Actor Theory Research Articles

Les réponses de cadres intermédiaires face à l'implémentation de technologies de l'information et de la communication : le cas d'une administration publique

Résumé Cet article traite des réponses de responsables d’unités locales d’une administration publique face au changement suivant l’implémentation d’un système d’information (SI) intégré. En nous fondant sur la théorie de l’acteur stratégique (Crozier et Friedberg 1977), nous soutenons que les contraintes du SI émanent de la volonté de ces responsables d’adopter des scénarios d’action de nature à leur permettre de contribuer à la modernisation de l’administration publique tout en renforçant leur rôle. En outre, nous montrons que ces actions permettent d’implémenter le SI de façon acceptable sur le terrain.

Rational actors: Channel selection and rational choices in romantic conflict episodes

The proliferation of communication technologies creates many questions about these tools’ relational uses and effects. Rational Actor Theory posits that individuals consider the benefits and costs of using a channel for communicating a particular message. This study applied Rational Actor Theory to individuals’ ( N = 129) channel choices during conflict episodes in their romantic relationships. Results indicated that partners using both integrating and avoiding conflict styles prefer face-to-face channels, while people using dominating styles prefer computer-mediated channels. Channel choice for conflict was not predicted by relationship length, type, or satisfaction. Only integrating and obliging conflict styles predicted relationship satisfaction.

Different countries-different paths extended comparison of the introduction of eIDs in eight European countries

A first comparison of the innovation processes of introducing electronic identities on a national level in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Spain, based on extensive expert interviews with key actors, has been amended by four more country reports from Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Sweden in order to check the validity of generalisations derived from the first four cases. The extended comparison with the four additional countries increases the variance between the eID systems in Europe by showing differing technical and organisational features, such as purely software-based solutions, e.g. in Denmark, or complete outsourcing of the eIDMs, e.g. in Sweden. In the second part of the paper, the conceptual framework of the comparative study, a combination of path analysis, institutional actor theory and policy field analysis will be reflected. It has resulted in a fruitful approach allowing for the explanation of some, but by no means all, of the differences between the national eIDMs in Europe.

How can economic sociology help business relationship management?

PurposeBy analyzing organizations as social actors and business relationships as social relationships, sociology can improve business relationship management. This paper aims to explore the issues involved.Design/methodology/approachA business relationship is an interactive exchange between two organizations embedded in a network of business connections. The paper reviews theories of social actions and social actors and the concepts of economic field and embeddedness to illustrate some social dimensions of business relationships.FindingsSocial action and social actor theories emphasize that co‐operation is always encumbered with conflicts, that consciousness about the relationship is fundamental for both strongly and weakly structured actors, and that actors (people involved in a business relationship) always have some freedom of manoeuvre. The concept of economic field underscores the specificity of each business relationship and the critical need for concrete analysis. The concept of embeddedness highlights that no business relationship is possible without personal bonds.Research limitations/implicationsThese are the first results of a deeper and broader research directed towards a conceptual model of business relationship management.Practical implicationsThe paper can help managers to analyze more deeply the social dimensions of business relations with both suppliers and buyers. Consciousness, the ongoing presence of conflicts, the unavoidable role of personal bonds, and interactivity are always relevant in business relationship management.Originality/valueThe paper integrates sociological and business marketing approaches. It applies essential sociological theories and concepts to business relationship management.

Theorizing Practice and Practising Theory: Outlines for an Actor-Relational-Approach in Planning

Not only in the Netherlands, but also elsewhere, there is stalemate between modern and postmodern/post-structural planning, or alternatively, between state-controlled and neo-liberal planning. Since the 1980s at least, modernist, state-controlled planning has been fundamentally debunked as a highly regulatory and prescriptive operation, resulting in syrupy planning processes, which are very costly, inflexible and inefficient, and suppressing all new and creative initiatives that do not fit within the set framework. Postmodern and post-structural alternatives developed since then have been very effective in counter-attacking the alleged virtues of that planning strategy, but less fruitful at promoting effective and/or sustainable practices. The article assumes that this is related to the fact that time and again these alternatives continue to be formulated from within the existing planning framework, from a specific governmental, or at least a government influenced, view of planning: in essence from the inside-out. From this position, the article goes on to describe the possible outlines for a practical outside-inward, actor-relational-approach. It has been developed from experimental case studies in concrete planning practices, for example, a case study in Southern Limburg in the Netherlands. Concurrently, it has also been derived from a fundamental interaction with behavioural, urban regime and actor-network/network actor theories, with an extensive evaluation of the latter. The article concludes with a call for a new fundamental, but proactive, reassembling of spatial planning in an actor-oriented, as opposed to a government-oriented, way.

