Actor-network Approach Research Articles

Tracing the translation of community radio news in South Africa: An actor-network approach

In South Africa, community radio is a powerful medium of communication for distributing news and information to particular audiences in specific languages. It is an interactive platform through which remote communities are able to communicate about issues that affect their daily lives. The community radio audience has the opportunity to participate in the day-to-day functioning of the radio station and to express their views about issues at the grassroots level, in the local language(s).

Tracing the translation of community radio news in South Africa: An actor-network approach

In South Africa, community radio is a powerful medium of communication for distributing news and information to particular audiences in specific languages. It is an interactive platform through which remote communities are able to communicate about issues that affect their daily lives. The community radio audience has the opportunity to participate in the day-to-day functioning of the radio station and to express their views about issues at the grassroots level, in the local language(s).

An actor-network theory approach to multiplicity of space: a case study of Fortune Street Park and Kingston Market Square in London

An actor-network theory approach to multiplicity of space: a case study of Fortune Street Park and Kingston Market Square in London

ЕВРИСТИЧНИЙ ПОТЕНЦІАЛ АКТОР-МЕРЕЖЕВОГО ПІДХОДУ В СУЧАСНОМУ СОЦІОЛОГІЧНОМУ ТЕОРЕТИЗУВАННІ

В статті викладено основні положення актор-мережевого теоретичного підходу французького дослідника Бруно Латура. Проаналізовано з точки зору проблем дослідження соціальних мереж евристичний потенціал концепції гетерогенної мережі, яка утворюється в процесі взаємодії різнорідних елементи – як соціальних, так і технологічних. Зроблено висновок, що «матеріальний поворот» та актор-мережевий підхід є плідним щодо дослідження специфіки соціальної взаємодії на рівні малих соціальних мереж. Автор робить висновок, що актор-мережевий підхід не є придатним для дослідження мікросоціальних процесів, оскільки не відповідає їх історичній природі.

Following the Invisible Road Rules in the Field: Using ANT for CTF

Australian grain growers look to technologies of farming and cropping systems to maximise their productivity. Zero tillage cropping, variable rate inputs, soil moisture probes, and precision planting are a few practices that farmers may adopt to support their farming practices. To implement cropping technologies, and to achieve the outcomes promoted by the technological innovators, farmers need an alignment of machinery, mobile connectivity, knowledge, skills, farm services support, finance and people on the farm to make it happen. This paper shifts the focus beyond binary and hierarchical notions of humans versus technology and human versus nature, to insider research into the farming practice, alliances, and neighbourly relations to specifically examine how agency makes farmers enact a precision farming technique called controlled traffic farming. Using an actor network approach this paper examines what controlled traffic farming is, and why it makes farmers follow the ‘invisible road rules’ in the field using an actor network approach.

Media’s role in pro-environmental practice changes – proposing an ANT perspective

ABSTRACTThe content of media texts should be considered as a critical factor in the constitution, maintenance and transition of practices. That is the outset and basic point of this article, which suggests an actor-network theoretical approach in order to provide a better understanding of the role media can play in pro-environmental practice changes. There is an exchange between articulations in media texts and performances of social practice, and the study of meaning content in media texts and media-practice interactions is therefore useful in the analysis of societal transition processes. From a critical discussion of conventional media effect theories, the article proceeds to its main objective of presenting ANT as a useful approach in the analysis of media-practice interactions. It is suggested that texts and the meaning units within them can be conceived as actors, which connect to other human and non-human actors in and beyond media texts.

Perspective of the Actor-Network Approach on Studies about Water

Current struggles related to water access and control require modifying how heterogeneous connections that water establishes with diverse technical, social and natural processes during its circulation are studied. Actor-network theory is a useful approach to this kind of analysis since it allows the researcher to observe the reality as a network of relationships among human and non-human actors. The use of this approach in studies about water is still relatively scarce, and its application may seem a bit difficult and abstract to those who are starting to adopt it. The aim of this work is to provide a methodological and conceptual background to researchers and students on the use of the actor-network theory in studies about water. The information extracted from the analysis of 13 studies included methodological aspects and descriptions of socio-technical networks deployed through urban or rural infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, and contractual arrangements. In conclusion, the studies allowed the visualization of the main interactions of analysis employed to follow actants and to examine their inscriptions in the hydrosocial networks.

