scholarly journals Development aid to water management in Mali: the actors, ‘global’ paradigms, and ‘local’ translations

Afrika Focus ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Cherlet
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
The Third

The four empirical articles experiment with different theoretical concepts to present the data. Starting with a genealogical description of the Capacity Building paradigm in the first empirical article, the theorizing subsequently demonstrates that this paradigm gets translated in numerous ways. The third empirical article shows the importance of individual agency in the implementation of the IWRM paradigm, and the last relies on full-blown Actor-Network Theory to describe the network – widespread in time and space – that supports the IWRM paradigm. Although each theoretical perspective emphasizes different aspects of the data, Actor-Network Theory turns out to be the most apt tool to describe the eclectic set of data that was obtained from multi-sited ethnography, interviews, focus group discussions and documents. 

scholarly journals How Does an Entity Acquire Identity? Reassembling Relativistic Physics with Actor-Network Theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano Croce ◽  
Emilia Margoni
Keyword(s):  
Heterogeneous Networks ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Physical State ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network

AbstractWhat is it that determines the identity of an entity? Processualism is a theoretical perspective that offers a startling answer to this question. The identity of an entity—whether human or nonhuman, animate or inanimate—depends on the set of relations in which this entity is located. And as the sets of relations are several, so are the identities that an entity can take. This article discusses this conclusion by integrating processual accounts from different fields of inquiry, such as relativistic physics and actor-network theory. According to a processual interpretation of relativistic physics, speaking of states of things is but an abstraction. For states come from the introduction of arbitrary (physically meaningless) breakups of the spacetime continuum. Therefore, processes precede states, a process being a set of relations that confers identity on a physical state. According to a processual interpretation of actor-network theory, the same holds true for actors. Again, speaking of states of actors is but an abstraction. For what really acts is heterogeneous networks. When one describes actors in isolation, one is neglecting a whole array of relations with other actors whereby that actor can act or is made to act in such and such a way. These strands of processualism come to the same conclusion as to the identity of entities. These are not characterized by individuality but by individua(bi)lity: they can be differently individuated according to the set of relations one is able to take into account. The main methodological consequence is that, if one intends to describe what an entity is, knowledge of this entity—whether human or nonhuman, animate or inanimate—should be based on progressively less narrow localizations and mappings of the relations it has to other entities.

Understanding Mobile Banking from a Theoretical Lens

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-68
Author(s):  
Martina Mutheu Mulwa ◽  
Timothy Mwololo Waema
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Mobile Network ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Mobile Banking ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Banking Services ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Access Mode ◽  
Manuel Castells ◽  
Mobile Network Operators

Characteristic of every developing nation, Kenya has found itself at crossroads; defining the banking industry with the urge to provide banking services to majority of the unbanked populations. Mobile banking is a banking model that has been adopted by Kenyan Banks to reach out to unbanked populations. This paper is based on a case study conducted in Kenya on selected mobile banking products in 2012. The Actor Network theory methodology was used to identify and follow actors. Using in-depth interviews with key informants, survey of users and agents as well as focus group discussions and observation, it was established that agent phones and Point of service (POS) devises were used to deliver traditional banking services to users whose access mode was their mobile phone or debit cards. There existed partnerships between banks and mobile network operators whose operations were regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya and the Communications Authority of Kenya. This paper seeks to explore fundamental requirements for the interplay of actors in the execution of mobile banking services. It critically analyses data collected, with reference to the Network Society theory by Manuel Castells and Actor Network theory by Michael Callon and Bruno Latour, to inform on cross-sectoral partnerships and user attributes necessary in mobile banking uptake and use.

scholarly journals Curriculum Development in the Informing Sciences: Ecological Metaphor, Negotiation or Actor-Network?

10.28945/2579 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Tatnall ◽  
Bill Davey
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Third ◽  
University Curriculum ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Ecological Metaphor ◽  
Change In Higher Education ◽  
Theoretical Paper ◽  
And Diffusion

Change in higher education information systems, and other informing science curricula is inevitable. This paper offers a brief consideration of three different models that can be used to describe how this change occurs. Most curriculum texts give prime consideration to approaches to curriculum change based on research, development and diffusion models, and the paper outlines some objections to the application of models of this type to describing how university curriculum in the informing sciences is built and rebuilt. It offers instead three alternate models; one based on an ecological metaphor, another on curriculum negotiations and the third on innovation translation from actor-network theory, to describe how this process occurs. This is a theoretical paper that does not advocate one model over another, and does not propose the use of any one of these models in devising a new curriculum. It is concerned only with obtaining a better understanding of how this complex process occurs.

Biopower and Plasma: How COVID-19 Made an ANT Theorist Stop Worrying and Love Foucault

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-126
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dynamic Object ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Third ◽  
Definition Of

The article deals with some problems in the works of Bruno Latour and Michel Foucault as they considered the body and biopower. To dispose of the Foucauldian concept of biopower, Latour proposed his theory of the body as a dynamic object constantly learning to be open to new articulations. The author points out the gaps in Latour’s solution and develops her own in order to return biopower into the realm of actor network theory. The body is to be understood as the privileged object in actor network theory, while both biopower and resistance to it are two fundamental and interrelated groups of articulations that allow the body to support the unlimited expansion of the network. This theory is validated by succeeding in three tasks. The first is to show that Latour’s definition of the human body has implications that are important both for his work with biopower and for actor network theory as a whole. The body in the actor network theory has a special status compared to any other objects, and this is the very reason that the control of biopower over the body plays such an important role. Only the body possesses the necessary “bandwidth” - the ability to bring into the network what is not in it. The second task is to compare the concepts of body and biopower in Latour and Foucault and partially translate them into each other’s terms. The third and last task involves deciding whether the body resists biopower through the logic of actor network theory, or whether the acquisition of a body is the only possible act of power. The article concludes with a demonstration of how the available theoretical resources can be used to describe the current coronavirus situation.

