We argue that health services research, and in particular evaluations of complex it systems in health service organisations, may benefit from being informed by actornetwork theory perspectives. Ant is a conceptual frame for exploring collective sociotechnical processes, whose spokespersons have paid particular attention to. Actornetwork theory and its role in understanding the implementation of information technology developments in healthcare kathrin m cresswell, allison worth, aziz sheikh abstract background. Actornetwork theory, sometimes abbreviated to ant, is a social science approach for describing and explaining social, organisational, scientific and technological structures, processes and events. Having explained his intentions in the introduction, latour demonstrates in part i how to deploy controversies about the social world. This approach, a sociology of associations has become known as actor network theory, and this book is an essential introduction both for those seeking to understand actor network theory, or the ideas of one of its most influential proponents. Actornetwork theory ant years ago descriptive theories 1 summary. It posits that nothing exists outside those relationships. Organizing space and time through relational humananimal boundary work. Ant does not favor any social constructivism or realism views rather believes in juxtaposition of techn.
An actor is thus defined as the source of an action regardless of its status as a human or nonhuman. We seek to expand understanding of the governance network theory by proposing the inclusion of human and nonhuman actors from the actornetwork theory in its scope. On actor network theory 371 il ant makes use of some of the simplest properties of nets and then adds to it an actor that does some work. In this note i start by exploring the metaphor of heterogeneous network. Organizing networks an actornetwork theory of organizations. Networks are sca lable actors, and actors are alw ays made up of many. This paper set out to propose the actornetwork theory ant as a lens through which to understand and interpret the sociotechnical knowledge sharing. Ant focuses on sciencebased innovation processes, and, in analyzing indoor smokefree regulations, the process necessitates engagement with all the component subsystems tobacco control, tobacco industry, regulatory, and tobacco use of the tobacco use management system 2 as well as relevant features of their context that together determine tobacco use. It is reminiscent of the old, traditional tensions at the heart of the social sciences, such as those between agency and structure or micro and macroanalysis. An overview of actor network theory3 given this study seeks to appraise the methodological application of ant, it is important that we commence with a detailed overview of this theory.
Actornetwork theory ant began at the end of the 1970s as an attempt to account for scientific activity without distinguishing a priori between its socalled social and technical aspects. Understanding knowledge sharing in an organization. I am crafting a keynote for a conference on comparative education. Actornetwork theory and interorganizational management. P67 on actor network theory 2 exploring the properties of actor networks is the task that the paris group of science and technology studies has set itself to tackle. In this essai we debate the extent to which actor network theory ant provides a meaningful contribution to the body of critical theories of organization. Organization actornetwork theory, organizations and critique. Actornetwork theory is a framework and systematic way to consider the infrastructure surrounding technological achievements. Actor networks and the writing of displacement, organization 64. In the digital age and in the global network society, traditional theories of the organization. Even more interestingly, however, is that each of these elements receives equal consideration in ant. The term actor network theory ant combines two words usually considered as opposites. Edwin sayes actornetwork theory and the ethnographic imagination. Keywords actornetwork theory, ethics, mining, organizing, politics, power, space introduction we are in kiruna, sweden, 200km above the polar circle.
Networks are the defining feature of innovative regions such as silicon. In recent years the approach to social theory known as actornetwork theory ant has. Critical approaches are commonly associated with a denaturalizing ontology, a reflexive epistemology and an antiperformative politics. Understanding the application of actor network theory in the process of accounting change. Understanding the application of actornetwork theory in. Reliable information about the coronavirus covid19 is available from the world health organization current situation, international travel. Using actor network theory to understand interorganizational network aspects for strategic information systems planning danchao hu february, 2011 master thesis business information technology school of management and governance smg university of twente enschede, the netherlands graduation committee. Using coevolutionary actor network theory as a prospective methodology tsehui the, 14. Organization actornetwork theory, organizations and. Based on actornetwork theory, this book explains organizations as flexible, open networks in which both human and nonhuman.
Wildcard searching if you want to search for multiple variations of a word, you can substitute a special symbol called a wildcard for one or more letters. An actornetwork analysis of the re organization of the norwegian chm. In this book a number of european and american scholars apply ant in the study of various aspects of organization, including technology. Actornetwork theory and its role in understanding the. Phrase searching you can use double quotes to search for a series of words in a particular order. Despite its popularity, ant is considered a controversial approach in that it appears to promote a sociological. Ants main feature is its focus on inanimate entities and their effect on social processes. Actornetwork theory ant is a theoretical and methodological approach to social theory where everything in the social and natural worlds exists in constantly shifting networks of relationships. I suggest three topics of comparison between the two, all of which are. It is not a theory of the social, but a theory of how to study the social, set apart by this specific definition of its object. Understanding the application of actornetwork theory in the. From actornetwork theory to political economy 1 ben fine while originally deployed within the sociology of scientific knowledge, actornetwork theory ant has achieved some prominence across the social sciences and attracted a dedicated following. Organizing space and time through relational human animal.