Automation and Adaptation: Reshaping journalistic labor in the newsroom library

In the digital transition within American newspapers, newsroom librarians were among the first newsworkers to have their labor automated. In response, these practitioners operating in converged newsrooms shifted their on-the-job routines and roles to align with the increasing centrality of machines in journalistic production. Using an actor-network approach, this research integrates in-depth interviews to explore how American newsroom librarians interface with machines in acting as guardians of institutional knowledge within news organizations. Examining the modern duties of newsroom librarians can provide broader context for the next generation of industry automation in journalistic practice.

Following the moving and changing attachments and assemblages of ‘addiction’: Applying the actor network approach to autobiographies

The article applies actor network theory (ANT) to autobiographical data on alcohol dependence to explore what ANT can offer to the analysis of ‘addiction stories’. By defining ‘addiction’ as a relational achievement, as the effect of elements acting together as a configuration of human and non-human actors, the article demonstrates how the moving and changing attachments of addiction can be dynamically analyzed with concepts of ‘assemblage’, ‘mediator’, ‘tendency’, ‘translation’, ‘trajectory’, ‘immutable mobile’, ‘fluid’ and ‘bush fire’. The article shows how the reduction of alcohol dependence simply to genetic factors, neurobiological causes, personality disorders and self-medication constitutes an inadequate explanation. As ‘meta theories’, they illuminate addiction one-sidedly. Instead, as ANT pays attention to multiple heterogeneous mediators, it specifies in what way the causes identified in ‘meta theories’ may together with other actors participate in addiction assemblages. When following the development of addiction assemblages, we focus on situational sequences of action, in which human and non-human elements are linked to each other, and we trace how the relational shape of addiction changes from one sequence to another as a transforming assemblage of heterogeneous attachments that either maintain healthy subjectivities or destabilize them. The more attachments assemblages of addiction are able to make that are flexible and durable from one event to another, the stronger also the addiction-based subjectivities. Similarly, the fewer attachments that assemblages of addiction are able to keep in their various translations, the weaker the addiction-based subjectivities also become. An ANT-inspired analysis has a number of implications for the prevention and treatment of addiction: it suggests that in the prevention and treatment of addiction, the aim should hardly be to get rid of dependencies. Rather, the ambition should be the identification of attachments and relations that enable unhealthy practices and the development of harm as part of specific actor networks.

Armchair detectives and the social construction of falsehoods: an actor–network approach

ABSTRACTThis paper examines two large-scale cases ‒ the 2013 Boston bombing and the 2015 Bangkok bombing, each of which spurred an online investigation conducted by concerned citizens to find the bombers. While both bombing cases had different cultural discourses, the processes and outcomes of the online investigation were similar: there were rampant speculation and rumor-mongering, as well as false accusations and harassment of innocent suspects. The aim of the paper is to understand how such acts of mob justice happened. Using actor–network theory, a theoretical and methodological tool for mapping out the networks human and non-human interactions, I discuss two types of networks found in both investigations. The two network types demonstrate how a claim can be construed as fact or fiction through such networks of interaction. In light of debates on the proliferation of fake news and alternative facts, the findings have implications for the current and precarious state of truth in today’s society.

Lost in delegation? (Dis)organizing for sustainability

Using actor-networks as our conceptual lens for appreciating complex sociomaterial interdependencies, we explore how a vision to “do things differently” for sustainability becomes enacted and significantly diluted at a major brownfield development project in the UK. We show how visions for sustainability can become substantially delegated into a range of specialised and functionally differentiated practices, with nonhuman mediators producing significant agency. Additionally, extending actor-network approaches, we develop the concept of localised hybridity to consider how the possibilities for progressive sustainability practices are interdependent with mediators in other ‘locals’ across times and spaces. We suggest that greater reflexive attention and inquiry to the types of relational work required to form alliances with nonhuman mediators is crucial to realise visions for sustainability.

