LATOUR’S METHOD: SEMIOTICS BETWEEN LITERATURE AND SCIENCE

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 85-112
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Sociology Of Science ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Movement Trajectory ◽  
Cultural Myth ◽  
Point Of Entry ◽  
Structural Linguistics ◽  
Scientific Project ◽  
Point Of Departure

This article attempts to reconstruct the method of Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory by articulating its links with the semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas. Semiotic methodology is considered as a point of entry to the labyrinth of Latour’s projects and a thread of Ariadne through it. The article is divided into two parts. The first one examines Greimas’ conceptions of narrative grammar and narrative programmes. This analysis leads to a number of conclusions: a) Greimas’ semiotics is as ambitious a scientific project as Latourian sociology. Greimas elaborates the general premises of structural linguistics and proposes to extend the latter not only to scientific discourses outside cultural (myth, folktale) and literary texts, but also beyond the textual world itself; b) Elements of semiotic methodology crucial for Latour are emphasized, including the operation of bracketing out (of referent and enunciator) and a separation of orders of (semiotic) acts that points to the distinction between linguistic operations inside the text and the meta-linguistic operations of semiotician; c) The vocabulary of movement (trajectory, a point of departure, circulation, vehicles etc.) that are omnipresent in Latour’s writing is narratological in origin and has methodological importance for his work. The second part of the article shows how Latour appropriates and transforms elements of semiotics in his early work on the sociology of science. Methodologically, Latour’s anthropological approach to science is marked by two successive moves: 1. suspension of the key binaries in sociology and the philosophy of science (e.g. subject/object, truth/falsity, social/intellectual); 2. reassembling such distinctions. In his works, Latour carries out these methodological practices by means of sequences of operations designated here as “bracketing in,” “bracketing out,” and “unbracketing.”

Barthes's Xyloglossia: Structuralism and The Language of Wood

2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-344
Author(s):  
Douglas Smith
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Isotropic Material ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Material World ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Structural Linguistics

This article investigates Barthes's xyloglossia, his use of the motifs of tree and wood, with a view to exploring their implications for his work and for structuralism as a whole. Barthes's xyloglossia takes essentially three forms. First, the motif of the tree is associated with the critique of traditional philology undertaken by structural linguistics. Second, wood figures an idealized example of the material world associated in utopian terms with transparent language, transformative labour and fulfilment through play. Third, wood is conceived as a non-isotropic material, infinitely varied in consistency and density, serving as a model for a non-essentialist understanding of textuality and subjectivity. In tracing Barthes's xyloglossia across three decades, this article analyzes how the related motifs of tree and wood reveal some of the key paradoxes of Barthes's work and its relationship to structuralism (Lévi-Strauss) and actor-network theory (Latour).

Making Grand Strategy in Practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 141-158
Author(s):  
Christian Bueger ◽  
Frank Gadinger
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Research Program ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Field Theories ◽  
Strategic Culture ◽  
Theories Of Practice ◽  
Grand Strategies ◽  
Point Of Departure

Theories of practice are widely seen as the most innovative recent research program in international relations. They also provide important avenues to understand how grand strategy is made and why and how it has effects. Strategy is understood as the outcome of practical activities and struggles between actors. This chapter presents an overview of how practice theories have productively revisited concepts such as “strategic culture” or “security communities.” It also demonstrates how frameworks derived from field theories, actor-network theory, and narrative theories illuminate grand strategies and the processes that produce them. Theories of practice provide a major innovative point of departure for understanding strategy differently.

scholarly journals Disability and Bureaucratic Forms of Life

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Abrams
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Phenomenological Research ◽  
Disabled Persons ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Fundamental Ontology ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Key Sites ◽  
Point Of Departure

