scholarly journals Is Pokémon GO Feminist? An Actor-Network Theory Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carina Assuncao
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Game Design ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Entertainment Media ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Pokémon Go ◽  
Politics And Gender ◽  
And Gender

The Pokémon franchise has been targeted and has been successful with males and females (Tobin, 2004). In it, cute-looking creatures with superpowers fight each other for the fame and glory of their masters (the players). The franchise includes a plethora of entertainment media. This essay will focus on the recent release, Pokémon GO. This particular game and its location-based technology will be analysed using cyberfeminism and actor-network theory to explore the play space as a context for kinaesthetic awareness and embodiment. The cyberfeminism herein exploited is that of “the utopian tradition of imagining a world without gender” (Haraway, 2000, p. 292). Actor-network theory, a strong methodological tradition in science and technology studies, sees actors and the networks they create as completely ‘flat’ and non-hierarchical. ANT has been criticised for its lack of concern with politics and gender (Lagesen, 2012) but, in combination with a feminist lens, ANT has the potential to uncover issues that other approaches in game studies cannot. This original framework can help game studies scholars to see gameplay processes in a new light by following the many actors involved in game design and use.

Ecological Democracy and the Co-participation of Things

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Disch
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Object Oriented ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Material Politics ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Ecological Democracy

Is ecological democracy possible? If so, what would it entail? This chapter first reviews the literature based in deliberative democracy that proposes to extend communicative competence to non-humans, and then traces an alternative constructivist line of environmental political thinking from its beginnings in the strand of science and technology studies pioneered by Bruno Latour and others known as actor-network theory, through two actor-network theory-inspired approaches to political theory, “object-oriented democracy” and “material politics/participation.” Whereas this alternative approach solves some of the conundrums to which the communicative model gives rise, it is neither as radical a departure from politics as it is “normally understood,” nor aspoliticalas its proponents claim.

scholarly journals Informaatiokäytäntöjen tutkimuksen teoreettisia ja metodologisia mahdollisuuksia

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaakko Louhivuori
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
History Of

In this article I ponder how the actor-network theory and the practice-based studies can be applied in information practices research. The history of the actor-network theory goes back to the 1970s and 1980s and is linked to sociology as well as science and technology studies. Actually it was not intended to be so much a theory, but more like a method of combining actors into a wider story without preconceived ideas or laws of thought. In recent years, information practice research has paid more attention to the practice-based studies than to the actor-network theory. The quest for the full recognition of nonhuman factors as a part of information generation and its utilisation can be observed as a common ground with these two approaches. I believe, that if we apply the components of the actor-network theory and practice-based studies, we will get a more holistic view of information practices. These views and results may be used to review information practices and to develop the information processes further.

Reviewing the Actor-Network Theory

2011 ◽  
pp. 1375-1380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Figueiredo
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Dynamic Interaction ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Study Analyse ◽  
Broad Domain ◽  
Technical Systems ◽  
Social Entities

Actor-network theory (ANT) is usually intended as a powerful conceptual tool to study, analyse, describe and explain socio-technical systems. These systems are built up by the interactions between humans, technology, social entities and organizations. These heterogeneous actors in dynamic interaction built networks of interaction, negotiation. ANT emanated from the science and technology studies (STS) field and is considered to be in the broad domain of social networks. Michel Callon and Bruno Latour, STS academics of the École Supérieure des Mines de Paris, are their uncontested continental parents. We can report John Law, in Lancaster University, as the leading British key proponent of ANT from the very beginning. Lancaster University provides a lot of papers’ references and sources on ANT in their site (see references).

scholarly journals What makes a robot ‘social’?

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 556-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raya A Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Humanoid Robots ◽  
Social Robotics ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Social Agents ◽  
Level Of Analysis

Rhetorical moves that construct humanoid robots as social agents disclose tensions at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS) and social robotics. The discourse of robotics often constructs robots that are like us (and therefore unlike dumb artefacts). In the discourse of STS, descriptions of how people assimilate robots into their activities are presented directly or indirectly against the backdrop of actor-network theory, which prompts attributing agency to mundane artefacts. In contradistinction to both social robotics and STS, it is suggested here that to view a capacity to partake in dialogical action (to have a ‘voice’) is necessary for regarding an artefact as authentically social. The theme is explored partly through a critical reinterpretation of an episode that Morana Alač reported and analysed towards demonstrating her bodies-in-interaction concept. This paper turns to ‘body’ with particular reference to Gibsonian affordances theory so as to identify the level of analysis at which dialogicality enters social interactions.

scholarly journals Research method for locative games

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (64) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Luiz Adolfo Andrade
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Games Studies ◽  
Pokémon Go

This paper presents a methodology approach for locative games studies using as reference the actor-network theory. The hypothesis supports that actor-network theory could be useful because it focuses on agencies between humans and non-humans; by the same way, it provides useful categories to support the researcher in the description of an emerging phenomenon. Locative gaming is a fruitful experience to use concepts from actor-network theory because it is connected to many humans and non-humans actants. In the attempt to achieve a research method for locative games using actor-network theory, this study provides a description of some game sessions of Pokémon GO played in Copenhagen during the summer of 2017.

