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modernism

Mark Rothko

Modernists Pencil Set

Modernists

Pencil Set

actor-network theory

is a problematic theory which is a step backwards towards positivist positions.

In an article in Science as Practice and Culture, Collins and his co-writer Steven Yearly argue that the Actor-network theory (ANT) approach is a step backwards towards the positivist and real ist positions held by early theory of science.[5]' (wiki)

explores and describes local processes of patterning, social orchestration, ordering and resistance.

The object is to explore and describe local processes of patterning, social orchestration, ordering and resistance. (law 1992 : 5)

is not a theory of the social, it is a theory of a space in which the social has become a certain type of entity.

ANT is not a theory of the social, it is a theory of a space in which the social has become a certain type of circulation. But then, the consequence is that there is now room for other types of circulations, plenty of places. (Latour 1998: on recalling : 3)

is interested in the diverse props that sustain action and is interested also in the way the props are held in place long enough to do so.

interested in the diverse props, to use Law's (1994) phrasing, that sustain people's actions and in the way the props are held in place long enough to do so' (Strathern 1996:523).

is an exploration of 'the capacity of nonhumans to act or participate in systems or networks' systems or networks'.

Explores 'the capacity of nonhumans to act or participate in explores 'the capacity of nonhumans to act or participate in systems or networks' systems or networks'

is concerned with seeing different materials (people, machines, 'ideas'and all the rest) as interactional effects rather than primitive causes.

However, as the dualisms fall in sociology, the actor-network approach joins the party in a radical spirit, for it not only effaces the analytical divisions between agency and structure, and the macroand the micro-social, but it also asks us to treat different materials -people, machines, 'ideas'and all the rest -as interactional effects rather than primitive causes. (Law 1992: 7)

is reliant on narrational fields held together through social action in order to show how effects are produced out of alliances between human and nonhuman entities.

Actor-network theorist set up narrational fields in order to show how effects are produced out of alliances between human and nonhuman entitites' (Strathern 1996:520)

sees the actor and the network not as two interacting entities, but as two faces of the same phenomena of the social, much like waves and particles.

`Actor' is not here to play the role of agency and `network' to play the role of society. Actor and network -if we want to still use the terms designates two faces of the same phenomenon, like wave and particles, the slow realisation that the social is a certain type of circulation that can travel endlessly without ever encountering the micro-level -there is never an interaction that is not framednor the macrolevel -there are only local summing up. (Latour 1998: on recalling : 3)

actor network theory, n.Artifacts

actor network theory