scholarly journals I feel my wrist buzz. Smartbody and performative sensibility in Fitbit devices

2017 ◽  
pp. 5-17
Author(s):  
André Luiz Martins Lemos ◽  
Elias Bitencourt
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
User Community ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
The World ◽  
Community Forum ◽  
Body Care

Abstract This paper discusses the concepts of performative sensibility and smartbody. The central thesis is that performative sensibility highlights the instrumental nature of sensations in which objects act on the world. We show how the prescriptions of this new sensibility associated with wearables affect the body and subjectivity that we propose to call a smartbody. There were one hundred testimonials analyzed from the oldest thread with the greatest number of comments in the Fitbit user community forum. Quantitative tools and actor-network theory were used as a guide to assemble and analyze the corpus. The preliminary findings show that Fitbit users demonstrate particular changings in body care. Extreme behaviors, physical limits defined by system goals and quantification habits without utilizing the device are some of the examples found. These findings appear to indicate that the performative sensibility of wearables mobilizes new body performatic patterns and practices oriented by data.

Performing Actor-Network Theory in the Post-Secondary Classroom

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Andrea Quinlan ◽  
Elizabeth Quinlan ◽  
Desiree Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Pedagogical Approach ◽  
Innovative Teaching ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Innovative Methods ◽  
Secondary Classroom

Teaching innovative schools of thought call for innovative methods of instruction. This article investigates the challenges associated with teaching Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and proposes a creative pedagogical approach of ‘performing’ ANT in the classroom. This article presents a small case study of an instance where this theatrical method was employed in an undergraduate classroom to teach Annemarie Mol’s The Body Multiple. Based on the qualitative data collected from reflections of students and the professor, it investigates the successes of this creative pedagogical approach to teach ANT. This article argues that it is only through innovative teaching methods that ANT can be effectively explored in the classroom.

On the Definition of Cultivated Ecology

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-201
Author(s):  
Diane E. Pataki ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Ecology ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cultivated Plants ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
History Of

Sagoff (2017) critiqued the exclusion of cultivated plants and animals from much of the body of work in ecology. However, there is a history of attempting to incorporate cultivated landscapes in ecology that goes back at least two decades, particularly in urban ecology. The subdiscipline of urban ecology has received relatively little attention in philosophy, although some of its methodologies, such as coupled human-natural systems research, have been critiqued. Here I will attempt to explicitly address the conceptual limitations in ecology for studying cultivated ecosystems and evaluate these limitations in the context of coupled human-natural systems and socioecological research, urban ecosystem services frameworks, and actor-network theory. I argue that the history of cultivated organisms is highly germane to their ecology, necessitating the incorporation of human agency into ecological theory. However, human agency and nonhuman nature exist along a continuum of nature vs. culture. As a result, dualistic approaches to studying the role of human agency in ecosystem processes, such as socioecology and ecosystem services assessments—which explicitly separate humans from nature—have had limited success in cultivated landscapes. More fully integrated frameworks such as actor-network theory may better address ecological research questions in cultivated landscapes.

Actor-Network Theory and Journalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Wiard
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Network Effects ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Content Management ◽  
News Production ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
The World

Actor-network theory (ANT) is a sociological approach to the world that treats social phenomena as network effects. This approach focuses on the evolution of interactions within networks over time and is useful for studying situations of change, unsettled groups, and evolving practices such as current developments in the world of journalism. Journalism is a messy and complex social practice involving various actors, institutions, and technologies, some of which are in a state of crisis or are undergoing rapid change due to digitization. ANT has gained momentum in journalism studies among researchers analyzing journalists’ relationships with the diverse agents they in contact with on a daily basis (e.g., technologies, institutions, audiences, other news producers) and the relationships between news production, circulation, and usage. ANT practitioners use a set of simple concepts referred to as an infra-language, which allows them to exchange ideas and compare interpretations while letting the actors they are studying develop their own range of concepts (i.e., to speak in their own words). These concepts include actants, actor networks, obligatory passage points, and translation. ANT also proposes a set of principles for researchers to follow. These include considering all entities as participants in a phenomenon (e.g., people can make other people do things, and objects, such as computers or institutions, can as well) and following actors as they trace associations with others. Therefore, journalism scholars who use this approach conduct qualitative studies focusing on the place of a particular technology within a network or situation by following who and what is involved and how entities connect. They collect data such as the content produced, direct observations of news production, or statements from interviews during or after the case is over. Using ANT, journalism scholars have extended their comprehension of news production by highlighting technology’s role in journalistic networks. Although journalists naturalize technologies through daily use (e.g., search engines, content management systems, cell phones, cameras, email), these tools still influence journalistic practices and outputs. ANT practitioners also consider the diversity of agents participating in news production and circulation: professional journalists, politicians, activists, and diverse commercial and noncommercial organizations. If this diversity is becoming more active and connected in this networked environment, it seems that legacy media is still an obligatory passage point for anyone willing to bring information to the general public. Recent societal changes, such as the generalization of news consumption on smartphones and the rise of platform journalism on multiple apps, indicate that ANT may be useful in the collective endeavor to provide a clear picture of what journalism is and what it will become.

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.

