Afterlives, Remains, and Traces: Theorizing Presence

Recent literature shows that adopting an accounting information system (AIS) can lead to better decision-making, planning, efficiency and on-time management control, and organisational functionality. However, the impact of AIS implementation on role creation in the organisation is unclear. With the digital transformation of AIS and daily advances in machine learning and other innovative technologies, it is also unclear how these changes interact with human roles in organisations and which AIS components are considered essential. This paper addresses the above issues by applying the actor-network theory to examine the impact of deep machine learning modules in predicting the human actor roles in accounting information systems in organisations. We targeted 120 human actors and examined the influence of deep machine learning modules in predicting 11 personnel and professional features of human actors, based on multivariate statistical analysis. Our findings show that two human factors (familiarity with accounting information and time spent on becoming familiar with it) are the most influential elements that can predict the human actor roles in accounting information systems in organisations. So, human and non-human actors are both essential parts of an integrated AIS that must be considered. The current literature has focused on the AIS structure with less on the interaction between human and non-human actors. One of the main contributions of this study is providing evidence that AIS heavily relies on its human and non-human actors to form a coherent and united AIS network to promote AIS management strategies. The practical implication of the results is that investing in either technology or human resources alone is not enough to achieve the best productivity and performance in organisations. Instead, there must be a balance between human and non-human actors.

A variety of healthcare robots for elderly care have been developed. However, as the elderly and caregivers experience psychological resistance towards not only new technologies but specifically to robots, the adoption of healthcare robots has scarcely progressed. This article aims to develop a service design method, which consists of a design process including design tools to identify jobs in an elderly care facility and to reveal what kinds of jobs to assign to service robots and to caregivers. This article develops a design method which is composed of six steps and adopts original design tools to identify jobs needed in elderly care facilities and assign them to human and non-human actors, including service robots. The tools include an actor map to visualize the Actor to Actor (A2A) network, a current jobs to be done (JTBD) worksheet to visualize existing jobs, a new JTBD worksheet to visualize new jobs, and an actor worksheet to summarize information about each actor including their philosophy. With this design method, we conducted a series of workshops with the aim to develop a service fulfilled by humans and non-humans at an elderly care facility in Shizuoka prefecture in Japan. The results of questionnaires administered to the workshop participants demonstrated the effectiveness of all the tools except the new JTBD worksheet. Also, the results of interviews with employees in the elderly care facility indicated the effectiveness of the approach, which reveals visible and invisible regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive elements through interviews with human actors, and embeds them in the service design process. The design method including the original design tools proposed in this article contribute to a service design method for the use of robots in elderly care facilities by allocating jobs to human actors and non-human actors appropriately, and it also contributes to the issue of psychological resistance to the adoption of service robots in these facilities, which brings efficiencies to society. The contribution of this article is to reframe the issue of resistance to the adoption of service robots in elderly care facilities to the issue of what kinds of jobs in an elderly care facility should be assigned to service robots or caregivers, and the development of a service design process including original design tools.

This article presents a study describing the agency of non-human entities within a mathematics education practice involving a teacher and seven high school students from a Brazilian public school. Data collected through observations were analyzed using Actor-Network Theory, mainly drawing on Bruno Latour's sociological insights. The analysis suggested that viewing mathematics education as a complex network of interconnected human and non-human actors allows us to understand how non-human agents contribute to performing a mathematics task. This study provided valuable insights into the role of these agents, revealing whether they act. Elements such as computers, calculators, the task itself, and the computer lab did not operate as mere tools but as active agents that influenced decisions, generated conflicts, and redirected the learning process in mathematics. The analysis also suggests that these non-human and human actors take on different roles, sometimes as intermediaries when their influence goes unnoticed, and sometimes as mediators when they actively intervene and alter the course of action. Furthermore, the study highlights the instability of hybrid association networks, showing how students’ leadership and strategies are constantly reshaped through interactions with various material objects.

Objectives: Research aimed to recognize the model contestation between human and non-human actors at the arena of cycling tour in the eastern part of Indonesia in Flores Island. Methods: The research was socio-technical paper, qualitative descriptive method was used to follow the contestation value between cycling tourist and its technical actors during the journey. researchers observed and participated on cycling touring at Flores Island. All participants were Jakarta residents that had different variety of age, gender, occupation and living arrangements. variety of participants ranged in age from 44 to52 years old. total of 1 woman and 4 men were interviewed. Results: findings indicated three stages [Pre-departure cycling tour, En route cycling, and Post-cycling tour] that constructed the field of Actor-Network Theory [ANT], contested human and non-human actors, assemblage of the actors and semiotics were performed in this finding. The use of bicycle as main non-human actors to follow by cycling tourist creating the dynamic and interaction between human actors during cycling. Conclusions: research identifies human and non-human relations within cycling tour, then how the process of relation between actors construct tourism product such as cycling tours. The phrases of human and non-human agents, and sociotechnical were employed to investigate semiotics in their relationship. Values of their experiences and their style in cycling related to motives and type of bicycle. ANT approach described cycling in Flores Island, from departure– to destination or during enroute cycling till finish line, and flying back to their home country.

