Actor-network theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Saved by 7 people (0 private), first by anonymouse user on 2006-11-25
- Enkerli on 2008-08-02 - Tags no_tag
- Forestfortrees on 2008-06-06 - Tags actor-network , theory , latour , academic , sociology , science , technology , philosophy
- Longpd on 2007-12-20 - Tags ant , sociology , science , STS , LaTour , Callon , science_studies
- Ontoligent on 2007-11-20 - Tags culture-as-information , information_as_culture , informational-cultures
- Olebrudvik on 2007-07-08 - Tags actornetworktheory
Public Sticky notes
Actor-network theory, often abbreviated as ANT, is a distinctive approach to social theory and research which originated in the field of science studies. Although it is best known for its controversial insistence on the agency of nonhumans, ANT is also associated with forceful critiques of conventional and critical sociology.
Developed by two leading French Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholars, Michel Callon and Bruno Latour, British sociologist John Law, and others, it can more technically be described as a 'material-semiotic' method. This means that it maps relations that are simultaneously material (between things) and 'semiotic' (between concepts). It assumes that many relations are both material and 'semiotic' (for instance the interactions in a bank involve both people and their ideas, and computers. Together these form a single network).
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From about 1990 onwards ANT started to become popular as a tool for analysis in a range of fields beyond STS. It was picked up and developed by authors in parts of organisational analysis, informatics, health studies, geography, sociology, anthropology, feminist studies and economics. Some such adoptions were relatively uncritical, but others were not, and the development of ANT through the 1990s reveals traces of its dialogues with related approaches, including especially feminist STS, geography, and anthropology.
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Translation
Central to ANT (some times referred to as Sociology of Translation) is the concept of translation, in which innovators attempt to create a forum, a central network in which all the actors agree that the network is worth building and defending. In his widely debated 1986 study of how marine biologists try to restock the St Brieuc Bay in order to produce more scallops, Michel Callon has defined 4 moments of translation. These four moments are derived from studying:
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1. Problematisation
What is the problem that needs to be solved? Who are the relevant actors? Delegates need to be identified that will represent groups of actors. So, a union head represents workers or a Member of Parliament represents his constituency. During problematisation, the primary actor tries to establish itself as an obligatory passage point (OPP) between the other actors and the network, so that it becomes indispensable.
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2. Interessement
Getting the actors interested and negotiating the terms of their involvement. The primary actor works to convince the other actors that the roles it has defined them are acceptable.
3. Enrolment
Actors accept the roles that have been defined for them during interessement
4. Mobilisation of allies
Do the delegate actors in the network adequately represent the masses? If so, enrolment becomes active support.
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Generalized Symmetry
ANT assumes that all the elements in a network, human and non-human, can and should be described in the same terms. This is called the principle of generalized symmetry. The rationale for this is that differences between them are generated in the network of relations, and should not be presupposed.
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Actants
It talks, for instance, of Actants to denote human and non-human actors, and assumes that the actors in a network take the shape that they do by virtue of their relations with one another. It assumes that nothing lies outside the network of relations, and as noted above, suggests that there is no difference in the ability of technology, humans, animals, or other non-humans to act (and that there are only enacted alliances.) It further notes that as soon as an actor engages with an actor-network it too is caught up in the web of relations, and becomes part of the 'entelechy'.
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Punctualisation
If taken to its logical conclusion, nearly any actor can be considered merely a sum of other, smaller actors. An automobile is an example of a complex system. It contains many electronic and mechanical components, all of which are essentially hidden from view to the driver, who simply deals with the car as a single object. This effect is known as punctualisation, and is similar to the idea of abstraction in object-oriented programming.
When an actor network breaks down, the punctualisation effect tends to cease as well. In the automobile example above, a non-working engine would cause the driver to become aware of the car as a collection of parts rather than just a vehicle capable of transporting him or her from place to place. This can also occur when elements of a network act contrarily to the network as a whole. In his 'Pandora's Hope' Latour likens depunctualization to the opening of Pandora's box.
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Tokens/quasi-objects
In the above examples, 'social order' and 'functioning car' come into being through the successful interactions of their respective actor-networks, and actor-network theory refers to these creations as tokens or quasi-objects which are passed between actors within the network.
As the token is increasingly transmitted or passed through the network, it becomes increasingly punctualized and also increasingly reified. When the token is decreasingly transmitted, or when an actor fails to transmit the token (e.g., the oil pump breaks), punctualization and reification are decreased as well.
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