A Stakeholder’s Perspective on Human Resource Management

In order to understand the system wherein human resource management practices are determined by the interactions of a complex system of actors, it is necessary to have a conceptual framework of analysis. In this respect, the works of scholars (Mitroff, 1983, Stakeholders of the Organizational Mind, Jessey-Bass; Freeman, 1984, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, Pitman) concerning stakeholder theory opened new perspectives in management theory. An organisation is understood as being part of a politico-economic system of stakeholders who interact and influence management practices. Each stakeholder tries to optimise and protect his interests (Frooman, 1999, Academy of Management Review 24, 191–205; Savage et al., 1991, Academy of Management Executive 5(2), 61–75). The framework of stakeholder analysis enables escape from a purely instrumental approach to HRM, and avoids reducing our understanding of conflicts within companies to mere antagonism between employees and their employers. It enables us to point out the existence of other stakeholders in the relationship. Notably, it allows for the incorporation into management theory of actors from the sphere of politics (president of the republic, government, national elected representatives – deputies and senators – and locally elected representatives – mayors and regional councillors, etc.) as well as their dependent administrations. All these actors are considered to be stakeholders who define the legal framework of firm management and guarantee the application of these laws.

Modeling factions for ‘effects based operations’, part II: behavioral game theory

Military, diplomatic, and intelligence analysts are increasingly interested in having a valid system of models that span the social sciences and interoperate so that one can determine the effects that may arise from alternative operations (courses of action) in different lands. Part I of this article concentrated on internal validity of the components of such a synthetic framework—a world diplomacy game as well as the agent architecture for modeling leaders and followers in different conflicts. But how valid are such model collections once they are integrated together and used out-of-sample (see Sect. 1)? Section 2 compares these realistic, descriptive agents to normative rational actor theory and offers equilibria insights for conflict games. Sections 3 and 4 offer two real world cases (Iraq and SE Asia) where the agent models are subjected to validity tests and an effects based operations (EBO, as in Smith, Effects based operations: applying network-centric warfare in peace, crisis, and war, 2002) experiment is then run for each case. We conclude by arguing that substantial effort on game realism, best-of-breed social science models, and agent validation efforts is essential if analytic experiments are to effectively explore conflicts and alternative ways to influence outcomes. Such efforts are likely to improve behavioral game theory as well.

An epidemic of pain in an Australian radiology practice

This paper presents findings from a study of an organisationally mandated assimilation process of an enterprise-wide information system in a radiology practice in Australia. A number of interviews with radiologists, radiographers and administrative staff are used to explore the impact of institutional structures on the assimilation process. The case study develops an argument that culture within and outside the Australian Radiology Practice (ARP), social structures within the ARP and organisational-level management mandates have impacted on the assimilation process. The study develops a theoretical framework that integrates elements of social actor theory (Lamb & Kling, 2003) to provide a more fine-grained analysis concentrating on the relationships among the radiology practitioners, the technology (an enterprise-wide Health Information System), and a larger social milieu surrounding its use. This study offers several theoretical and practical implications for technology assimilation in the health and radiology industry regarding the important roles social interactions, individual self-perceptions, organisational mandates and policies can play in assimilating new ICTs.

An Analysis of the Introduction of Traceability Systems in the Information Network between Companies from the Viewpoint of Actor Theory(<Special Issue> The New Methodology of Information Systems Design)

An Analysis of the Introduction of Traceability Systems in the Information Network between Companies from the Viewpoint of Actor Theory(<Special Issue> The New Methodology of Information Systems Design)

Social-movement Unionism in Theory and in Sweden

Many union leaders and observers of unionism in industrially advanced countries have recently argued for stronger links between unions and social movements but their arguments leave the nature of social movements underspecified. This article reviews the literature on social movements and argues in favour of a minimalist theory of the social actor rather than choose between American and European approaches to studying social movements. Both Melucci's European approach and McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly's American approach to integrating the European and American schools of thought on social movements are inadequate to the task of specifying social-movement unionism. Hindess's minimalist theory of the social actor and articulated arenas of conflict offers a stronger approach to understanding social-movement unionism and appreciating its strategic pertinence in particular times and places. Two episodes of contention in Sweden illustrate the advantages of a minimalist theory of articulated social-movement unionism.

The Rational Actor Reform Paradigm

This paper discusses the impact of an important trend in service delivery in response to the substantial pressures that now face European welfare states: the New Public Management, combining centrally imposed targets and the promotion of market systems within state services. It traces the logic underlying the reform back to the rational self-regarding actor theories of human behaviour of the Enlightenment. Using the example of the UK NHS, recently reformed in a way that follows the rational actor paradigm, it considers the impact on long-term public trust.

