Actor-Network Theory - explained! (I think...) As with some of the other presentations, it would be best to view this with the animations to understand one slide in particular (looks so messy when you first see it!)

1. A C T O R - N E T W O R K
T H E O R Y ( A N T )
K A T I E B U R K E

2. W H A T T O E X P E C T …
What is ANT?
Trying to Apply ANT
About Latour

3. – B R U N O L A T O U R ( P A N D O R A ’ S H O P E , 1 9 9 9 , P . 1 4 1 )
“What I have been groping toward… is an
alternative to the model of statements that posits a
world “out there” which language tries to reach
through a correspondence across the yawning gap
separating the two…”

4. W H A T I S A N T ?
C O N S T R U C T I O N I S T A P P R O A C H M A P P I N G T H E R E L A T I O N S H I P
B E T W E E N H U M A N A N D N O N H U M A N A C T O R S ( I N C L U D E S
C O N C E P T S A S W E L L A S T H I N G S ) W H I C H C A N B E V I E W E D A S
A W H O L E

5. P A S T E U R A N D L A C T I C A C I D
F E R M E N T
• Wine spoiling in France - major economic
consequences
• Yeast considered an unwanted by-product
• Yeast was a living organism
• Fermentation could not happen without it being living
• This yeast caused the lactic acid to spoil the wine

7. I L L U S T R A T I N G A N T

9. R E - C A P
• Actors can be human but also
things (non-human)
• the economy
• vaccinations
• government
• Actors can only exists in
relation to other actors
• Actors can join a network
without being directly involved
• There are power relations
within the network interactions

10. C O N C L U S I O N
• Latour is trying to bridge the gap between positivism
and social constructionism
• Latour looked at how scientists worked e.g. Pasteur
• Actors can also be non-human but all actors only exist
within a network

11. B I B I O L O G R A G Y
• Latour, B. (1988), Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through
Society, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts, USA.
• Latour, B. (1999), Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies, Harvard
University Press, Massachusetts, USA.
• Latour, B. (2005), Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-network-theory,
Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
• Latour, B. (2010), Networks, societies, spheres: Reections of an actor-network
theorist, in `International Seminar On Network Theory: Network Multidimensionality In
The Digital Age', Los Angeles, USA.
• URL: http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/97/28/65/PDF/121-castells.pdf
• Passoth, J.-H. & Rowland, N. J. (2010), `Actor-network state integrating actor-network
theory and state theory', International Sociology 25(6), 818{841.