Knowledge Translation is a core research topic in the field of knowledge sciences. To date, traditional research on knowledge translation has come from medical and health sciences. This is not surprising because in health sciences and medicine, there is a long tradition of review of evidence-based research, information dissemination and translating theory to application. While providing a strong foundation for understanding knowledge translation, research focused on the healthcare domain overlooks the scope or the scale of knowledge translation we all encounter every day in the course of living in the 21st century. In the knowledge economy, knowledge exchange and simple sharing represent an economic transaction. Wherever and whenever knowledge is exchanged, knowledge transactions should be as effective and efficient as possible to ensure the flow of knowledge is maximised. Knowledge exchange frequently occurs between human and non-human actors. In contrast, the traditional knowledge translation literature focuses on human-to-human knowledge translation. This paper looks at knowledge exchanges between human actors and non-human actors in two specific environments. The first is human-to-machine knowledge translation in service call centres. The second environment focuses on doctor-patient conversations during patient visits, with the participation of third-party non-human actors, e.g. machine transcription applications. These non-human actors create persistent records of exchanges between doctors and patients. They also have been found to generate high rates of errors in knowledge translation. The problems, challenges and opportunities involved in each of these fields are the focus of this paper. The authors identify factors that contribute to knowledge translation failures.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify how nonhuman actors contribute to solidarity in independent new film production. Specifically, it examines independent new film productions from a relationalist perspective, using actor-network-theory (ANT), which considers humans and nonhumans as equivalent actors and analyzes phenomena based on their interactions with each other. The research method used was ethnography with a focus on participant observation. One of the authors, a filmmaker and researcher, observed the inner workings of the filmmaking activity, while the other author observed the observer from an anthropologist’s perspective. In a previous paper, we found from the process of translation that the two nonhuman actors of the film’s original story and funding are inextricably linked, and the agency of the human actors surrounding them interacts with and transforms the nonhuman actors (Coney and Ito, 2021). In the present study, we analyzed the interaction with the solidarity among human actors in the process of film production by closely following the linkage of nonhuman actors such as provisional publicity materials, in addition to funds and scripts. In the process of filmmaking, the nonhuman actors often encounter unforeseen circumstances such as budget adjustments and filming postponement, but despite the setbacks, the nonhuman actors form a network in which they accept each other’s roles, and filmmaking is promoted by solidarity as human actors of the film become more interdependent through the agency working as an inclusive collective. The results of the study revealed that the human actors in film are interdependent and that their solidarity promotes filmmaking.

In this article, I critically examine the anthropocentric attitudes that have historically shaped ethnography, focusing on their influence on key concepts such as researcher, researched agent, culture, and field. These perspectives, which took root during the Age of Exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries as the West grew increasingly fascinated with “the other,” persisted well into the 19th century. Ethnographers like Lewis Henry Morgan, Edward Burnett Tylor, and Johann Jakob Bachofen conceptualized culture as humanity’s dominion over nature. Similarly, the second generation of ethnologists—including Bronisław Malinowski, Edward E. Evans-Pritchard, and Claude Lévi-Strauss—continued to approach their fieldwork through an anthropocentric lens, often neglecting the agency of non-human actors. This article also engages with contemporary critiques informed by posthumanism, veganism and object-oriented ontology, which challenge the entrenched nature-culture dichotomy. Drawing on the works of scholars such as Philippe Descola, Anna Tsing, Eduardo Kohn, and Donna Haraway, I advocate for a redefinition of "the field" that includes non-human actors. Transcending anthropocentric boundaries necessitates an ethical and methodological reevaluation of foundational concepts like culture, the field, and the researcher/researched dynamic. It also calls for a broader transformation in interdisciplinary qualitative research practices. By emphasizing the indispensability of multispecies approaches, this article argues for a shift away from anthropocentric research paradigms. Such approaches are essential for achieving a more inclusive and comprehensive ethnographic analysis, one that better reflects the complex interrelations between human and non-human actors.

