scholarly journals Multiple, connective intellection: the condition for invention

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
C S De Beer
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Special Significance ◽  
Multiple Reality ◽  
Great Hope ◽  
The World ◽  
Dynamic Perspective ◽  
Ultimate Condition ◽  
Scientific Endeavour

Since this article involves invention, the conditions for inventiveness become the issue: assuming multiple reality; thinking in a special way; transgressing boundaries; acknowledging networks (in the terms of Michel Serres: communication, transduction, interference, distribution, passages between the sciences. There are, however, misplaced expectations: technology should work wonders in this regard while forgetting that humans, redefined though, remain the key to establish connections and networks between people, paradigms, disciplines, sciences and technologies.Against this background, Michel Serres’s emphasis on invention and “thinking as invention” and his a-critical anti-method – ‘connective, multiple intellection’ which is a special kind of thought – are desperately needed.Guattari’s articulation of the three ecologies and the ecosophic views he developed in this regard provides a significant amplification of the approach of ‘multiple connective intellection’. These insights can be enlightened and strongly driven home through the views of Latour with an anthropological and socio-dynamic perspective on the scientific endeavour with the articulation of the actor-network theory inherited from Serres. The thoughtful beyond-methodology of Edgar Morin with his strong noological position as the ultimate condition for inventiveness, and Gregory Ulmer with his special emphasis on invention and inventiveness, especially with the help and assistance of electronic means (video and internet), and with his work with the architect Bernard Tschumi on invention and inventiveness, are of special significance in the sphere of inventiveness, the real and final guarantee for a spirited re-enchantment of the world as well as the final demonstration that the battle for intelligence as opposed to ignorance, stupidity and barbarism can be fought with great hope to succeed.

Institutionalized Education: Journalism and Mass Communication Education in Pakistan

2021 ◽  
pp. 1326365X2110096
Author(s):  
David Bockino ◽  
Amir Ilyas
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Communication Education ◽  
Organizational Field ◽  
The World ◽  
Mass Communication Education

This article uses an examination of journalism and mass communication (JMC) education in Pakistan as a case study to explore the consequences of increased homogenization of JMC education around the world. Anchored by a qualitative method that relies heavily on actor-network theory, the study identifies key moments and people in the trajectory of five Pakistani programmes and explores the connection between these programmes and the larger JMC organizational field. The study concludes by questioning the efficacy of the current power structures within the supranational JMC organizational field before discussing how these influences could potentially be mitigated moving forward.

Innovation and Technical Transformations in Living Technology

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-42
Author(s):  
Rachel Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Natural Computing ◽  
Laboratory Findings ◽  
Cultural Shift ◽  
Industrial Age ◽  
Production Platform ◽  
The World ◽  
Far From Equilibrium ◽  
The Impact

This essay proposes that humans are in the midst of a cultural shift from the Industrial Age to an Ecological Era, which demands that one re-conceptualize the world and operate within it differently. It discusses the opportunities raised by Actor Network Theory (ANT) in helping one navigate the transition from an object-centred view of reality, towards one that also engages with process-oriented concepts. In particular, the impact of the convergence of these worldviews on technological innovation is explored through recognising a different material framework that engages with nonlinear systems. ANT offers a unique opportunity to deal with matter at far from equilibrium through the notion of assemblages, which act as a new kind of operating system that behaves in remarkably lifelike ways. Empirical evidence is provided for such an ANT-based, production platform through laboratory findings in an emerging field of computation called ‘natural' computing. A range of models and prototypes are discussed. The resultant lifelike technologies require unique infrastructures that facilitate the movement of elemental fabrics (earth, air, heat, water). While much evidence for their existence is propositional and qualitative, as they are in their earliest stages of development, these lifelike technologies have the potential to radically alter the impact of human development and transform it from being harmful to beneficial to the environment.

scholarly journals I feel my wrist buzz. Smartbody and performative sensibility in Fitbit devices

2017 ◽  
pp. 5-17
Author(s):  
André Luiz Martins Lemos ◽  
Elias Bitencourt
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
User Community ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
The World ◽  
Community Forum ◽  
Body Care

Abstract This paper discusses the concepts of performative sensibility and smartbody. The central thesis is that performative sensibility highlights the instrumental nature of sensations in which objects act on the world. We show how the prescriptions of this new sensibility associated with wearables affect the body and subjectivity that we propose to call a smartbody. There were one hundred testimonials analyzed from the oldest thread with the greatest number of comments in the Fitbit user community forum. Quantitative tools and actor-network theory were used as a guide to assemble and analyze the corpus. The preliminary findings show that Fitbit users demonstrate particular changings in body care. Extreme behaviors, physical limits defined by system goals and quantification habits without utilizing the device are some of the examples found. These findings appear to indicate that the performative sensibility of wearables mobilizes new body performatic patterns and practices oriented by data.

