Producing Oedipus: Totem and Taboo Read Through Actor Network Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-204
Author(s):  
Felipe Massao Kuzuhara

This article reads Freud's Totem and Taboo (1912–13) according to its role within the consolidation of the Oedipus complex. Freud's text is discussed with a focus on the process of knowledge production in psychoanalysis, and in relation to Bruno Latour's ideas of translation, association and black box. In this respect, this article regards a central feature of Totem and Taboo as being the articulation of a full-scale argument for the production of the Oedipus complex as ‘fact’. It is in this sense that different actors such as clinical cases, totemism, phylogenesis, the development of psychoanalytic theory and so on are considered here.

Actor network theory as the “sociology of translation,” is used as a lens to examine the chronology of the development of the MOU Agreement, which provides insight into the mechanics of its formation and network of relations. Translation uncovered dimensions of the network's development: why associations between the actors were created, the factors that mobilized these heterogeneous parties to come together. Further, it also uncovered how their functions were ascribed and how stability or “black box” status was achieved. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is positioned as a moment in ANT facilitating the analyses of the network linkages of the MOU actor network assist to identify the interactions at various levels of the MOU social partnership actor network. The two worldviews complement each other within an interpretivist framework revealing the potential to analyse network interactions through the lens of discourse.


Author(s):  
Steven Conway ◽  
Andrew Trevillian

In this article we propose a new ontology for games, synthesising phenomenology, Latourian Actor-Network Theory and Goffmanian frame analysis. In doing so we offer a robust, minimal and practical model for the analyst and designer, that clearly illustrates the network of objects within the 'Black Box' of any game, illuminating how each object (from player to memory card to sunlight) may move between three levels of the Game Event: Social World, Operative World and Character World. Abbreviating these worlds, a shorthand for the model is SOC (Social/Operative/Character).


Author(s):  
Carol A Nelson

In 2004, the Government of Jamaica and the Confederation of Trade Unions signed a social partnership agreement or Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which maintained the size of the public sector and wage expenditure, in exchange for no redundancies. The implementation of the Agreement unearthed unanticipated implications for the practice of power within the partnership. The ontology of Actor Network Theory, conceptualizes the MoU as an actor which, through the mechanics of translation, creates its own actor network that it seeks to inscribe with its own discourse to attain a ‘black box' status. The inclusion of discourse as a moment and use of Critical Discourse Analysis provides for the penetration of the impenetrable black box of network interaction and analytical possibilities. The paper argues for the recognition of discourse as a moment in ANT which strengthens it and affords a mode of analysis to deconstruct or explore inner distributions of power.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 49-72
Author(s):  
Marcelo De Oliveira Garcia ◽  
Rodrigo Gava ◽  
Dany Flávio Tonelli ◽  
Valéria da Glória Pereira Brito

The process of technology transfer represents a type of social phenomenon that becomes a black box after its completion. That is, access to the process becomes invisible and obscure. The reasons that lead a public researcher to participate in the technology transfer process represented the main concerns to support the research question, whose derived analysis was based on the theoretical-methodological assumptions of the Actor-Network Theory (ANT). This research contributes to understanding the transfer of technology as a complex phenomenon that features the participation of actors with complex and diverse interests; that is, each technology transfer process is singular in its understanding.


Author(s):  
Huda Ibrahim ◽  
Hasmiah Kasimin

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.  


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-121
Author(s):  
Michel Chambon

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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