Throughout seminars in this course, numerous references to the works of Bruno Latour underlines the importance of his theories. Talking about one of his theories in particular, namely, the Actor Network Theory, I am sharing some interesting videos which I found helpful in understanding this concept.
On a higher-level though, The Actor Network Theory seeks to explain the role that science and technology have had in structuring and legitimizing scientific knowledge. (Latour, 1988; Woolgar, 1991,) It attempts at defining the complex relationships between humans and non-humans.
“Everything can be considered both an actor and a network – it is simply a matter of perspective. Everything, then, is an actor-network, “reducible neither to an actor alone nor to a network…An actor-network is simultaneously an actor whose activity is networking heterogeneous elements and a network that is able to redefine and transform what it is made of” (Callon 1987, p.93)
A variety of intellectual traditions are detected in ANT:
- Foucault’s (1977) theory of power and micro-politics,
- semiotics,
- anthropology (Douglas 1966)
These papers discuss this theory in much detail :
Jansen, T. (2017). Beyond ANT: Towards an “infra-language” of reflexivity. European Journal of Social Theory, 20(2), 199–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431016646506
Watson, G. (2010). Actor Network Theory, After-ANT & Enactment: Implications for method. Gavan.Ca, 1–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/016224399001500407
Callon, M. (1987). The Social Construction of technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology, 83-102.
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