Internet Village Motoman Project in rural Cambodia: bridging the digital divide

PurposeCommunity wireless networking has become a growing trend in both metropolitan and rural areas around the world. However, few studies have sought to understand what motivates people to use community wireless networks and the unintended effects that those technologies have on communities, particularly for rural users. The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits and usage of an asynchronous wireless internet system in a rural village of Cambodia to examine the issues and challenges in the acceptance of a new technology in a less-developed country.Design/methodology/approachBy employing qualitative methods of in-depth case analysis, the authors revealed various usage motivations and unintended effects of the system.FindingsThe authors identified five reasons that motivated users to use the system: avowed identity, a means to an end, maintaining personal ties, power and influence, and psychological commitment and ownership. The unintended effects of the system included increased number of interactions among actors and other uses of the system, including internet commerce, telemedicine, and e-government.Research limitations/implicationsThis study explores the wireless internet project known as the “Internet Village Motoman Project” that was initiated by a non-governmental organization with funding from private donors, supplemented with matching funds from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the academic understanding of rural regions of Cambodia and its evidence supports the current theoretical assumptions that user behaviors are not determined only by users’ decisions alone (as proposed by traditional cognitive IS research), but also by users and their social interactions as stated in the four-dimensional social actor framework proposed by Lamb and Kling (2003). The latter provides better explanation of the motivation for internet use in the region. The theoretical contribution of this study is the useful adoption of the actor-network approach in a non-organizational setting. The findings also contribute to the literature on how practical internet engineering can bridge the digital divide. Fulfilling the needs identified in the research and understanding unintended effects of the system will contribute to the successful implementation of new internet projects in other rural areas.

ДИНАМИКА КУЛЬТУРНОЙ ПАМЯТИ КАК ПРЕДМЕТ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ: ПОДХОДЫ И РЕШЕНИЯ

The relevance is determined by the dynamic nature of modern social processes, the neсessity to develop new methods of mobility, transfers, permanent changes of stable aspects of social reality studying. We analyze the extent to which the existing methodological and logical apparatus of authoritative social theories is suitable for the study of cultural memory in modern conditions. To solve this problem we analyze some methodological approaches and theories: the views of J. Urry, J. Olick, A. Assmann, F. Hartog, H. Lubbe, as well as actor-network theory, activity approach. The interdisciplinary nature of cultural memory studies has been substantiated, the consequence of which is the necessity for the synthesis of modern approaches of various humanities and social sciences capable of building a dynamic picture of the past. The relevance of the problem of matching the existing terminological vocabulary of modern humanities and social sciences to the needs of describing and understanding the dynamic picture of the world. It is proved that the most relevant tasks of the dynamic nature of cultural memory study are actor-network and activity approaches, as they allow to take into account the impact on the content of images of the past made by not only people, but also various material and non-material actors, as well as to test the explanatory model of the functioning of the culture memory in the conditions of various challenges (for example, the intensification of migration flows).

Working with models: Social and material relations entangled with energy efficiency modelling in Sweden

Modelling the energy use of buildings during the planning process is a well-established practice within the construction industry today. This article studies how these models are handled in practice and the issues that arise around them. This is a case study that follows the planning process of a block of rental buildings in Sweden. With an Actor Network approach this article shows how the complexity of the energy model affects the relationships between the energy consultant and the professionals from the construction company. Since the construction company professionals do not understand the calculations behind the model, they have to trust the energy consultant’s expertise. Furthermore, the energy modelling practices create tensions when proposed architectural designs are at odds with the energy efficiency goals. Lastly, the article shows how the uncertainties connected to the model’s calculations provide an arena where personal feelings are allowed to be part of the process. From the perspective of the involved professionals, energy modelling is shown to entangle social and material relations in ways that have not previously been studied in relation to energy efficiency in the process of planning new buildings.

Unpacking collaboration: non-human agency in the ebb and flow of practice-based visual art research

ABSTRACTPractice-based visual art research is a field that inadvertently recognises the role of non-human actors in the creative process. Generally, the relation is described in terms of the artist’s skilful manipulation of objects and materials and the symbolic interpretation of these actions. This paper uses an actor-network approach to argue for a reconsideration of non-human actors as vital collaborators and explores how such relations disrupt assumptions of artistic control. I conclude with a description of how intention, motivation and knowledge are generated in these crucial relations.

