Actor-network theory (ANT) is a material semiotic analytical framework developed during the 1980s in the field of science and technology studies (STS). It is a constructivist perspective and can be considered a form of sociotechnical systems theory, but with a radical difference: it assumes that sociotechnical systems are heterogeneous networks enacted in webs of relations between human and nonhuman actors. From this point of view the social and material worlds, nature and culture, people and technology are deeply entangled. Since its origins in STS, ANT has disseminated widely and its concepts and sensibilities have informed studies of information systems in health informatics, education and beyond. It has also been used in environmental studies, human geography, sustainable technology, agriculture and architecture. Indeed ANT is capable of contributing to any disciplinary domain where the relationship between humans and the material world is germane. Yet, with a few notable exceptions, ANT has seldom caught the attention of researchers in the field of human service technology. This paper will discuss the distinctive characteristics of ANT, explore its methodological implications, and consider the contribution it might make to research enquiries in the field of human service technology.

1. Considering
the nonhuman:
Actor-network theory &
human service technology
research.
Neil Ballantyne

2. What we call society is not just social
• It depends on a mass of taken-for-granted
material technologies.
• Our lives are entangled with
– architectures, industries, transportation systems,
power grids, communication networks and so on.
• Without the silent work of the nonhuman
masses, social order would be impossible.

3. Technology is
society made
durable
Bruno Latour (1991)
Or as Bruno Latour has put it…

4. What appears to be
social
is partly technical.
What we usually call
technical
is partly social.
John Law (1991)
And as John Law has added…

5. So the study of new technology
…is the study of social order in the making.

6. In ANT the basic unit of analysis is…
• The actor–network: a sociotechnical system.
• Actor-networks are heterogeneous networks of
human & nonhumans.
– H-NH-NH-H-H-H-NH-H-NH-NH-NH-H-H-NH-H-H-H-NH-NH-H-H-NH-H
• An actor (or actant) is anything that has an
effect.
• To understand the development of an actor-
network you must “follow the actors”.

7. Actors can include
Humans
Politicians
Policy advisors
Consultants
Managers
Social workers
Trades unions
Service users
The media
Nonhumans
Policy documents
Legislation
Scientific articles
News articles
System diagrams
Hardware
Databases
Or, anything that has an effect on the network under study.

8. Actor-networks are assembled by a process
of translation
• Proceeds by way of associations &
substitutions (detours &
displacements).
• Involves supporters and
opponents.
• Is fragile and uncertain of success.
• Involves the use of power,
negotiation and strategy.
• Once stabilised actor-networks
become taken for granted/black-
boxed.
• But the process is always
reversible.
Niccolò Machiavelli

9. Translation involves power
Niccolò MachiavelliNiccolò Machiavelli
"To translate, then is to oblige an
entity to consent to detour. This is
done by choosing from a spectrum
of methods that ranges from
seduction to pure violence by way
of simple bargaining. In the case of
science and technology, one of the
most generally used strategies may
be called problematisation.”
(Callon, 1985, p. 26))

10. An example: Actors in the “tragic tale” of the
English Child Welfare Databases 2004-2010
• The Green Paper “Every Child Matters” seeking to improve “early intervention” & “interagency
communication”
• The House of Lords and their 600 amendments to the proposed bill to defend civil liberties
• The legislative power of the Childrens’ Act 2004
• The trio of child welfare databases and their data requirements:
– ContactPoint, the Common Assessment Framework, & the Integrated Children’s System
• The centrally prescribed system diagrams and requirement details
• The Department for Children, Schools and Families guidance on database use
• The English local authorities who piloted and implemented the databases
• The UNISON trades union who engaged in industrial disputes over system use
• The ESRC who funded researchers that critiqued the negative impact of systems on professional
practice (and the scores of articles produced)
• The Munro Review of Child Protection that condemned the undermining of professional judgement
by centrally prescribed IT systems
• The 2010 Coalition Government that closed down all three databases

11. …technical objects
must be seen as a
result of the shaping of
many associated and
heterogeneous
elements.
They will be as
durable as these
associations, neither
more nor less...
…we cannot describe
technical objects without
describing the actor-
worlds that shape them
in all of their diversity
and scope.
Michel Callon (1991)
TECHNICAL OBJECTS
HAVE POLITICS

12. The methodological toolbox
• To follow the actors:
– Ethnographic case study
– Observations & interviews
• To examine inscriptions:
– Documentary analysis
– Bibliometrics and scientometrics
• Controversy mapping
– www.mappingcontroversies.net

13. ANT studies illuminate Flyvbjerg’s four
value-rational questions
• Where are we going?
• Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of
power?
• Is this development desirable?
• What, if anything, should we do about it?
Bent Flyvbjerg (2001)

14. Further reading
Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network theory.
Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Law, J. (2009). Actor network theory and material semiotics. In B. Turner (Ed.), The New
Blackwell Companion to Social Theory (pp. 141–58). Chichester, England: Wiley-
Blackwell.
Mol, A. (2010). Actor-network theory: Sensitive terms and enduring tensions. Kölner
Zeitschrift Für Soziologie Und Sozialpsychologie. Sonderheft, 50, 253–269.
White, S., Wastell, D., Broadhurst, K., & Hall, C. (2010). When policy o’erleaps itself: The
“tragic tale” of the Integrated Children’s System, Critical Social Policy, 30(3).
neil@learningdesigns.co.nz