Beyond ANT

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Till Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Theoretical Design ◽  
The Social ◽  
Actor Networks

Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) offers an ‘infra-language’ of the social that allows one to trace social relations very dynamically, while at the same time dissolving human agency, thus providing a flat and de-centred way into sociology. However, ANT struggles with its theoretical design that may lead us to reduce agency to causation and to conceptualize actor-networks as homogeneous ontologies of force. This article proposes to regard ANT’s inability to conceptualize reflexivity and the interrelatedness of different ontologies as the fundamental problem of the theory. Drawing on Günther, it offers an ‘infra-language’ of reflexive relations while maintaining ANT’s de-centred approach. This would enable us to conceptualize actor-networks as non-homogeneous, dynamic and connecting different societal rationales while maintaining the main strengths of ANT.

Combining Actor-Network Theory and the Concept of Ecosystem Services to Assess the Development of Arctic Shipping Routes

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Fabienne Kürner ◽  
Caroline Kramer ◽  
Hartmut Klüver ◽  
Stefan Norra
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
The Social ◽  
Arctic Shipping ◽  
Actor Networks

Global warming alters the Arctic on different ecological and social levels, including rising resource availabilities and shifting power relations. In this geographical area, the natural sphere, which is based on the geographical spheres of the earth, and the social sphere are strongly interwoven and therefore sensitive to even small alterations, as a case study of Arctic shipping routes will highlight. The principles of Actor-Network theory enable the investigation of interdependencies, resulting in an equal treatment of both mentioned spheres. Based on this theoretical background and a qualitative literature research, mediators of Arctic actor-networks located in the overlapping zone between these spheres have been identified. An enlarged ecosystem services approach was then adopted to develop a methodology to quantify these mediators and the power relations around them. Apart from the equality of the natural and the social, crediting both higher influences over the respectively other domain, mental entities were recognized as core-elements of Arctic networks, further linking the natural and the social sphere. Moreover, global, regional and local interdependencies have been included into the analyses, contributing ultimately to a wider understanding of actor-networks of the High North, which is of importance to scientists, public and policy makers in order to cope future global challenges, like climate change.

scholarly journals Actor-network theory in studies of the nation and nationalism: the methodological aspect

KANT ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 281-291
Author(s):  
Konstantin Maltsev ◽  
Artem Alaverdyan
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Social ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
Empirical Generalizations ◽  
Constructivist Approaches ◽  
The Relationship

Methodological provisions of B. Latour's actor-network theory: methodically grounded doubt in the conceptual reality and reality of the social, the need to distinguish between the social in social relations and the social in associations, the methodological requirement of "symmetry in the interpretation of nature and society" and the related new understanding of the social actor, are essentially close to the influential constructivist (R. Brubaker) approach in understanding the nation and the national. The article analyzes the relationship between "categorical" and "network" concepts in the study of the nature of "national", methodological problems of "compatibility" of actor-network and constructivist approaches to building the concept of "nation"; the conclusion is drawn that the permissibility of "methodological syncretism" is limited to the area of practical-oriented "empirical generalizations" that guide the political practice of nation-building and the regulation of national conflicts.

The analytic rewards of materializing the effects of actor-networks

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Social World ◽  
Everyday Practice ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sociological Method ◽  
Actor Networks

Objects, documents, and concepts play a central role in everyday practice but are often overlooked as active agents in the formation of the social world. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is a sociological method that helps make visible what humans and nonhumans in association do or accomplish. It is an analytical approach that examines how human and nonhuman entities co-construct dynamic and influential networks of associations, and the effects produced as a result of these networks. This paper provides an introduction to ANT, illustrates its application through a case example, and concludes with a description of its analytic rewards.

scholarly journals Still ‘the human thing’? Technology, human agency and the future of war

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Coker
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Human Control ◽  
The Future

Is war beginning to escape human control? Thucydides tells us the war is one of the things that makes us definitively human; but how long will this continue to be the case as our relationship with technology continues to develop? Kenneth Waltz’s book Man, the State and War affords one way of answering that question. So too does Nikolaas Tinbergen’s framework for understanding human behaviour and Bruno Latour’s Actor–Network Theory (ANT). The main focus of this article is the extent to which we will diminish or enhance our own agency as human beings, especially when we come to share the planet with an intelligence higher than our own.

Entanglement, Materiality and the Social Organisation of Construction Workers in Classical Athens

2018 ◽  
pp. 512-528
Author(s):  
Diane Harris Cline
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Social ◽  
Building Program

This chapter views the “Periclean Building Program” through the lens of Actor Network Theory, in order to explore the ways in which the construction of these buildings transformed Athenian society and politics in the fifth century BC. It begins by applying some Actor Network Theory concepts to the process that was involved in getting approval for the building program as described by Thucydides and Plutarch in his Life of Pericles. Actor Network Theory blends entanglement (human-material thing interdependence) with network thinking, so it allows us to reframe our views to include social networks when we think about the political debate and social tensions in Athens that arose from Pericles’s proposal to construct the Parthenon and Propylaea on the Athenian Acropolis, the Telesterion at Eleusis, the Odeon at the base of the South slope of the Acropolis, and the long wall to Peiraeus. Social Network Analysis can model the social networks, and the clusters within them, that existed in mid-fifth century Athens. By using Social Network Analysis we can then show how the construction work itself transformed a fractious city into a harmonious one through sustained, collective efforts that engaged large numbers of lower class citizens, all responding to each other’s needs in a chaine operatoire..