Language and Gender in the Fairy Tale Tradition: A Linguistic Analysis of Old and New Story Telling (review)

Reviewed by: Language and Gender in the Fairy Tale Tradition: A Linguistic Analysis of Old and New Story Telling Jeana Jorgensen (bio) Language and Gender in the Fairy Tale Tradition: A Linguistic Analysis of Old and New Story Telling. By Alessandra Levorato . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. 230 pp. In Language and Gender in the Fairy Tale Tradition, Alessandra Levorato utilizes a linguistic approach to analyze the ideologies at work in fairy tales, namely "Little Red Riding Hood" (AT 333). Levorato examines both traditional and radical versions of the tale in the light of how ideologies are embedded in texts at various levels and thus produce meaning. Her book is a refreshing examination of how linguistic and formal qualities of fairy tales are not only [End Page 316] significant components of the tales in their own right but also influence the construction of fairy-tale gender roles and sexuality in a way that is inextricably linked with the production and expression of ideological biases on the part of both readers and writers. Levorato outlines her methodological approach and her data choices in the first chapter, "Introduction: Exploring Gender Issues in Fairy Tales." She considers her book to be unique for its melding of complementary critical (though not folkloristic) strategies. Levorato names as her primary theoretical influences M. A. K. Halliday's functional grammar, based on the notion that "every choice regarding the structure of a text is a choice about how to signify" (3); Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional framework of analysis, which views a text as simultaneously "a discursive practice, text and social practice" (3); and Theo Van Leeuwen's theory of social actors, founded upon a "set of sociological categories" that "investigate the way social actors and social action are represented in discourse" (4). Levorato also cites computer-based quantitative analysis as one of her main tools. Her use of quantitative analysis reveals, for instance, that "ideological standpoints are passed on not just by means of single words but also, and especially, in grammatical and lexical patterns" (12). This standpoint is reflected in the progression of her analysis from the simplest constituent of fairy tales, the word, to the more syntactically and semantically complex relational clauses and social roles within the tales. Next, Levorato gives synopses of twelve versions of "Little Red Riding Hood" spanning three hundred years, ranging from Paul Delarue's reconstruction of a French oral version to literary versions, some overtly patriarchal, such as the versions of Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, and some radically feminist, such as versions written by Angela Carter and the Merseyside Fairy Story Collective. As The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood, the latter is a useful companion volume to Levorato's book. In chapter 2, "Words, Gender, and Power," Levorato shares the results of the quantitative analysis she performed, filtered through terminology belonging to linguistics. The insights obtained from comparing word counts and collocations (the habitual co-occurrence of words) in different versions of the tale demonstrate that "patterns of co-occurrence, the frequency and distribution of items, and even the syntactic structures in which words are embedded deeply affect meaning" (31), to the point that the underlying assumptions of various words can be used to develop different meanings. Also, this type of analysis shows "how a word which in itself is not in the least sexist can indeed become so if used asymmetrically" (31). Attention to asymmetries continues to inform Levorato's analysis in chapter 3, "The Representation of Social Practice." After a somewhat unwieldy explication of Van Leeuwen's terminology that she uses in this chapter, Levorato [End Page 317] launches into an analysis of how the authors of the dozen tales represent their respective characters. Her analysis demonstrates that the characters' identities are often described in radically different ways according to gender; for instance, female characters are likely to be situated only in relationships to other characters, whereas male characters are more likely to be portrayed with independent identities. At the end of this chapter, Levorato summarizes her findings to show how the writers of these tales all make choices through which "they have variously contributed to the maintenance of patterns of subordination...

Axioms from interactions of actors theory

While working with clients in the last years of his life, Gordon Pask produced an axiomatic scheme for his Interactions of Actors Theory which is a development of his well known Conversation Theory. These axioms are interpretable as a general theory of self‐organisation and are discussed as characteristic of field concurrence and as part of the second‐order cybernetics canon. An application to population density is reported supported by both kinematic and kinetic simulation. Implications for cardiovascular anti‐coagulation therapy and planetary evolution are discussed.

Identity construction and British Muslims' political activity: beyond rational actor theory.

Political activity is often addressed in terms of rational actor theory (RAT). We review RAT's psychological assumptions and highlight the neglect of collective identity. In turn, we view the perception of 'interest' as contingent upon constructions of identity and explore how different characterizations of collective identity are organized strategically so as to shape people's understandings of their interests and how they should act to realize them. Using examples taken from a study of British Muslims' political activity we emphasize the contested and strategic dimension to identity construction and analyse how activists addressing the same constituency construe Muslim identity in different ways so as to promote different conceptions of collective interest. Specifically, we explore the contested invocations of Prophetic example in the definition of Muslim identity. The broader thrust behind this work is a critique of the sharp dichotomization of Muslim and non-Muslim political activity. We maintain that essentially similar processes of identity construction underlie all attempts to organize collective sentiment and political action (including that comprising so-called 'conventional' electoralist politics in the West), and that conceiving of identity as a site of political struggle underscores the inadequacy of Orientalist characterizations of Muslim identity in terms of a singular, transhistorical essence.