This paper investigates the focal actors in a blockchain network and their heterogeneity in splits. Disagreements in blockchain communities often lead to splits in both the blockchain and the community. We use three key elements of the actor-network theory — punctualization, translation, and actor heterogeneity—and employ case study methodology to examine Bitcoin splits. We identify several human actors, such as miners, developers, merchants, and investors, as well as non-human actors, including blockchain, exchanges, hardware manufacturers, and wallets, involved in Bitcoin splits. Our results show that the consolidation of actors in homogeneous groups plays a key role in blockchain splits. We further describe how the human and non-human actors' fluid moves into micro and macro actor positions in the network affect the development of the split. In addition, we discuss the roles of these actors and their engagement in forming micro and macro agencies in blockchain splits.

Rural community development in China has made progress under the rapid implementation of the rural revitalization strategy; however, it has also revealed challenges such as an overemphasis on spatial construction, severe homogenization, and low sustainability. Existing research on rural community development lacks sufficient localized experience, and there is a limited understanding of how the development process is generated, maintained, and evolved. This study examines Xiongfan Village in Dawu County, Hubei Province, using an innovative methodological integration of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Social Network Analysis (SNA). This mixed-methods approach qualitatively traces the formation of networks involving both human and non-human actors, while quantitatively mapping the collaborative structure among human actors. Qualitative analysis of actor networks identifies both human actors (such as government departments, enterprises, social organizations, and villagers) and non-human actors (such as natural and cultural landscapes) as key participants. Through processes like recruitment, mobilization, and dispute resolution, various actors have formed interest alliances centered around the core issue of “revitalizing and sustainably developing rural community resources.” Quantitative social network analysis reveals a “core-periphery” structure, with government departments and social organizations occupying central roles, while business institutions and community villagers are positioned at the periphery. This distribution contrasts with the overarching goal of community development, which seeks to enhance villagers′ intrinsic motivation. The study suggests that rural community development in this area can be improved by diversifying co-construction forms, restructuring core groups, and empowering peripheral actors. These measures will facilitate a shift from single-space development to enhanced community capacity-building, ultimately promoting sustainable rural development.

The aim of this article is to analyze how a researcher’s use of digital cameras, with children in preschool, affects the children’s becoming as filmmaking subjects. The material consists of 12 months’ digital videography, during which the researcher took part in children’s own filmmaking. The authors used conceptual tools from Deleuze’s (1986) film theory to analyze an encounter between two children and a researcher as filmmakers. The analysis demonstrates how turning towards and turning away in relation to human (children and the researcher) and non-human (digital cameras, rhythm, music, light) actors actualizes admiration and desire in varying ways. The authors pay special attention to the children’s acting with abstract, constantly moving compositions. The article highlights how the children and the researcher produce different, yet related becomings using digital cameras. Acknowledging such connections between children’s mingling with human and non-human actors provides ways to understand how cameras actualize the potential to decolonize childhood by decomposing and recomposing educational settings.

This paper presents the pan African eNetwork for Telemedicine and Tele-education programme being run at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Ghana. The study sought to understand eHealth implementation in low resource settings through the lens of actor-network theory. This theory is based on the sociology of translations, and was employed as a framework for exploring the pan African Telemedicine programme. Data collection was done between October, 2011 and June 2012, through triangulation of qualitative methods: interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. A total of 30 human and non-human actors’ were identified and semi-structured face-to-face interviews conducted with the human actors. Translation, the mechanism of progressive temporal social orders, or the transformation from one order to another through changes in the alignment of interest in a heterogeneous network (Sarker, Sarker and Sidorova, 2006), has not been effective and thus implementation of the eNetwork has not been successful. Future studies should focus on staff acceptance of the eNetwork