Uncertainties Revisited

2019 ◽  
pp. 216-237
Author(s):  
Liesbeth Huybrechts ◽  
Katrien Dreessen ◽  
Selina Schepers
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Uncertainty Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Matters Of Concern ◽  
Uncertainty Models ◽  
Do So

In this chapter, the authors use actor-network theory (ANT) to explore the relations between uncertainties in co-design processes and the quality of participation. To do so, the authors investigate Latour's discussion uncertainties in relation to social processes: the nature of actors, actions, objects, facts/matters of concern, and the study of the social. To engage with the discussion on uncertainties in co-design and, more specific in infrastructuring, this chapter clusters the diversity of articulations of the role and place of uncertainty in co-design into four uncertainty models: (1) the neoliberal, (2) the management, (3) the disruptive, and (4) the open uncertainty model. To deepen the reflections on the latter, the authors evaluate the relations between the role and place of uncertainty in two infrastructuring processes in the domain of healthcare and the quality of these processes. In the final reflections, the authors elaborate on how ANT supported in developing a “lens” to assess how uncertainties hinder or contribute to the quality of participation.

The Use of Structuration Theory and Actor Network Theory for Analysis

2012 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Tiko Iyamu ◽  
Dewald Roode
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
It Strategy ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Global Competitiveness ◽  
Fresh Perspective ◽  
Actor Networks

In the current climate of global competitiveness, many organisations are increasingly dependent on their IT strategy – either to increase their competitiveness, or often just to survive. Yet little is known about the non-technical influencing factors (such as people) and their impact on the development and implementation of IT strategy. There would therefore seem to be prima facie evidence that there is a need for a new approach to examining the relationships between social factors, technology and the organisation with respect to the development and implementation of IT strategy. This article seeks to make a contribution in this regard. Structuration Theory and Actor-Network Theory were employed to analyse how non-technical factors influence IT strategy. Structuration Theory holds that human actions are enabled and constrained by structures. Structures are rules and resources that do not exist independently of human action, nor are they material entities. Giddens describes them as ‘traces in the mind’ and argues that they exist only through the action of human beings. Actor Network Theory (ANT) provides a fresh perspective on the importance of relationships between actors that are both human and non-human. By their very presence, actors work to establish, maintain and revise the construction of organisational networks of aligned interests and gradually form stable actor-networks. ANT emphasises the heterogeneous nature of actor-networks which consist of and link together both technical and non-technical elements.

Actor-Network Theory and Autopoiesis

2009 ◽  
pp. 67-79
Author(s):  
Lars Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Process Analysis ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Knowledge Intensive ◽  
Over Time

A new knowledge management perspective and tool, ANT/AUTOPOIESIS, for analysis of knowledge management in knowledge-intensive organizations is presented. An information technology (IT) research and innovation co-operation between university actors and companies interested in the area of smart home IT applications is used to illustrate analysis using this perspective. Actor-network theory (ANT) and the social theory of autopoiesis are used in analyzing knowledge management, starting from the foundation of a research co-operation. ANT provides the character of relations between actors and actants, how power is translated by actors and the transformation of relations over time. The social theory of autopoiesis provides the tools to analyze organizational closure and reproduction of organizational identity. The perspective used allows a process analysis, and at the same time analysis of structural characteristics of knowledge management. Knowledge management depends on powerful actors, whose power changes over time. Here this power is entrepreneurial and based on relations and actors’ innovation knowledge.

The researcher-initiated autobiography’s work as an actant in producing knowledge about the social

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-322
Author(s):  
Jorid Krane Hanssen
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Social ◽  
Emotional Effects

This article addresses how a researcher-initiated autobiography’s work as an actant may offer illuminating insights into how we as humans and nonhumans are associated in networks. The aim is to discuss how the effects of these associations produce knowledge about the social. With inspiration from actor-network theory and by using an example of a researcher-initiated autobiography from the study ‘The Daughters and Sons of Rainbow Families’, the discussion firstly concentrates on how associations between the autobiography and the researcher may produce emotional effects. Secondly, the discussion focuses on how a researcher-initiated autobiography works as an actant ‘in itself’. This indicates the necessity to trace associations between the written events (actants) in the text, and discuss their effects. As an example, the article addresses how associations between written events concerning family members, produce knowledge about the relations between the members.

Using critical realism in critical accounting research – a commentary by two ANTs

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 655-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Baxter ◽  
Wai Fong Chua
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
The Social

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to respond to Modell’s arguments regarding the relative usefulness of critical realist philosophy in relation to actor-network theory.Design/methodology/approachThe authors outline the challenges in applying critical realism to critical accounting. The authors then consider Modell’s criticisms of actor-network theory, providing a counterargument highlighting the methodological choices distinguishing actor-network theory from critical realism.FindingsThe authors argue that critical realism, whilst providing an interesting addition to the critical accounting research project, confronts challenges disentangling intransitive and transitive forms of knowledge. Actor-network theory is presented as a way of examining accounting practices as local associations, providing practical opportunities to study (the assembly of) “the social”.Research limitations/implicationsMethodological diversity is to be explored, acknowledging the ontological politics of our choices.Originality/valueThis paper is an original commentary contributing to critical accounting research.

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