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.

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.

Inhuman/Nonhuman/Human: Actor-Network Theory and the Prospects for a Nondualistic and Symmetrical Perspective on Nature and Society

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 731-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Murdoch
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Social Studies Of Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Nature And Society

Recently human geographers and sociologists have begun to focus on the prospects for theories without dualisms. As a result of research on technology, animals, and the environment, it has become evident that a human-centred perspective, which continually positions humans as the only significant actors, cannot adequately take into account the various nonhumans which make up our world and upon which we depend. In large part the human-centredness of much social science derives from a sharp divide, a dualism, between nature and society and between the work of natural and human scientists. In this paper I consider one attempt to transgress this divide and assess the prospects for theories of this kind. The focus here is upon actor-network theory (ANT), an approach developed by Michel Callon, Bruno Latour, and John Law within social studies of science. I first outline the social studies which form the background to the development of ANT and then go on to elaborate the main contours of the approach, with particular emphasis on its transgression of the nature—society distinction. I conclude with a critical assessment of its strengths and weaknesses and attempt to show how it might be usefully combined with other, more traditional, social scientific concerns.

Adaptive Livelihood Strategies in Conservation-Induced Displacement: The Case of the Baka of East Cameroon

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harrison Esam Awuh
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Livelihood Strategies ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Reserve Area ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract:This article utilizes the Actor‒Network Theory (ANT) to guide thinking about the relationship between nature and society and how this relationship is severed by conservation-induced displacement. ANT’s view of interconnectivity between networks is used to argue that a network is only stable as long as actors remain faithful to it. In the case of the displaced Baka people of the Dja Reserve area in East Cameroon, resistance to conservation through adaptive practices following displacement can reverse or disrupt the socially predetermined order of a network, which in this case would be marginalization of the displaced. However, the marginal scale of their adaptation to change raises doubts over the sustainability of adaptation to post-displacement livelihoods.

scholarly journals Techniques of Translating A Watchful Distance by Zhou Guoping in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 858
Author(s):  
Min Liu
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Sociocultural Perspective ◽  
Philosophical Literature ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Contemporary Philosopher ◽  
The Relationship

Chinese philosophical literature is rarely introduced to foreign countries (Pohl, 1999, p. 303). Zhou Guoping, as a contemporary philosopher and essayist, has created essays with both depth and readability, and thus his works are deemed to be worthy of translation. This article aims to elaborate on the translator’s techniques for transferring Zhou Guoping’s famous collection of essays A Watchful Distance. Divided into four sections, this article uses actor-network theory as its theoretical framework and analyses the translator’s position in translation activities from sociocultural perspective, gives corresponding translating techniques to problems related to creativity, conventionalised expressions, utterances and Chinese cultural elements in this book, and draws a conclusion upon the relationship between cultural homogeneity and corresponding translating techniques underpinned by actor-network theory. By discussing specific translating techniques used for Zhou’s book, this article fills up the gap in the transfer techniques of A Watchful Distance to overseas cultures. However, the limitation lies in that the number of Zhou’s works studied are restricted.

scholarly journals Duše předmětu a tělo modlitby aneb zkoumání sociologických nejistot na případu Sóka Gakkai International

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Petra Tlčimuková
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Black Boxes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Soka Gakkai ◽  
The Relationship

This case study presents the results of long-term original ethnographic research on the international Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International (SGI). It focuses on the relationship between the material and immaterial and deals with the question of how to study them in the sociology of religion. The analysis builds upon the critique of the modernist paradigm and related research of religion in the social sciences as presented by Harman, Law and Latour. The methodology draws on the approach of Actor-Network Theory as presented by Bruno Latour, and pursues object-oriented ethnography, for the sake of which the concept of iconoclash is borrowed. This approach is applied to the research which focused on the key counterparts in the Buddhist praxis of SGI ‒ the phrase daimoku and the scroll called Gohonzon. The analysis deals mainly with the sources of sociological uncertainties related to the agency of the scroll. It looks at the processes concerning the establishing and dissolving of connections among involved elements, it opens up the black-boxes and proposes answers to the question of new conceptions of the physical as seen through Gohonzon.

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.

Understanding the Implementation of IT Governance Arrangements and IT Infrastructure Using Actor Network Theory

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Hafizah Mohamad Hsbollah ◽  
Alan Simon ◽  
Nick Letch
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
It Governance ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Global Network ◽  
It Infrastructure ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Governance Arrangements

The implementation of IT governance (ITG) arrangements and its relationship to IT infrastructure has not received much attention in either the ITG or the information systems (IS) literature. Based on the premise that the foundation on which ITG is implemented lies in the interaction between ITG arrangements of structures, processes and relational mechanisms and IT infrastructure, the authors present a discussion of how actor network theory (ANT) can be used as an overarching theoretical framework of explanation. The authors propose a model of ITG implementation and discuss how ANT, in particular the local/global network approach, can be applied to understand the relationship that exists between ITG arrangements and IT infrastructure.

From the Sacred to the Sacred Object

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin Sayes ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Rene Girard ◽  
Michel Serres ◽  
Sacred Object ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The philosophy of Bruno Latour has given us one of the most important statements on the part played by technology in the ordering of the human collective. Typically presented as a radical departure from mainstream social thought, Latour is not without his intellectual creditors: Michel Serres and, through him, René Girard. By tracing this development, we are led to understand better the relationship of Latour’s work, and Actor-Network Theory more generally, to traditional sociological concerns. By doing so we can also hope to understand better the role that objects play in structuring society.

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.

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