Jun 29, 2005 actor network theory and organizing by barbara czarniawska, 9788763001441, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Facebook as an example of actornetworktheory by ambra. Sensitive terms and enduring tensions annemarie mol actornetwork theory and methodology. Here it is argued that the democratizing and distributional effects on the. Actornetwork theory, ant and after, critical performativity, management and. A brief summary of actor network theory cyborgology. Abstract actor network theory ant has been used as a lens by a number of researchers to guide. The actornetwork theory latour and woolgar 1986, latour 1987 is a form of constructivism that rejects the idea of a social determination of scientific knowledge, prominent in the edinburgh school, mainly for the reason that the social is barely better understood than the natural. Actornetwork theory ant is an increasingly influential, but still deeply contested, approach to understand humans and their interactions with inanimate objects. Sao paulo school of management of getulio vargas foundation eaespfgv, brazil. Applications within urban living labs of flanders n16 corridor, belgium luuk boelens and marleen goethals. Based on actornetwork theory, this book explains organizations as flexible, open networks in which both human and nonhuman actors enter into sociotechnical assemblies by constantly negotiating and renegotiating programs of action. By the way, i am sorry to say that what i mean by actornetwork bears no relation with the same term in barabassis linked, by which he means the league or the union of real actors from nearby hollywood. This controversial and pathbreaking volume extends ant beyond studies of technology, power and organization to the body, subjectivity, politics, and cultural difference, and puts it into cuttingedge dialog with feminism, anthropology.
The purpose of this paper is to assess the current and potential future contribution of the theory to is research. Numerous and frequentlyupdated resource results are available from this search. Actor network theory or ant is a theoretical framework that draws similarities between sociotechnological processes as well as scientific work. Reflections on actornetwork theory, governance networks. Pdf reassembling the social an introduction to actor. Uvadare digital academic repository actornetwork theory.
Time and again, i have found that readers were puzzled not so much by our views on scientific practice and various other topics, but rather by the unusual meaning we gave to the words social and social explanations. This is the version, with all its strengths and weaknesses, that. Actor network theory actor network theory ant, also known as enrolment theory or the sociology of translation, emerged during the mid1980s, primarily with the work of bruno latour, michel callon, and john law. For example, world war ii with quotes will give more precise results than world war ii without quotes. Actor network theory and after is a powerful approach which combines the insights of poststructuralism with an analysis of the materials of social life. Network forms of organization are an alternative to markets and hierarchies powell 1990 4. Oclcs webjunction has pulled together information and resources to assist library staff as they consider how to handle coronavirus. It has often been described as the theory that gives voice to technological artefacts. Actor network theory, socioconstructivism, interpretivism, ontology, and is research methods introduction actor network theory ant is increasingly used as an analytical framework to inform is research.
Actornetwork theory s unique approach to connecting people, artifacts, institutions and organizations enables it to shed light on complexities that so far have escaped works in organization theory. Governance in the form of selforganized networks doesnt seem to occur. This controversial and pathbreaking volume extends ant beyond studies of technology, power and organization to the body, subjectivity, politics, and cultural difference, and puts it into. Department for regional development, eastagder county council, arendal, norway. Over 300 pages in a printable pdf file and no advertisements. With its habit of blurring the boundaries between the human and the nonhuman, ant brings with it a unique language for naming the new sorts of actors, networks and processes fred turner is an assistant professor of communication at stanford university, building 120. Second, i characterise what i call actornetwork theory 1990. An exercise in translation gianpaolo baiocchi, diana graizbord and michael rodriguezmuniz. In 2005, bruno latourpublished reassembling the social, in which the authoraims to explainwhy the definition of social as a phenomenonisoutdated. Put simply, ant is the theory that actants, human and nonhuman, both possess the same level of agency to make up a network.
Article information, pdf download for structure and agency. Bruno latours 2005 volume, reassembling the social. In this paper i want to consider whether actornetwork theory ant gives. The topic is on the lines of community, calculability and control. We argue that health services research, and in particular evaluations of complex it systems in health service organisations, may benefit from being informed by actor network theory perspectives. In this paper i want to consider whether actor network theory ant gives. Actornetwork theory ant offers a powerful resource for this project. The spaces of actor network theory jonath murdoch department of city and regional planning, university of wales, cardiff, po box 906, cardiff cfyn, uk received 23 september 1997. Callon 1990 for an update has been often misunderstoond and hence much abused.
Nov 01, 2010 a very brief introduction to actor network theory. Management and organization studies, science and technology studies 700 sts, 200 cultural studies, 200 political theory, 500 political science, 400 social psychology. Reassembling the social an introduction to actornetwork theory bruno latour clarendon lectures in management studies. Actornetwork theory for development working paper 1 2 1. For the purposes of actornetwork theory, anything can be an actor within a network. Actornetwork theory ant is a theoretical and methodological approach to social theory. Actornetwork theorys unique approach to connecting people, artifacts, institutions and organizations enables it to shed light on complexities that so far have escaped works in organization theory. Using actornetwork theory to analyze egovernment implementation stanforth using actornetwork theory to analyze egovernment implementation in developing countries the implementation issues leading to successful application of information and communication technologies ict is a wellresearched area in the information systems literature.