scholarly journals Reassembling Heritage after the Disaster: On the Sungnyemun Debate in South Korea

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3903
Author(s):  
Seunghan Paek ◽  
Dai Whan An
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The South ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Meanings ◽  
Post Disaster

This article explores the changing values of heritage in an era saturated by an excess of media coverage in various settings and also threatened by either natural or manmade disasters that constantly take place around the world. In doing so, we focus on discussing one specific case: the debate surrounding the identification of Sungnyemun as the number one national treasure in South Korea. Sungnyemun, which was first constructed in 1396 as the south gate of the walled city Seoul, is the country’s most acknowledged cultural heritage that is supposed to represent the national identity in the most authentic way, but its value was suddenly questioned through a nationwide debate after an unexpected fire. While the debate has been silenced after its ostensibly successful restoration conducted by the Cultural Heritage Administration in 2013, this article argues that the incident is a prime example illustrating how the once venerated heritage is reassembled through an entanglement of various agents and their affective engagements. Methodologically speaking, this article aims to read Sungnyemun in reference to the growing scholarship of actor-network theory (ANT) and the studies of heritage in the post-disaster era through which to explore what heritage means to us at the present time. Our synchronic approach to Sungnyemun encourages us to investigate how the once-stable monument becomes a field where material interventions and affective engagements of various agents release its public meanings in new ways.

scholarly journals Networking in the #BEAVegas

2019 ◽  
pp. 71-76
Author(s):  
Yerodin L. Carrington
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Las Vegas ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Intergroup Communication ◽  
The World ◽  
Basic Understanding ◽  
Education Association

Networking in the #BEAVegas is a basic understanding of the Network Theory, and its properties. This theoretical framework investigates the intergroup communication of individuals within other group systems. Networking in the #BEAVegas also explores Littlejohn's methodologies of connectedness, group networks, and organizational networks along with Actor-Network Theory (ANT). However, the original elements of the Network Theory were given to the world in 1385 through the Wycliffe Bible. I applied the participant-observation inquiry, as Poster Presenter, during the 2019 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Annual Conference in Las Vegas using the Network Theory.

Actor-Network Theory and Journalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Wiard
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Network Effects ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Content Management ◽  
News Production ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
The World

Actor-network theory (ANT) is a sociological approach to the world that treats social phenomena as network effects. This approach focuses on the evolution of interactions within networks over time and is useful for studying situations of change, unsettled groups, and evolving practices such as current developments in the world of journalism. Journalism is a messy and complex social practice involving various actors, institutions, and technologies, some of which are in a state of crisis or are undergoing rapid change due to digitization. ANT has gained momentum in journalism studies among researchers analyzing journalists’ relationships with the diverse agents they in contact with on a daily basis (e.g., technologies, institutions, audiences, other news producers) and the relationships between news production, circulation, and usage. ANT practitioners use a set of simple concepts referred to as an infra-language, which allows them to exchange ideas and compare interpretations while letting the actors they are studying develop their own range of concepts (i.e., to speak in their own words). These concepts include actants, actor networks, obligatory passage points, and translation. ANT also proposes a set of principles for researchers to follow. These include considering all entities as participants in a phenomenon (e.g., people can make other people do things, and objects, such as computers or institutions, can as well) and following actors as they trace associations with others. Therefore, journalism scholars who use this approach conduct qualitative studies focusing on the place of a particular technology within a network or situation by following who and what is involved and how entities connect. They collect data such as the content produced, direct observations of news production, or statements from interviews during or after the case is over. Using ANT, journalism scholars have extended their comprehension of news production by highlighting technology’s role in journalistic networks. Although journalists naturalize technologies through daily use (e.g., search engines, content management systems, cell phones, cameras, email), these tools still influence journalistic practices and outputs. ANT practitioners also consider the diversity of agents participating in news production and circulation: professional journalists, politicians, activists, and diverse commercial and noncommercial organizations. If this diversity is becoming more active and connected in this networked environment, it seems that legacy media is still an obligatory passage point for anyone willing to bring information to the general public. Recent societal changes, such as the generalization of news consumption on smartphones and the rise of platform journalism on multiple apps, indicate that ANT may be useful in the collective endeavor to provide a clear picture of what journalism is and what it will become.