scholarly journals The Hermeneutic Circle of Data Visualization

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-375
Author(s):  
Dario Rodighiero ◽  
Alberto Romele ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Data Visualization ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Hermeneutic Circle ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Third ◽  
Self Recognition

In this article, we show how postphenomenology can be used to analyze the Affinity Map: a data visualization that reveals the hidden dynamics that exist between individuals within large organizations. We make use of the Affinity Map to expand the classic postphenomenology that privileges a ‘linear’ understanding of technological mediations and introduce the notions of ‘iterativity’ and ‘collectivity.’ In the first section of the paper, we discuss both classic and more recent descriptions of human-technology-world relations in order to transcendentally approach the discipline of data visualization. In the second section, we use the Affinity Map case study to consider three elements: 1) the collection of data and the design process; 2) the visual grammar of the data visualization, and 3) the process of self-recognition for the map ‘reader.’ In the third section, we introduce the hermeneutic circle of data visualization. Finally, we suggest that the Affinity Map, because of its ethical and political multistability, might be seen as a material encounter between postphenomenology, actor-network theory (ANT), and hermeneutics.

scholarly journals The Actor-Network Theory in the Context of Place-Based Pedagogy

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-178
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Wieszaczewska
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Phenomenological Perspective ◽  
Valuable Complement ◽  
Pedagogical Research

Space (and place) is a topic that is often the focus of researchers representing social and humanistic fields. Analyses of the significance of places to individuals and groups are carried out also on the basis of pedagogy. The subdiscipline which particularly emphasises the role of place is ‘place-based pedagogy’, and, on the Polish ground, so-called ‘pedagogika miejsca’. Therefore, pedagogues are interested in ways of giving meanings to places by their users, connections of the arrangement of space with its reception by individuals, space valorising and so on. In this article, the author presents the theoretical perspective of post-constructivism and the actor-network theory proposed by B. Latour and then developed and modified by other researchers, which is one of the most well-known (and recognised) strategies of a post-constructive reflection on reality. It can successfully become an approach in which pedagogical research related to the spaces in which people operate would be carried out, which would be a valuable complement to pedagogical considerations on place that has been known to date as of the phenomenological perspective.

scholarly journals Understanding mobile banking from a theoretical lens: Case studies of selected Kenyan m-banking products

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2434-2444
Author(s):  
Martina Mutheu Mulwa ◽  
Timothy Mwololo Waema
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Mobile Network ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Mobile Banking ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Banking Services ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Access Mode ◽  
Manuel Castells ◽  
Mobile Network Operators

Characteristic of every developing nation, Kenya has found itself at crossroads; defining the banking industry with the urgeto provide banking services to majority of the unbanked populations. Mobile banking is a banking model that has beenadopted by Kenyan Banks to reach out to unbanked populations. This paper is based on a case study conducted in Kenyaon selected mobile banking products in 2012. The Actor Network theory methodology was used to identify and followactors. Using in-depth interviews with key informants, survey of users and agents as well as focus group discussions andobservation, it was established that agent phones and Point of service (POS) devises were used to deliver traditionalbanking services to users whose access mode was their mobile phone or debit cards. There existed partnerships betweenbanks and mobile network operators whose operations were regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya and theCommunications Authority of Kenya. This paper seeks to explore fundamental requirements for the interplay of actors inthe execution of mobile banking services. It critically analyses data collected, with reference to the Network Society theoryby Manuel Castells and Actor Network theory by Michael Callon and Bruno Latour, to inform on cross-sectoralpartnerships and user attributes necessary in mobile banking uptake and use.

STRUCTURING A SUCCESSFUL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PROCESS: A CASE STUDY FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF ACTOR NETWORK THEORY

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huda Ibrahim ◽  
Hasmiah Kasimin
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Technology Transfer ◽  
Transfer Process ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Private Company ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Technology Transfer Process

An effi cient and effective information technology transfer from developed countries to Malaysia is an important issue as a prerequisite to support the ICT needs of the country to become not only a ICT user but also a ICT producer. One of the factors that infl uences successful information technology transfer is managing the process of how technology transfer occurs in one environment. It involves managing interaction between all parties concerned which requires an organized strategy and action toward accomplishing technology transfer objective in an integrated and effective mode. Using a conceptual framework based on the Actor Network Theory (ANT), this paper will analyse a successful information technology transfer process at a private company which is also a supplier of information technology (IT) products to the local market. This framework will explain how the company has come up with a successful technology transfer in a local environment. Our study shows that the company had given interest to its relationships with all the parties involved in the transfer process. The technology transfer programme and the strategy formulated take into account the characteristics of technology and all those involved.  

The Action of Christian Buildings on their Chinese Environment

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-121
Author(s):  
Michel Chambon
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Active Part ◽  
Architectural Style ◽  
Actor Network

This article explores the ways in which Christians are building churches in contemporary Nanping, China. At first glance, their architectural style appears simply neo-Gothic, but these buildings indeed enact a rich web of significances that acts upon local Christians and beyond. Building on Actor-Network Theory and exploring the multiple ties in which they are embedded, I argue that these buildings are agents acting in their own right, which take an active part in the process of making the presence of the Christian God tangible.

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