The spaces of actornetwork theory jonath murdoch department of city and regional planning, university of wales, cardiff, po box 906, cardiff cfyn, uk received 23 september 1997. Actor network theory and organizing 0 download 9 pages 2,156 words add in library click this icon and make it bookmark in your library to refer it later. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. To regard this study as an inceptive try for applying actornetwork theory in strategic information.
We seek to expand understanding of the governance network theory by proposing the inclusion of human and nonhuman actors from the actor network theory in its scope. Just what does it mean to say that nonhumans have agency. An increasing interest is being shown, not least by is researchers, in the sociotechnical approach known as actor network theory. In what follows first i offer a particular account of the intellectual origins of the actornetwork approach. Frances white provided critical help in organizing the event. This approach, derived from science and technology studies sts and bearing various links with anthropology and ethnographic methods, has enabled new insights to emerge in relation to the ways in which law operates in everyday practices. To date, though, its application within development studies has been very limited. However this theory see callon, law, rip 1986 for a presentation. Every year a leading international academic is invited to give a series of lectures on a topic related to management education and research, broadly defined. Despite its popularity, ant is considered a controversial approach in that it appears to promote a sociological perspective that lacks substantive. Network theory for development working paper series actor. If ant is a theory, then a theory helps to tell cases, draw contrasts, articulate silent layers, turn questions upside down, focus on the unexpected, add to ones sensitivities, propose new terms, and shift stories from one context to another. Actornetwork theory ant is an increasingly influential, but still deeply contested, approach to. Actor network theory claims that any actor, whether person, object including computer software, hardware, and technical standards, or organization, is equally important to a social network.
Based on actornetwork theory, this book explains organizations as flexible, open networks in. Network theory for development working papers apply the ideas and concepts of actor. Reflections on actornetwork theory, governance networks, and. In so doing, we challenge the latent anthropocentricism in many, if not most, theories. Im toying with bringing two concepts into it one of empire a global empire constructed through global measurements and comparisons and the other the notion of spectacle a hyperreality made up of numbers.
An actornetwork theory analysis of policy innovation for. The actornetwork theory ant wasdeveloped by bruno latour, michel callon, and john law. Actor network theory ant is societys relationship to technology and other nonhuman actor banks, 2011. The purpose of ant is not to explain why, but to describe how relations are established, how they function, and which effects they have. The clarendon lectures in management studies are jointly organised by oxford university press and the sad business school. Tryggestad, kjell 2005 technological strategy as macroactor. Such a comparison is important, given the increased focus on process thinking and the growing interest in ant in process thinking.
In this chapter i present a comparison between actornetwork theory ant and process thinking, with the aim of understanding the potential contribution of ant to processbased process thinking. For the purposes of actor network theory, anything can be an actor within a network. An introduction to actornetwork theory, oxford, oxford university press, 2005. Dec 02, 2011 actor network theory ant is societys relationship to technology and other nonhuman actor banks, 2011. In recent years the approach to social theory known as actornetwork theory ant has been adopted within a range of social science fields. The pdf you are reading is an electronic version of a physical book that can be purchased. Recent studies concerning the notion of heterogeneous networks. P67 on actornetwork theory 2 exploring the properties of actornetworks is the task that the paris group of science and technology studies has set itself to tackle. The focus point of ant lies, therefore, on the actor networks and in their configurations three writers.
Ant, as proposed by callon 1986, law 1986 and latour 1987, is a social theory which originated in the field of science and technology. As such, societal order is an effect caused by an actor network running smoothly. Organizations are not macro social structures or autonomous systems operating behind the backs of individuals. From actor network theory to political economy 1 ben fine while originally deployed within the sociology of scientific knowledge, actor network theory ant has achieved some prominence across the social sciences and attracted a dedicated following. And if they are larger, then we should be studying how this comes about how, in other words, size, power or organization are generated. Likewise, for organization studies, whittle and spicer assert that ant is, ill suited to the task of developing political alternatives to the imaginaries of. Actornetwork theory, organizations and critique fgv eaesp. Reassembling the social bruno latour oxford university. An introduction to actornetwork theory, has gathered around 6700 citations.
Bruno latour is a world famous and widely published french sociologist who has written with great eloquence and perception about the relationship between people, science, and. How are they transformed and adapted to new situations. Yet latours use of a semiotic analysis to redescribe a historical process gives. Actor network theory an overview sciencedirect topics. And yet, this alternative social theory has never been the object of a systematic. Pdf actornetwork theory ant began at the end of the 1970s as an. Introduction actornetwork theory ant has emerged over the past thirty years as a major conceptual force in social science. All the factors involved in a social situation are on the same level, and thus there are no external social forces beyond what and how the. Exclusion, invitation and disturbance abstract in this paper we examine the role that animals play within human organizational boundary work. Actornetwork theory ant is a guide to the process of answering this question. How humanness might be made of steel in actornetwork theory and organizing.