Performing Actor-Network Theory in the Post-Secondary Classroom

2013 ◽  
pp. 56-66
Author(s):  
Andrea Quinlan ◽  
Elizabeth Quinlan ◽  
Desiree Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Pedagogical Approach ◽  
Innovative Teaching ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Innovative Methods ◽  
Secondary Classroom

Teaching innovative schools of thought call for innovative methods of instruction. This article investigates the challenges associated with teaching Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and proposes a creative pedagogical approach of ‘performing’ ANT in the classroom. This article presents a small case study of an instance where this theatrical method was employed in an undergraduate classroom to teach Annemarie Mol’s The Body Multiple. Based on the qualitative data collected from reflections of students and the professor, it investigates the successes of this creative pedagogical approach to teach ANT. This article argues that it is only through innovative teaching methods that ANT can be effectively explored in the classroom.

Actor–Network Theory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annelies Kamp
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Data Generation ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Social Studies Of Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Moment

Actor–network theory (ANT) is an approach to research that sits with a broader body of new materialism; a body of work that displaces humanism to consider dynamic assemblages of humans and nonhumans. Originally developed in the social studies of science and technology undertaken in the second half of the 20th century, ANT has increasingly been taken up in other arenas of social inquiry. Researchers working with ANT do not accept the unquestioned use of “social” explanations for educational phenomena. Rather, the social, like all other effects, is taken to be an enactment of heterogenous assemblages of human and nonhuman entities. The role of the educational researcher is to trace these processes of assemblage and reassemblage, foregrounding the ways in which certain entities establish sufficient allies to assume some degree of “realness” in the world. Aligning most closely with ethnographic orientations, ANT does not outline a method. However, it could be argued that a number of propositions are shared in ANT-inspired approaches: first, that the world is made up of actors/actants, all of which are ontologically symmetrical. Humans are not privileged in ANT. Second, the principle of irreduction—there is no essence within or beyond any process of assemblage. Actors are concrete; there is no “potential” other than their actions in the moment. Entities are nothing more than an effect of assemblage. Third, the concept of translation and its processes of mediation that transform objects when they encounter one another. Finally, the principle of alliance. Actants gain strength only through their alliances. These propositions have specific implications for data generation, analysis, and reporting.

scholarly journals Kropslig subjektivering

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Højgaard Cawood ◽  
Malou Juelskjær
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Body ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Feminist Theories

Hunting through poststructuralist feminist theories of the body, this article presents building blocks for a theory of bodily subjectification processes which works against generalising ideas and which prove useful for complex analytical investigations of how we become subjects in a bodily sense. The building blocks presented includes 1) Viewing the body as in a constant process of becoming). 2) Conceptualizing the body in intra-activity with other elements – bodily becoming is dependent upon other bodies and artefacts with which the body infolds. 3) Setting the body between sedimentation and change. These ideas are drawn from Judith Butler’s concept of performativity, Karen Barad’s theorization of materialization processes and Bruno Latour’s Actor Network Theory. The tools´ workings are demonstrated on an empirical example of bodily infoldings between 16 yearold Mette and a sexualized commercial.

Organizing rocks: Actor–network theory and space

Organization ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 701-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommy Jensen ◽  
Johan Sandström
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Underground Mine ◽  
The Body ◽  
Mining Operations ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Spatial Complexity ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Multiple Approach ◽  
Difference Inclusion

In an ethnography of the organizing of an underground mine, this article critically engages with actor–network theory’s theorizing of space, particularly the risk of drifting into spatial pluralism. Inspired by Annemarie Mol’s The Body Multiple, a space multiple approach is enrolled in which seemingly disparate enactments of the mining operations are understood in terms of coexistence and difference, inclusion and exclusion. Such an account attempts to cast aside a kind of neatness that jeopardizes the empirical openness that makes actor–network theory so fruitful to work with in organization studies dealing with spatial complexity.

Putting Gino’s lesson to work: Actor–network theory, enacted humanity, and rehabilitation

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Abrams ◽  
Barbara E Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Interpersonal Process ◽  
Therapeutic Assessment ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
Assessment And Treatment ◽  
Assessment Measures

This article argues that rehabilitation enacts a particular understanding of “the human” throughout therapeutic assessment and treatment. Following Michel Callon and Vololona Rabeharisoa’s “Gino’s Lesson on Humanity,” we suggest that this is not simply a top-down process, but is cultivated in the application and response to biomedical frameworks of human ability, competence, and responsibility. The emergence of the human is at once a materially contingent, moral, and interpersonal process. We begin the article by outlining the basics of the actor–network theory that underpins “Gino’s Lesson on Humanity.” Next, we elucidate its central thesis regarding how disabled personhood emerges through actor–network interactions. Section “Learning Gino’s lesson” draws on two autobiographical examples, examining the emergence of humanity through rehabilitation, particularly assessment measures and the responses to them. We conclude by thinking about how rehabilitation and actor–network theory might take this lesson on humanity seriously.

Ability of the Actor Network Theory (ANT) to Model and Interpret an Electronic Market

2011 ◽  
pp. 109-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murat Baygeldi ◽  
Steve Smithson
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Electronic Market ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Trading Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Nature Of Information

The nature of information systems is often complex and involves both human and nonhuman components. This is particularly true in an electronic market. Actor Network Theory (ANT) can be used in general to describe the actors, intermediaries, framing and power that are the most important components of such an electronic market, which we call a network. This chapter explores whether ANT can help to analyze electronic trading systems. And if so, can ANT help us to filter the success factors of a computer trading system like Eurex, the largest derivatives electronic market in the world? It highlights how ANT is useful to define the various components involved within an electronic market. Moreover, the chapter analyses ANT’s limitations in modeling computer-trading systems. This chapter concludes that ANT is useful to analyze an electronic market such as Eurex.

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