scholarly journals A REVIEW ON ACTOR-NETWORK THEORY AS A POTENTIAL TOOL FOR ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-60
Author(s):  
Busra Dilaveroglu ◽  
◽  
Cigdem Polatoglu ◽  
Aysen Ciravoglu ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Considerable Increase ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Ontological Approach ◽  
Material Reality ◽  
Potential Tool

Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is an ontological approach, emerging from science and technology studies. As an ontological frame, ANT proposes that the work of science does not differ from other social processes, and sociality should not be understood as a priori knowledge. Instead, ANT offers a lens to see science as an assemblage of social, technical, conceptional, and textual processes entangled with human and non-human entities by looking at their material nature. ANT proposes to follow traces of material relations and how that material nature constitutes social. There has been a considerable increase in the threshold of ANT and Architecture studies. ANT seems to offer new perspectives to understand architecture by looking at architecture from its own material reality. Thus, this study aims to reveal the whole picture of the studies in the threshold of ANT and architecture by analyzing ANT concepts implemented in architecture. By relating ANT concepts to the architectural field, this systematic review aims to understand ANT and its implications of architectural studies. Visualizing the relations of ANT and architecture related categories, the review is supposed to reveal gaps and the most studied fields of ANT in architecture.

scholarly journals ¿Distanciamiento social o distanciamiento de lo social? Un enfoque no antropocéntrico en antropología

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Terry
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Technology Studies

Los Estudios de Ciencia y Tecnología (Science and Technology Studies [STS]) y la Teoría del Actor-Red (Actor-Network Theory [ANT]), junto con la antropología “más allá de lo humano”, promueven un enfoque no antropocéntrico en las ciencias sociales, donde las entidades no humanas hacen parte del mundo social. Desde dicha perspectiva no antropocéntrica, este artículo tiene como objetivo cuestionar el uso de “distanciamiento social” como un término preciso, donde el calificativo “social” se asocia únicamente a seres humanos. Si el distanciamiento es un concepto clave para prevenir el contagio de COVID-19 entre seres humanos, sería más correcto hablar de distanciamiento físico o corporal. Al hablar de distanciamiento social, en realidad estamos distanciando lo social, reduciendo su complejidad, ya que está compuesto por entidades que no son necesariamente humanas o incluso visibles a nuestros ojos, como el nuevo coronavirus. Este artículo invita a buscar términos alternativos al concepto de “distanciamiento social” que nos permitan expresar mejor la complejidad de lo social de una manera menos antropocéntrica.

Re-assembling Actor-Network Theory and urban history

Urban History ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
BERT DE MUNCK
Keyword(s):  
Urban Studies ◽  
Urban History ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Social System ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Explanatory Models ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The City

Few theories have left their mark on urban studies to the extent that Actor-Network Theory (ANT) has in the last few decades. Its background in Science and Technology Studies (STS), its critique of the explanatory value of such abstractions as ‘class’ and ‘society’ and its efforts to transcend society/nature and local/global binarisms inevitably challenged conventional views on cities, urbanization and urban phenomena. Economic and Marxist approaches to the city in particular have been challenged, at least to the extent that they invoke the explanatory force of the economy or capitalism as a global social system and, thus, fall back upon the binarisms under attack from ANT. The network approach questioned architectonic explanatory models (substructure vs. superstructure) and deepened our understanding of actors and agency (both emerging from networks of humans and non-humans). However, ANT has always been subject to criticism too.

Methodologies and Models in Military Innovation Studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-134
Author(s):  
Burke ii Laurence M.
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Cultural Models ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Innovation ◽  
Innovation Studies ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
New Models

Barry Posen’s 1984 book, The Sources of Military Doctrine, is considered to have kicked off the field of military innovation studies. While historians have made contributions to the field, it is the political scientists who have created new models of military innovation, likely because historians avoid the predictive connotations of “model”. This article first reviews the dominant models in the field that rely on the actions and decisions of individuals (as opposed to more diffuse cultural models) and places them in dialogue with each other. Second, it argues that historians should be less leery of “models”, since they create or use implicit models in their own work. Finally, this article proposes that the various models laid out in the first part of the article may be seen as specific cases of a methodology from science and technology studies, “Actor/Network Theory”, which is a promising new tool for analyzing military innovation.

scholarly journals Writing Nature

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Asdal ◽  
Gro Birgit Ween
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Clear Cut

<div>This special issue of the Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies is interested in how nature, in different versions and forms, is invited into our studies, analyses, and stories. How is it that we “write nature”? How is it that we provide space for, and actually describe the actors, agents, or surroundings, in our stories and analyses? The articles in the issue each deal with different understandings of both the practices of writing and the introduction of various natures into these. In this introduction to the issue the editors engage with actor-network theory as a material semiotic resource  for writing nature. We propose to foreground actor-network theory as a writing tool, at the expense of actor-network theory as a distinct vocabulary. In doing this and pointing out the semiotic origins to material-semiotics we also want to  problematize a clear-cut material approach to writing nature.</div>

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