Bourdieu, Latour and Rasha Abbas: The Uses of Actor-Network Theory for Studying the Field(s) of Cultural Production in the Middle East and North Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 428-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Lang
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Empirical Reality ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Arab Spring

Since the events of the ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011, the field(s) of cultural production of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have attracted considerable scholarly attention. However, the conceptual and methodological tools of cultural sociology, mostly developed for and through research in western societies, often have limited purchase when it comes to the empirical reality of cultural production in the MENA. This article proposes to introduce concepts from actor-network theory (ANT) in order to adapt Bourdieu’s conceptual framework of analysis to the case of globally dominated, transnational and relatively unstable spaces of cultural production. Two main arguments are being pursued: (1) Conceiving the field as network(s) offers a way of opening up the rigid and nation-centred space to include transnational as well as transient relations between actors that may only briefly play a role in cultural production. (2) In a situation where the artwork is the most immediately visible expression of the field’s structure, the role of objects in constituting the field must be reassessed. ANT offers ways of making full use of the heuristic potential of material objects and thus provides a privileged starting point for the analysis of fields in flux.

scholarly journals Art&science. Autoetnografia artystki realizującej projekty w laboratoriach biologicznych

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 103-126
Author(s):  
Karolina Żyniewicz
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Art And Science ◽  
Science Field ◽  
Actor Network

The aim of the text is to present the use of the analytical autoethnographic method in studying the “art&science” phenomenon. It is attempt to show that the role of the artist can combine with the role of the ethnographer. The objects of study are the multilevel relations emerging during the realization of artistic projects in biological laboratories. These relations concern both humans (the artist, the scientists) and non-humans (laboratory organisms, equipment). On the basis of actor-network theory, the author presents how the liminal status of ethnographic research is modified when it connects with art. The form of conducting the research is both an example of activity in the art and science field and a new methodological proposal for the study of science and technology.

Anaphoric Trajectories of Creative Processes

2017 ◽  
pp. 142-155
Author(s):  
Sara Malou Strandvad
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Cultural Sociology ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Creative Development ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Production Studies ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Development Processes

This chapter critically questions the strategy of applying the Actor-Network Theory to media studies. Arguing that an application of a fixed ANT-approach fundamentally opposes the ambition of Actor-Network Theory, this chapter outlines a different way of drawing inspiration from ANT. Based in the writings of the French cultural sociologist Antoine Hennion, who has been a pioneer in developing a cultural sociology inspired by ANT, and the recent writings of Bruno Latour addressing cultural production, the chapter suggests investigating the “anaphoric trajectories” of creative development processes. To illustrate this approach, the chapter analyzes the case of a failed film project and considers how the content of creative production processes may be incorporated into cultural production studies.

Consumer Creativity as a Prerequisite for the Adoption of New Technological Products

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-69
Author(s):  
Marianne Harbo Frederiksen ◽  
Stoyan Tanev
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
New Product Adoption ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Value Perception ◽  
Potential Consumer ◽  
Adoption Research ◽  
Consumer Creativity ◽  
Technological Products

Creativity is often conceptualized as actions and outcomes related to the creation of novel and useful ideas within the context of the development of new products. It is usually positioned in the activities of designers who play the role of “the creator”. In this paper the authors suggest “changing the subject” to consumers by claiming that creativity plays a key role in the adoption phase when they attempt to address their needs and preferences by appropriating the use value of everyday technological products. They emphasize that the product value perception which makes a potential consumer buy is the result of this consumer's own activities and efforts. Thus, the intensity of consumers' creative activities becomes a critical adoption factor. The authors suggest that activity-based approaches such as actor-network theory and activity theory could be quite appropriate in studying the dynamics and the design of new product adoption, and offer a comparative analysis indicating that actor-network theory has a greater potential to contribute to the interplay between consumer creativity and technology adoption research.

The Role of Gossip in the Creation and Miscreation of Company Identity from the Perspective of Actor-Network Theory

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 40-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Bielenia-Grajewska
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Organizational Environment ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Informal Communication ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Creation

In this paper an attempt will be made to show how the grapevine shapes the relations between companies and stakeholders. To narrow the scope of the research, attention will be focused solely on one type of colloquial corporate socializing, namely gossiping. The company, its organizational environment and its relation with gossip are studied by implying the notion of company identity. The interrelation between gossiping and company identity has not been discussed by many researchers, although informal communication as such spans a number of disciplines. Consequently, in this work the author will try to show both the negative and positive sides of gossip in forming corporate communities and their character. Taking into account the growing role of networks in creating and sustaining different types of communication, gossiping is studied through the perspective of Actor-Network Theory that facilitates an understanding of how human beings and non-living entities shape the way company identity is constructed and maintained.

scholarly journals Bibliotekarerne - en profession der former og formes af et aktør-netværk

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-20
Author(s):  
Trine Schreiber
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Actor Networks ◽  
Ethnographic Methodology ◽  
Data Collection Procedure

