Towards of Quantitative Model of Stacked Actor-Network Dynamics

This article further develops the stacked actor-networks (SAN) approach in modelling socio-economic and cultural dynamics. Following the Lee and Schiesser application of differential equation analysis in biological and social sciences, the authors used a basic SAN model. This model is composed of three subnetworks where each two subnetworks dominate over the third one to build a quantitative description that identifies three stable states in the dynamics of their interactions – cyclical development, linear, and exponential growth. Describing the latter, the notion of ‘technology growth' is introduced that bears on the pattern of hyper-fast growth.

Assemblage of CoreLife Skills Through Technological Innovation

With the increasing emphasis on developing graduate employability skills, termed as CoreLife Skills in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and growing use of technology in education; this research investigates the assemblage of CoreLife Skills through technological innovation in a vocational education and training (VET) institute in the UAE. This article draws on the concepts of the sociology of translation from an Actor-Network Theory as both methodological and analytical tool. The research unfolds the socio-material assemblages using existing frameworks: Levels of Teaching Innovation (LoTi) and HEAT (higher order thinking, engaged learning, authentic learning, and technology use). The research stirred the development of technology-enhanced learning and a CoreLife Skills development (TEL-CSD) framework for effective integration of technology to enhance students' CoreLife Skills. Based on the findings, two conclusions are drawn: CoreLife Skills cannot be developed independently of general learning and cognitive skills, and technology alone cannot promote CoreLife Skills.

The Weblog Genre

This article aims at exploring the process of digital genre formation in general and weblogs in particular. While genre theory basically delimits genre features, it cannot handle their construction procedures. Approaching the weblog genre through the lens of Actor Network Theory (henceforth, ANT) provides practical tools for not only conducting a generic analysis of the blogging phenomenon but also following the network relations that shape the process of its construction. The results of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of a corpus of 497 blog entries by 39 A-list American political bloggers revealed that the key features of the weblog genre are relational effects of a process of interaction between a network of humans and non-human actors. Tracing all forms of negotiations and their effects shows how the actors involved in the formation of the weblog genre are assemblies or gatherings of myriad things brought together and linked through processes of translation. Therefore, foregrounding associations does not only deepen the exploration of the weblog genre but also furthers understanding of related, yet unexamined internet-based genre. It also draws attention to the affordances of the weblog technology and their effects in connection with a network of human and non-human entities.

The Effects of Digitalization on Professional and Amateur Astronomy Considered Through the Categories of Identity and Attachment

Applying the notion of identity, the article analyses the role of real time observation of professional and amateur astronomers in the context of ongoing digitalization of research. Unveiling the importance of materiality and immediate relationships with instruments, we took a critical stance to the established research approaches to this subject, in particular the ethnography of profession and the actor-network theory (ANT). Bearing on of Julian Orr studies of professional culture and our own ANT notion of ‘heterogeneous coupling', an attempt was made to introduce a new language for analysing the two knowledge communities, based on the sociology of taste and attachment of Antoine Hennion and sociology of regimes of worth of Luck Boltanski, which allows to grasp both similarities and differences in the astronomers' identities.

Gene, Genomics and Networks

Innovations in biomedical research have the potential to transform the healthcare diagnostics. Human genomics research is another approach which provides new tools and techniques by which life science researchers hope will help in predicting susceptibility towards common diseases. In this backdrop, this paper attempts to explore at the intersection of health, technology and society by attempting to understand as how human genomics approach can help the life scientists to unravel the disease susceptibility in case of human genetic disorders. Actor-Network Theory has been deployed as a theoretical framework as it gives some agency to non-human actors along with human actors. It has been argued in this paper that non-human ‘actants' play a decisive role in case of human genomics research. Rise of human genomics has been traced since the term ‘genomics' was first coined to the present day's promise and hope generated by the advances in human genomics. Some misconceptions and clarifications regarding ANT have also been discussed in this paper.

Enacting Divides

Th? paper aims to explore the current state of a particular instance of patient activism in Bulgaria through tracing the sociotechnical network architecture of the assisted reproductive technologies. It argues that in the local context this is the patient activism, which could be assessed as successful or, in ANT's terms, it has forged heterogeneous alliances, able to sustain themselves, proliferate and enroll new protagonists. Based on interviews with patients and activists, on media representations, and online discussions, this research tries to trace the local heterogeneous arrays of protagonists and show how ARTs network successfully stabilizes and gains power.

