Actor‐network Theory, Implementation, and the Private Landlord

Abstract

This paper considers the uses of actor-network theory for socio-legal studies. Actor-network theory is usually associated with the study of science and technology. Studies about the development of aircraft, the electric car, Pasteur, and how best to catch scallops are some of the more prominent in this genre. However, a key claim in the literature is that actor-network theory must range beyond studies of science and technology to other `social' subjects because it raises much broader questions about the construction of the social and nature. Rather than starting from a preconceived notion of the social, actor-network studies argue that the actor-networks themselves produce the social. From this perspective, the critique of socio-legal studies is that it starts out by assuming what it needs to explain, society or the socioin legal studies. As Latour notes about socio-legal studies, with a hint of