Using actor network theory (ANT) as a starting point, the aim of the paper is to describe relationships between heterogenous actors in a particular kind of library work and to discuss how these relationships might potentially be part of a preliminary actor-network representing a profession of librarianship. The particular kind of library work involved in the discussion is user teaching and -guidance in libraries affiliated with educational institutions. The paper draws on this particular kind of work to illustrate the use of ANT in a discussion about the profession of librarianship. The data collection procedure has been guided by ethnographic methodology considerations. As an actor-network, a profession is not a static entity organised around fixed connections. It is undergoing shifts in character as new actors or relations are forged and old ones wear out. Regarding the particular kind of library work, the paper has a focus on actors such as librarians, teachers, students, digital technologies, and political paradigms of control. The author examines how librarians in the particular kind of library work create and maintain relationships with teachers and students. The paper provides a description of the ways influential actors such as digital technologies and political paradigms of control intervene in these processes. The paper concludes that through these relationships, new areas of work and new understandings of professions are under way to be established. These processes might lead to an actor-network intertwined with those many other actor-networks that librarians in general are involved in because of other practices and relationships.

scholarly journals Al-Azhar University in the Events of the Arab Spring (Case of Egypt)

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-596
Author(s):  
Yurii Vitalevich Lashkhia
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Official Document ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Arab Spring

Due to the comprehensiveness of Islam, the role of the “Islamic factor” in political processes in the Middle East and North Africa is great, while the nature of the manifestations of the “Islamic factor” largely depends among other things on the current state of modern religious educational institutions, including those serving as a forge of Islamic personnel today. One of the most prestigious universities in Islamic oikumene, giving religious education for Muslims from all over the world, is AlAzhar al-Sharif (the shorter Al-Azhar is more common). It was here that some famous thinkers studied, who further significantly contributed to the development of the so-called “political Islam”. This study is an attempt to clarify the role of Al-Azhar University and related Islamic scholars in the socio-political processes of the Middle East and North Africa. Conducting the research, the author largely turned to the sources of the Islamic religion (the Qur’an, Hadith), theological texts of a number of thinkers (for example, the interpretation of the Qur’an Rashid Rida), religious polemical works (the work of Sheikh Osama al-Azhari against the “Muslim Brotherhood” and other “Islamist” trends), documents compiled by the leadership of Al-Azhar; academic literature on related issues. The author came to the conclusion that the “Islamic factor” did not play a crucial role at the beginning of events, but vividly manifested itself subsequently. The actual suppression of Islam by secular dictators created a fertile ground for the acute discontent of believing citizens and activists of various movements who uphold a particular version of the Islamic political alternative. The most influential university in the Islamic world, Al-Azhar, in an official document, “Arab Spring”, indicated the possibility of a shift in despotic power, while emphasizing at the same time the inadmissibility of violent suppression of peaceful protest. Certain Azharite theologians were directly involved in the events of the “Arab Spring”, in particular, the passionate scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, associated with the Muslim Brotherhood movement and graduated from Al-Azhar, as well as Sheikh Emad Effat, who died during the suppression of an unarmed speech 15 December 2011. Such activity of various Islamic forces in the political sphere is primarily due to the very nature of the Islamic tradition, which does not separate the “sacred” and “profane”.

scholarly journals Indicator Culture in Sport for Development and Peace: A Transnational Analysis of Governance Networks

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Henne
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Sport For Development ◽  
Governance Networks ◽  
The United Nations

This article offers a transnational analysis of sport for development and peace (SDP) governance, focusing specifically on the role of indicator culture. Building on earlier attempts to use actor-network theory to study law and governance, it illuminates how a focus on indicator culture requires considering how actors, both human and nonhuman, inform SDP governance. It draws upon multi-sited ethnographic research conducted at the United Nations and in Oceania and considers how bureaucratic mechanisms, political and funding mandates, and postcolonial ideologies converge. Taken together, they point to emergent tensions within the broader embrace of indicator culture across domains of governance.

Death sentencing by Zoom: An actor-network theory analysis

2020 ◽  
pp. 1037969X2096614
Author(s):  
Milena Heinsch ◽  
Tania Sourdin ◽  
Caragh Brosnan ◽  
Hannah Cootes
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Video Conferencing ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Limited Extent ◽  
Theory Analysis ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Jury Trials ◽  
The World ◽  
Death Sentencing

During the COVID-19 pandemic, courts around the world have introduced a range of technologies to cope with social distancing requirements. Jury trials have been largely delayed, although some jurisdictions moved to remote jury approaches and video conferencing was used extensively for bail applications. While videoconferencing has been used to a more limited extent in the area of sentencing, many were appalled by the news that two people were sentenced to death via Zoom. This article uses actor-network theory (ANT) to explore the role of technology in reshaping the experience of those involved in the sentencing of Punithan Genasan in Singapore.

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