The design of inclusive public transport services is crucial for the development of modern, barrier-free smart city infrastructures. This study investigates the socio-technical networks that shape the accessibility experiences of visually-impaired passengers using the tram system in Linz, Austria. Using Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a theoretical framework, we investigate how agency is distributed between human and non-human actors in complex socio-technical networks, re-conceptualising accessibility as an emergent network property rather than a fixed infrastructure characteristic.Our mixed-methods approach combines shadowing observations with focus group discussions. The shadowing protocol documented visually impaired participants navigating the tram system, capturing their spatial navigation techniques, interactions with the physical infrastructure, use of technological aids, communication strategies, and responses to unexpected situations. The focus group, comprising seven visually-impaired persons with varying degrees of impairment and transport experience, provided complementary insights into user experiences, challenges, and adaptation strategies.The analysis revealed four predominant dimensions influencing accessibility outcomes: (1) Network Configuration—interactions between human actors (passengers, staff) and non-human actors (assistive devices, infrastructure) collectively determined accessibility success, with translation processes mediating between different network elements; (2) Mobility Patterns—regular users demonstrated sophisticated system knowledge, with some deliberately using public transport to develop navigational skills, highlighting the importance of mental models in system navigation; (3) Technology Integration—digital tools, such as mobility phone applications enabled independence while revealing varying levels of technological comfort; and (4) Warning Systems—participants emphasized the importance of the 'two-sense principle' for warnings, with directional audio and tactile feedback being particularly valuable.In addition, we revealed multiple additional dimensions relevant in this context. These include: accessibility barriers (physical, social, technical), sophisticated user adaptation strategies, significant infrastructure design implications, organisational policy implications, complex risk management approaches, and specialized spatial navigation techniques. These findings demonstrate that accessibility challenges arise from misalignments in socio-technical networks rather than from individual limitations.Our research has significant implications for public transport design: (1) technological innovations must take into account diverse user needs and existing adaptation strategies; (2) critical "obligatory passage points" such as platform-vehicle transitions represent systemic vulnerabilities that require focused attention; (3) varying levels of technological proficiency require flexible, adaptable interface designs; (4) directional warning signals significantly improve safety by facilitating spatial orientation; and (5) human assistance remains essential alongside technological improvements, with social interactions continuing to play a critical role in accessibility outcomes.This research contributes to the broader discourse on inclusive transport systems by highlighting accessibility as an emergent property of socio-technical networks, requiring integrated approaches combining technological and social solutions. Future research will explore how emerging technologies could further improve accessibility, taking into account potential risks of exclusion, and longitudinally examine how users' navigation strategies evolve over time.

Like private companies, public service establishments are seeking to improve their performance by adopting management control tools. However, their acceptance in this context raises specific challenges. Unlike the private sector, where profitability is often the main driver for the acceptance of such tools, the public sector has to deal with more complex organizational dynamics involving many actors. This article examines the reasons underlying the acceptance of a management control tool, in particular a management accounting system, in the Moroccan public sector. The research is based on a qualitative case study carried out in a Moroccan public establishment that recently introduced a management accounting system, using the Actor-Network Theory (ANT), also known as the translation theory, developed by Callon and Latour in the 1980s. Traditionally mobilized to analyze the innovation diffusion process, this approach is used in our research to study the pre-adoption, or ex-ante, phase of innovation introduction. The results of this study highlight the complex dynamics of management accounting acceptance in the Moroccan public sector, showing how non-human actors play a crucial role in the pre-adoption phase of management control instruments. Our research reveals the decisive influence of the tax variable, as a non-human actor, on the acceptance of the management accounting system. This link between taxation and management accounting is a significant contribution, particularly due to the lack of studies on legal and fiscal variables in management control. These results underscore the importance of considering both non-human and human actors equally in the translation process (generalized symmetry).

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how participatory budgeting (PB) as a democratic governance tool has been translated within the Russian public sector by addressing the local specifics of its design and mobilization through the formation of networks.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a case study of one pioneering municipality. Data have been gathered through triangulation of interviews, document search, video and netnographic observations. By relying on ideas from actor–network theory, the study focuses on the relational and rhetorical work of human (allies/inscriptors) and non-human (inscriptions) actors involved in the development of PB in Russia.FindingsThe findings indicate that the initial democratic values of PB underwent several stages of translation as a continuous inscription-building process and the formation of networks. The main finding is that putting democratic idea(l)s of PB into practice proved problematic, since PB depended on many “allies” which were not always democratic. Paradoxically, in order to launch democratic practices in Russia, PB relied largely on bureaucratic and even New Public Management inscriptions, which it was originally supposed to fight against. Notwithstanding, while these inscriptions can fog the democratic values of PB, they are also capable of uncovering its democratic potential over time, albeit not for a long time as the “external referee” is needed.Originality/valueThe paper juxtaposes PB development in Russia with the translation literature. Not only does the study emphasize the role of human, but non-human actors as well.

The increasing presence of generative AI in research presents both opportunities and challenges for qualitative data analysis. While generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can assist with pattern recognition, text classification, and summarisation, their role in in-depth, interpretive qualitative analysis remains under-theorised. This article draws on Actor-Network Theory to examine the integration of ChatGPT as a non-human (and arguably more-than-human) actor within a socio-material assemblage of qualitative data analysis. Using a researcher – participant – ChatGPT triadic model, we explore how analytic insight develops through processes of translation, reflexivity, and relational engagement. Our findings suggest that ChatGPT participates in the co-construction of meaning, prompting theoretical reflection, unsettling researcher assumptions, and contributing to distributed agency within the research network. Rather than streamlining analysis, ChatGPT reconfigures it, offering a new mode of participatory research in which power, interpretation, and knowledge are dynamically negotiated across human and non-human actors.