Entrepreneurial Action as Metaphorical Process and its Metaphorics

The objective of this paper is to formulate new approach to entrepreneurship and its result that is challenged by appearance of novel spheres of entrepreneurial activity related to social innovations, social networks, solution for corporate management and people`s wellbeing, production of gadget for precarious wants. These items inspire the study of axiological bases of value created by entrepreneurs. This purpose suggests addressing and revisiting the notions of entrepreneurial action and value. Their complete conceptualization applying to nascent new economy is unlikely to be possible. With this in mind, we focused on searching for metaphors that can cast light on the specifics of newly-emerging phenomena related to entrepreneurial action and value created by it. Using the theory of metaphor, we find that entrepreneurial action is of metaphorical nature itself. In the article, the creation of value is described by means of the transferal of enterprising constituents of entrepreneur's identity onto produced things. We specify these constituents as referred to the different periods of entrepreneurial history. The identification of the constituents was based on the theory of pillars and carriers of institutions by W. R. Scott. The metaphors of appropriateness, utility and wellbeing were proposed for the different periods of the development of value. The metaphor of rhetoric was defined as a root metaphor for all moduses of entrepreneurial action considered as a process of convincing on the value of things produced. Special metaphors for entrepreneurial action for each period of value development were also proposed. The metaphor of performative rhetoric was considered as shedding light on dominant modus of entrepreneurial action and modus of value under conditions of knowledge society.

‘Stacked' Actor-Networks and Their Computer Modelling

The paper dev?lops the mathematical basis of stacked actor-network (SAN) approach in modeling a socio-economic and cultural dynamics. It attempts to avoid the idea of ‘guidance' of a given form of (social) life being modelled, which has long been dominating in traditional sociology. Using methods of discreet mathematics and stochastic finite automata approach, we provided initial mathematical formalization of agent and actor-network, the types of complexity in the actor-network and three basic types of graphs comprising SAN's minimal model, with further aim is to develop these models in the form of computer programs (software) and to test them on real sociological data.

Interfaces, Efficiency, and Inequality

In the article the author claims that the digital technologies today continue to be good topic for Actor-Network theory (ANT) research because they exemplify many famous Latourian ideas about the role of technological artifacts in moral and political life of society. By drawing upon some key insights from ANT and science and technology (STS) in general, the author tells three stories about how commercial digital application work. The stories are based upon participant observation experience of the author during his 16 months of work at the technical support unit in the UK mobile application. Firstly, the author tells about different digital interfaces in the work of the technical support that vary in how they mediate the communication with users. Second, the author shows that an inequality in the commercial app has a complex and unpredictable nature. Finally, he shows how the efficiency of the app is determined by the multiplicity of actors' ontological models that differently frame and enact their activity. After the (auto-)ethnographic experience of the author it remains open how to conjoin ANT and human-centered position of an ethnographer.

The Diffusion of Accounting Innovations in the New Public Sector as Influenced by IMF Reforms

This paper aims to explain the diffusion of management accounting innovations within the public sector in Jordan as influenced by IMF reforms. It is concerned with the diffusion of management accounting systems viewed as a process of actor-network building and translation. The paper presents an interpretive case study by drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT). The aim is to better understand the nature of accounting systems. The study recognizes that accounting innovations in Public Financial Management over the last decade were central to the rise of the New Public Management (NPM) doctrine and its associated ideas of Results Based Management (RBM) and public accountability, of which accounting is a key element. The study also concludes that the diffusion process implied three isomorphic interests; i.e. it created pressure for similar reforms and structural changes in many governmental aspects, especially the ways of thinking and doing. It thus provides a discernible conclusion through exploring the processes of accounting change as influenced by the tenets of ANT. Like Chua (1995), it has examined accounting change as a process of ‘fabrication'. Accounting innovations are constructions (Andon et al., 2007), often built on a wide array of social, economic and political factors. There have been several studies of the public sector transformation following IMF reforms but this paper has a different focus: the diffusion and adoption of management accounting systems within the new public sector. The paper discusses the findings of an interpretive case study, which is Ministry of Finance (MOF) in Jordan. The results of the study indicate that diffusion and adopting of accounting innovations by MOF is largely affected by the government influence, and these innovations usually occurred “beyond the enterprise” as well as within it. The study contributes to both accounting literature and Actor-Network Theory by providing more understanding and explanation about the dynamics of accounting innovations in the public sector. This paper has interesting findings, but also points to the need for more studies about the diffusion of accounting innovations in the public sector.