‘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.

Disability, economic agency, and embodied cognition

In this paper, I combine the actor-network economic sociology of disability with recent developments in phenomenological, embodied cognitive science, to discuss how ability, calculative agency, and meaning are distributed throughout materially situated sociocognitive systems. I begin by outlining the actor-network approach to disability, market formation, and economic agency. Next, I turn to the cognitive sciences, and describe the emergence of consciousness and meaning in embodied human being. With an operative synthesis of the two projects in place, I turn to government-organized disability savings plans in Canada. I suggest that the low uptake of these plans can be explained using the theoretical synthesis provided in the first two sections of this paper, giving a robust account of the threefold distribution of ability, calculative agency, and meaning.

Objects of speculative design in the formation of publics

Design researchers from areas such as participatory design, interaction design, and service design have in recent years increasingly turned to the field of Science and Technology Studies as a source of analytical insights and methodological rigor. A great deal of inspiration has in particular been drawn from the work of Bruno Latour and his call for a shift from Realpolitik to Dingpolitik and a move from matters of fact to matters of concern, as the basis for new political ecologies (Latour 2004a, 2005). In this paper I will relate a specific encounter between STS and design research, by looking at the design research project Material Beliefs, and more specifically the use of what has recently been termed ‘speculative design’ (Kerridge, et al. 2010). While inspired by an STS approach to public engagement, the proponents of speculative design are interested in how, and to what extent, speculative design proposals can function as ‘co-constructors’ of new publics. Viewed from a design perspective, this project aims to bring conceptual and critical design proposals out of the galleries and design studios to engage in the formation of heterogeneous publics, and as such reads as a text book example of Latour’s proposed move from a focus on objects to a focus on ‘parliament of things’. The central argument of the paper is that an encounter between speculative design and the social sciences calls into question the political schema under which design objects are elevated to the status of things in the Latourian assembly of humans and non-humans. I argue that this discounts the possibility for objects to affect the formation of publics by other means. This claim hinges on the ontological assumption that objects are in ‘excess of their relations’ (Harman 2009) and that this ‘surplus’, in turn, enables objects to affect the formation of publics in ways that cannot be grasped by an actor-network approach. On this premise, the paper examines one of the design prototypes developed in the Material Beliefs project, and concludes by proposing three additional qualities in this object that affects the formation of publics, without partaking in the democratic construction of a parliament of things.

Concept of Learning Design for Collaborative Network Activity

The article presents a concept of learning design for collaborative network activity. Construction of the activity focuses on the achievement of the learning and social impact which is revealed as a result of its implementation. The concept takes into account modern socio-cultural trends and factors influencing the educational changes and is based on the conceptual synthesis of system-functioning, ecological-evolutionary and actor-network approaches. Development of the concept as a theoretical knowledge allowed to reveal its content within the framework of the theory structure logics: reason, core, consequence, outcome. Collaborative network activity models have been developed the implementation of which allowed to outline relevant for learning features of collaborative network activity. Investigation of the models helped to formulate the criteria for evaluation of the collaborative network activity dynamics. The article describes examples of the concept based projects, promising directions for the development and implementation.

Considering the glass case: Material encounters between museums, visitors and religious objects

This article considers the often overlooked, or looked through, museum display case. Glass cases provide physical barriers between museum exhibits and visitors. Their efficacy is what keeps them hidden. But when the case obstructs a visitor–object interaction, their presence becomes strikingly obvious. The usually discerning cases are blamed for disrupting, distancing and inhibiting museum experiences. Yet, cases can facilitate many encounters that aid visitors’ abilities to connect devotionally with exhibits. To explore the active role that glass cases play, this article employs an actor–network approach to examine interactions at an exhibition on medieval Christian relics, where the cases acted as channels and barriers within the process of veneration, as well as the means to erase traces of religious practices. Situated in debates about materiality and lived religion, this article considers the role of mundane material objects in visitor–object encounters and the mediated nature of religious experiences in non-devotional spaces.