ant began at the end of the 1970s as an attempt to account for scientific activity without distinguishing a priori between its socalled social and technical aspects. Actor network theory and after john law, john hassard. Facebook as an example of actornetworktheory prezi. Actornetwork theory and the ethnographic imagination. View actornetwork theory research papers on academia. In what follows first i offer a particular account of the intellectual origins of the actor network approach.
The theory is thus positioned in the middle of the debate between constructivist and. By greatly extending the chain or network of causation, proliferating heterogeneous agents, nonhuman as well as human, without limit as to their enrolment in urban assemblages, actor network theory offers a way of addressing the particular complexity and openness characteristic of cities. Description everyone seems to know with what sort of forces and in which sort of materials the social world is made. The purpose of ant is not to explain why, but to describe how relations are established, how they function, and which effects they have.
Put simply, ant is the theory that actants, human and nonhuman, both possess the same level of agency to make up a network. Entities whether human or nonhuman within those networks acquire power. Actor network theory is a powerful approach which combines the insights of poststructuralism with an analysis of the materials of social life. Below is a diagram i wrote up to illustrate bruno latours actornetwork theory ant. An important goal for the journal is to facilitate publication of the body of research relating to the use of actornetwork theory as. Actor network theory and after is a powerful approach which combines the insights of poststructuralism with an analysis of the materials of social life. An increasing interest is being shown, not least by is researchers, in the sociotechnical approach known as actor network theory. Actor network theory for development working paper 1 2 1. Latour, bruno 1991, technology is society made durable. Actornetwork theory is a framework and systematic way to consider the infrastructure surrounding technological achievements. Second, i characterise what i call actor network theory 1990. It posits that nothing exists outside those relationships. Actornetwork theory and anthropology after science, technology. Reassembling the social an introduction to actornetworktheory bruno latour science, innovation, and economic growth forthcoming walter w.
Actor network theory is proposed as an analytical tool that provides the theoretical and methodological underpinning for the study of these dynamic relationships. Actor network theory actor network theory ant, also known as enrolment theory or the sociology of translation, emerged during the mid1980s, primarily with the work of bruno latour, michel callon, and john law. Network theory for development working paper 6 4 role. Actor network theory ant is a theoretical and methodological approach to social theory where everything in the social and natural worlds exists in constantly shifting networks of relationships. From this perspective, a theory is successful when it is actualised in practical interventions that make those involved in their use to act differently. The actornetwork theory simplified and scrutinised. In a workshop called actor network and after, bruno latour stated that there are four things wrong with actornetwork theory. A brief summary of actor network theory cyborgology. This controversial and pathbreaking volume extends ant beyond studies of technology, power and organisation to the body, subjectivity, politics, and cultural difference, and puts it into cuttingedge dialogue with feminism, anthropology, psychology. Why then use the word network since it is opened to such misunderstandings. Actor network theory and after, edited by john law and john hassard.
However, this theory has often been misunderstood and hence much abused. This chapter is about the extension of actornetwork theory initiated by michel callon to the study of markets. Description the international journal of actornetwork theory and technological innovation ijantti publishes research articles covering a wide range of topics related to actornetwork theory ant and its use as a means of exploring sociotechnical phenomena. Actor network theory is one of the most influential approaches to social theory to have emerged in recent years. Time and again, i have found that readers were puzzled not so much by our views on scientific practice and various other topics, but rather by the unusual meaning we gave to the words social and social explanations. Second, latour has developed the concept of mediation by thought experiments by analyzing examples of.
Introduction actor network theory ant has emerged over the past thirty years as a major conceptual force in social science. The actor network theory has developed the concept of mediation on several levels. And yet, this alternative social theory has never been the. It requires us to take the performativity turn, consider the role of objects in our analysis and conceptualize all actants human and nonhuman as relational beings.
To date, though, its application within development studies has been very limited. Since one of the major theorists john law stated ant studies explore and characterise the webs and the practices that carry them law, 2009, i will be using the example of a single online social network specifically a website dedicated to breastfeeding to demonstrate this theory. First, it has been elaborated on the philosophical and the methodological plane, as a critique of modern constitution, realism and social constructivims. This is the version, with all its strengths and weaknesses, that.
Developed by bruno latour and his collaborators, actor network theory ant offers crimes studies a worthy intellectual challenge. From this failure to expunge the microeconomic foundations of neoclassical economics from postgreat depression theory arose the microfoundations of macroeconomics debate, which ultimately led to a model in which the economy is viewed as a single utilitymaximizing individual blessed with perfect knowledge of the future. A formally informal group gathering to discuss or not actornetwork theory ant. Since its first introduction, actornetwork theory has undergone significant shifts and evolutions and as a result, it is not considered to be a single or coherent theoretical domain, but as developing diversely in response to various challenges. Ant, as proposed by callon 1986, law 1986 and latour 1987, is a social theory which originated in the field of science and technology. All the factors involved in a social situation are on the same level, and thus there are no external social forces beyond what and how the. Understanding the application of actornetwork theory in. We argue that health services research, and in particular evaluations of complex it systems in health service organisations, may benefit from being informed by actornetwork theory perspectives. It is important to clearly define what we mean by social. Read actornetwork theory trials, trails and translations by mike michael available from rakuten kobo. Actor network theory is a powerful approach which combines the insights of post structuralism with an analysis of the materials of social life.
Les ebooks kindle peuvent etre lus sur nimporte quel appareil avec lappli. This essay makes a case for the value of actor network theory ant to anthropology beyond its most usual deployment in studies of science, technology, and society sts. Urban assemblages how actornetwork theory changes urban. The focus point of ant lies, therefore, on the actornetworks and in their configurations three writers. An introduction to actornetworktheory, latour reversed himself, accepting the wide use of the term. An overview of actor network theory3 given this study seeks to appraise the methodological application of ant, it is important that we commence with a detailed overview of this theory. Socio material approaches actor network theory and karen barads diffractive methodology duration.