<div>This paper employs a hybrid actor-network theory/phenomenological approach to a frequent bother in the lives of disabled persons: bureaucratic forms. I argue that these forms are key sites where disabled personhood emerges, something I examine through the lens of what philosopher Annemarie Mol calls ‘ontological politics’. To be disabled is to be entered into the bureaucratic form of life. These forms translate human existence into a categorize-able, transportable and combinable object, to be administered through ‘centers of calculation’. Combining Heidegger’s fundamental ontology with Latour’s theory of paperwork, I suggest that these forms represent disability in terms of ‘objective presence’, as a mere pre-existing thing, rather than a human way of being. I conclude with suggestions for further phenomenological research that takes embodied difference as its point of departure.</div><div> </div>

Actor-Network Theory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Hugh Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Social System ◽  
Sociology Of Science ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Electrical Network ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ship Navigation ◽  
Intentional Agents

Actor-network theory (ANT) is a methodology developed in the 1980s by scholars working primarily in the sociology of science and technology. It is a novel approach as it attempts to redefine actors not so much as willful or intentional agents but instead as any entity—human or nonhuman—that in some way influences or perturbs the activity of a techno-social system. Most effective when examining limited systems such as ship navigation, electrical network failures, and the like, ANT resists large generalizations and categories, including the very notion of the “social” which, according to actor-network theorists, is never an explanation but instead is that which must be explained. Well into the 21st century, practitioners have both embraced and critiqued ANT, but it remains a useful form of inquiry.

scholarly journals Aktør-netværkteori: A-moderne (sociologisk?) teori

2006 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Arnoldi
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Sociology Of Science ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

Jakob Arnoldi: Actor Network Theory: A-modern (Sociological?) Theory This article is a critical analysis of Bruno Latour’s actor network theory. It outlines two main conceptual moves in Latour’s work. The first is the move from an “irreductionist“ sociology of science to a critique of the so-called “Modern Constitution“. The second is a move from a double dialectic between knowledge and on the one hand the objectively given world, on the other the subjectively given world, to a notion of hybridization. The article outlines a range of positive aspects of the theory. It highlights the many possibilities for empirical research which actor network theory provides. And it argues that the theory is a valuable tool for research in areas such as risk, technology, and environment. However, the article remains critical of several aspects of Latour’s theory. First of all, it argues that the theory is unnecessarily polemic. Secondly, and much more importantly, it argues that Latour’s theory is haunted by a lack of reflexivity as it remains trapped inside the conceptual framework, the Modern Constitution, which the theory is attacking. The article argues that Latour retains a dialectical form of reasoning and that the critique of the poles nature and culture is based on the very distinction between these poles.

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.

The model of an intelligent information security control system for supply chains based on the spatial concepts of the actor-network theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 94-106
Author(s):  
Y.M. Iskanderov ◽  
◽  
M.D. Pautov
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Information Security ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Spatial Concepts ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Information Security Management System ◽  
Security Control ◽  
Intelligent Information

Aim. The use of modern information technologies makes it possible to achieve a qualitatively new level of control in supply chains. In these conditions, ensuring information security is the most important task. The article shows the possibilities of applying the spatial concepts of the actor-network theory in the interests of forming a relevant intelligent information security management system for supply chains. Materials and methods. The article discusses a new approach based on the provisions of the actor-network theory, which makes it possible to form the structure of an intelligent information security control system for supply chains, consisting of three main functional blocks: technical, psychological and administrative. The incoming information security threats and the relevant system responses generated through the interaction of the system blocks were considered as enacting the three Law’s spaces: the space of regions, the space of networks and the space of fl uids. Results. It is shown that the stability of this system in the space of networks is a necessary condition for its successful functioning in the space of regions, and its resilience in the space of fl uids gained through the dynamic knowledge formation helps overcome the adverse effects of the fl uidity. The problems of the intentional / unintentional nature of information security threats, as well as the reactivity / proactivity of the corresponding responses of the intelligent information security management system for supply chains are investigated. Conclusions. The proposed approach showed the possibility of using such an interdisciplinary tool in the fi eld of information security as the concepts of the actor-network theory. The intelligent information security control system built on its basis ensures that almost all the features of solving information security problems in supply chains are taken into account.

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