Death sentencing by Zoom: An actor-network theory analysis

2020 ◽  
pp. 1037969X2096614
Author(s):  
Milena Heinsch ◽  
Tania Sourdin ◽  
Caragh Brosnan ◽  
Hannah Cootes
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Video Conferencing ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Limited Extent ◽  
Theory Analysis ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Jury Trials ◽  
The World ◽  
Death Sentencing

During the COVID-19 pandemic, courts around the world have introduced a range of technologies to cope with social distancing requirements. Jury trials have been largely delayed, although some jurisdictions moved to remote jury approaches and video conferencing was used extensively for bail applications. While videoconferencing has been used to a more limited extent in the area of sentencing, many were appalled by the news that two people were sentenced to death via Zoom. This article uses actor-network theory (ANT) to explore the role of technology in reshaping the experience of those involved in the sentencing of Punithan Genasan in Singapore.

scholarly journals Wonder Woman: An Assemblage of Complete Virtue Packed in a Tight Swimsuit

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-197
Author(s):  
Theresa K Ashford ◽  
Neal Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Relational Networks ◽  
Wonder Woman ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
Exemplary Model ◽  
The Trinity

This paper uses actor-network theory (ANT) and Aristotelian virtue ethics to think with/of Wonder Woman as an assemblage of human and non-human actors clustered on a page. It also considers how the emerging assemblage that is Wonder Woman might be viewed as the embodiment of Aristotle’s ‘complete virtue’ or justice. As one of the ‘trinity’ of superheroes of Detective Comics (DC), which also include Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman was created to counter the sadism and tyranny of the Nazi threat during the 1930s and 1940s and has been continually published since 1941. Wonder Woman is a multidimensional icon and an exemplary model of a superhero with a different body and voice, who operates in a different way in the world. She is presented here as a case study to trace possible translations of Aristotle’s configurations of virtue and justice. Using ANT, we argue that Wonder Woman arises from an assemblage of actors that include an armoured swimsuit, a magic lasso, shiny bracelets and a star-emblazoned tiara. By problematising these technologies as actors that commonly invite objectification (the swimsuit) or subjugation (the ropes), this paper suggests possible divergent readings that reveal how virtue and justice can emerge within these relational networks. We test how the sexualised body depictions and overt bondage references in the Wonder Woman comics, and in particular, in our chosen story, George Pérez’s Wonder Woman: Destiny Calling, offer something bolder and more profound—a complex performance of justice. Additionally, this paper intimates the productive methodological powers of ANT in relation to the broader field of comics studies.

Multiple Proximities: Culture and Geography in the Transport Logistics of Newsprint Manufactured in Australia

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (10) ◽  
pp. 1717-1739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Bradshaw
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Geographic Proximity ◽  
Research Material ◽  
Cultural Proximity ◽  
The World ◽  
Port Logistics ◽  
Recent Case Study ◽  
Network Proximity

Three types of proximity are argued to be present in the research material in this paper. First, put simply, geographic proximity refers to two entities being physically next to each other. Second, cultural proximity refers to two entities being relationally close to one another, with geographic proximity often not being required. Third, network proximity refers to two entities being associated through or with a third entity, again with geographic proximity often not being required. Geographies of links between entities—people, enterprises, places, etc—trace networks of relations. Geographic proximity remains crucial, but the relational spaces of geographic networks that selectively connect entities in different ways around the world are just as important. In this paper some elements from actor-network theory are used to approach the investigation of multiple proximities. The argument is exemplified through a recent case study of the restructuring of trans-port logistics of newsprint manufactured in Australia.

Actor–Network Theory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annelies Kamp
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Data Generation ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Social Studies Of Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Moment

Actor–network theory (ANT) is an approach to research that sits with a broader body of new materialism; a body of work that displaces humanism to consider dynamic assemblages of humans and nonhumans. Originally developed in the social studies of science and technology undertaken in the second half of the 20th century, ANT has increasingly been taken up in other arenas of social inquiry. Researchers working with ANT do not accept the unquestioned use of “social” explanations for educational phenomena. Rather, the social, like all other effects, is taken to be an enactment of heterogenous assemblages of human and nonhuman entities. The role of the educational researcher is to trace these processes of assemblage and reassemblage, foregrounding the ways in which certain entities establish sufficient allies to assume some degree of “realness” in the world. Aligning most closely with ethnographic orientations, ANT does not outline a method. However, it could be argued that a number of propositions are shared in ANT-inspired approaches: first, that the world is made up of actors/actants, all of which are ontologically symmetrical. Humans are not privileged in ANT. Second, the principle of irreduction—there is no essence within or beyond any process of assemblage. Actors are concrete; there is no “potential” other than their actions in the moment. Entities are nothing more than an effect of assemblage. Third, the concept of translation and its processes of mediation that transform objects when they encounter one another. Finally, the principle of alliance. Actants gain strength only through their alliances. These propositions have specific implications for data generation, analysis, and reporting.

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