scholarly journals Marxist morphologies

Focaal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (82) ◽  
pp. 16-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Murawski
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Economic Base ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
Material World ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Relationship

This article critiques assumptions made by urban anthropologists and other scholars of cities, focusing on currently fashionable theories of infrastructure, materiality, and complexity. It problematizes how scholarship informed by actor-network theory, assemblage theory and other varieties of (post)postmodernism uses morphological optics and metaphors to represent social life, the material world, and existence itself as necessarily “flat,” “complex” or “fuzzy.” As a corrective, it proposes reorienting our social morphologies with reference to a Marxist notion of infrastructure, founded on a dynamic understanding of the relationship between determining economic base and determined superstructure. It constructs its theoretical edifice with reference to the remaking of post-1945 Warsaw as a socialist city through property expropriation and monumental architectural and planning works, and post-1989 attempts to unmake its socialist character through property reprivatization and unplanning.

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.

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.

Sociologiens performativitet - afvikling af det dårlige samfund?

2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 74-92
Author(s):  
Anders Blok
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Symbolic Products ◽  
Critical Moments

Anders Blok: The Performativity of Sociology – Dismantling the Poor Society? This essay raises questions about the contribution of sociology to bettering or dismantling its always less-than-satisfactory society. What happens if we stop viewing sociological theory and analysis as explanations of society, and start seeing them as additions to society, as narrative equipment for societal ac¬-tors? And what consequences does such a performative perspective imply for the critical capacity of sociology? Drawing inspiration from actor-network theory (ANT), this essay suggests that the mundane symbolic products of so¬cio¬logy are co-constitutive for the continual (re)creation of “society“. Texts, concepts, statistics, and analyses contribute to collecting and effectuating social groups. Interesting sociology gains attention from various publics by participating in critical dialogues. Rather than cool-headed distance, a critical proximity is called for, with sociologists engaging the critical moments of social life, while developing a “sociology of criticism“ capable of respecting the critical capacities of social co-actors. Criticism is a practical endeavour, with various means of intervention available. This performative perspective suggests two important societal narratives for future sociological engagement are suggested: cosmopolitization of society and democratization of expertise.

How do caves act?

2019 ◽  
pp. 69-94
Author(s):  
Rick Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Material World ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Time Experience ◽  
Object Agency ◽  
The Way

This chapter addresses the question of what the agency of non-animate objects might imply for the study. It begins by discussing early archaeological applications of the ideas of Giddens and Bourdieu. It then moves on to discuss anthropological ideas about the agency of non-humans, in particular Ingold’s dwelling perspective and the idea of the taskscape. It suggests that the agency of inanimate objects has been conceptualised in two different ways. Gell’s ‘secondary agency’ is compared with Latour’s ‘actor-network theory’. These approaches are situated more broadly within developing Post-humanist interpretations of object agency. Understandings of time and temporality are also discussed within the same framework. The chapter follows Gell in using the distinction between A and B series time to construct an account of time experience based on the material world. B-series time is held to be a map of temporally ordered events. Material narratives of time and object biographies are shown to be central to this process, of particular importance is the way that changes to objects and places index the passage of time.

scholarly journals Assembling community economies

2019 ◽  
pp. 030913251988463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaner Atakan Turker ◽  
James T. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Community Economies ◽  
The Face

This article advances a framework for the study of community economies as assemblages constituted and shaped by three primary dynamics: relations, resources and constraints, and processes of stabilization and destabilization. Drawing on diverse and community economies scholarship, assemblage theory and actor-network theory, we develop a framework that will contribute significantly to understandings of the emergence of community economies and the strategies that make them more resilient and sustainable. The conceptual framework is illustrated through a case study from Turkey’s Kurdish region – a women’s cooperative that remained resilient in the face of armed conflict and political violence.

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).

scholarly journals Editorial: Natur, Gesellschaft, Materialität: aktuelle Herausforderungen der Politischen Ökologie

2016 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 221-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sören Becker ◽  
Antje Otto
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Dialectical Perspective ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. This editorial introduces different theoretical strands in political ecology both in English and German speaking contexts. Comparing Marxist with more relational and "new materialist" approaches, it is argued that the various theoretical approaches chosen induce different ways of how the relationship between society and nature, between material and culture is conceptualized. The dialectical perspective derived from Marxism is thereby contrasted with the more emergent, and relativist understandings of actor network theory and assemblage thinking. Besides, the six single contributions in this Special Issue are introduced and five areas for further research are laid out: (1) the multiplicity of materiality, (2) the opposition between dialectic and relativist thinking, (3) the tension between elements and entire socio-material configurations, (4) materiality in the production of space and (5) issues of materiality and power.

scholarly journals On pragmatism, assemblage and ANT: Assembling reason

2020 ◽  
pp. 030913252092471
Author(s):  
Gary Bridge
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Relational Space ◽  
Oriented Approach

In geography the key theoretical registers of assemblage theory and Actor Network Theory have been psychoanalytic-semiotic, materialist and vitalist (emphasising affect). In contrast, this paper indicates the original influence and continued relevance of philosophical pragmatism’s action-oriented approach for assemblage and ANT. It suggests how a pragmatist understanding of human experience, situation and reason offers a different perspective on the nature of emergent and relational space in assemblages and networks. This perspective extends existing pragmatist work in geography to explore the distinctive, hyper-relational spatialities of human activity in a world of acting things, suggesting wider implications for progress in human geography.

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