Genetic Structuralism, Psychological Sociology and Pragmatic Social Actor Theory

This article sets out to show that Wittgenstein and Freud have exerted a considerable - though narrow - influence on Bourdieu’s sociology. But their influence also pervades the theoretical development of two other currents that have emerged in French sociology in the last few years, and that were developed by L. Boltanski and L. Thévenot on the one hand, and B. Lahire on the other. Although they do not make it explicit, the advocates of these two currents have nevertheless been influenced by Wittgenstein and Freud. Thus Boltanski has drawn on Wittgenstein to develop a sociology which gives primacy to the social actor’s interpretation of his or her situation through lay theorizing. Lahire’s work clearly pays a debt to Freud with his psychological sociology. It would therefore be interesting, in the first instance, to tease out how Wittgenstein and Freud, respectively, have influenced these two systems to demonstrate that they can indeed be used to generate new sociological currents, other than Bourdieu’s own. This would then allow us to explore how they could be used to fill any gaps in Bourdieu’s work, thus giving the latter renewed relevance and staunching its stagnating tendencies. Ultimately, this analysis aims to show how Wittgenstein’s and Freud’s theoretical influences can lead the way towards a theoretical synthesis between Bourdieu’s critical sociology, Boltanski’s social actor theory and Lahire’s psychological sociology. Currently, these three currents operate independently of each other, without any kind of dialogue. And yet, far from being incompatible, these sociologies offer opportunities for exploring how they might complement and mutually enrich each other.

Postmodernism: The Basis of Insurance

AbstractInsurance practices are often depicted as being based on objective, “scientific” knowledge, and informed by carefully modeled rational actor theories that are embedded in clearly written contracts. This article seeks to displace these notions with a more realistic account. From underwriting, to the creation of actuarial tables, the structuring of programs, and contract analysis, insurance practices are predicated on stories of risk and responsibility. By acknowledging and examining these stories, we come to a greater understanding of why insurance practices take the various forms that they do, and also realize the potential for changing them in ways that are more profitable for the companies and more inclusive and protective for the public.

Actor theories in rewriting logic

The actor theory framework is a general semantic framework, based on the actor computation model, for specifying and reasoning about components of open distributed systems. It can be used to define both operational and trace-like interaction semantics for actor programming languages and specification notations. It can also be used to directly specify actor system components. The framework allows descriptions of system components written using different notations or at different levels of abstraction to be related: translations between actor programming languages can be shown to preserve interaction semantics, notions of satisfaction and refinement for specification notations can be defined and, using actor theory transformations, different descriptions of a component can be shown to be equivalent. In this paper we define the notion of an equationally presented actor theory and a mapping of equational presentations to theories in rewriting logic. We show that this mapping gives a correct representation of actor theory semantics by defining a correspondence between finite actor theory computations and rewrite theory proofs. To treat infinite computations and admissibility we extend the rewriting logic initial model construction to include infinite proofs, extend the mapping to infinite computations, and show that the correspondence preserves interaction semantics.

Interaction of actors theory

Gordon Pask developed not only a conversation theory, but also a (less well‐known) interaction of actors theory, partly in response to demands during the time he worked in Amsterdam. The paper aims to clarify how this theory intended to minimise the effects of use on scientific results, while maximising the help of such results to improve on actions. This would facilitate empirical study of what changes user values, as well as the preferred design of (computer supported) support systems. Results include the material and communicative support of collective and social activities. Three examples are presented.

The effect of pregnancy in cohabiting unions on marriage in Canada, the Netherlands, and Latvia

Recently, the western world has witnessed among young cohorts a significant rise in both cohabitation and out of wedlock births as well as an increasingly complex relationship between marriage and childbirth. This study follows previous investigations conducted by Blossfeld and colleagues (1) on the experience of pregnancy within cohabiting unions and how it conditions the likelihood of transition to formal marriage with the same partners. A hazard model with time-varying covariates is specified explicitly as time-dependent, with entry into first marriage as the dependent process and first pregnancy/birth as the explaining process. Our conceptual framework relies on the rational actor theory, which proposes that norm-guided and rational self-centred behaviour co-exist in the case when a pregnancy occurs in a consensual union and a decision is to be made by the couple with respect to marriage or non-marriage. Our test of this interrelated process is based on the experiences of Canada, Latvia, and the Netherlands. Findings suggest that the interdependencies of cohabitation, pregnancy, and marriage fit the model and are generally uniform processes across these societies. Slight country differences are attributed to attitudes and policies regarding cohabitation versus marriage and the acceptability of out of wedlock births.

On Gordon Pask

Recalls times spent in Gordon Pask’s company and the discussions with the author on a wide range of topics, but focusing especially on foundational issues in science and cybernetics and developments in Pask’s own conversation theory and interaction of actors theory.