John LawThinkers

Actor-network theory is a theory that social order is not brought about or caused, but rather is an effect, an effect generated not just by people with intentions, but by machines, architectures, clothes, and texts as well, which all contribute to the patterning of the social such that if they up and disappeared, so too would order.

Actor-network theory is a theory which explores and describes local processes of patterning, social orchestration, ordering and resistance.

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

Actor-network theory is grounded in the denial that people are necessarily special. It raises basic questions about what we mean when we talk about people.

Actor-network theory 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.

Calculation is a set of social methods in its own right, capable of working only on material representations, the products of surveillance which are also relational effects, and are thus also precarious.

Calculation is a set of social methods or relations. It can only work on potentially fallible material representations.

Calculation is, in the form of literacy, bureaucracy, print, the development of double-entry book-keeping, responsible for increased network robustness.

Calculation is not a deus ex maChina. It is a set of social methods or relations in its own right. Furthermore, it can only work on material representations -the products of surveillance which are also relational effects.

A Network is, in the case of actors, objects, and institutions, something which becomes visible when it breaks down. The moment a t.V. Stops working, it ceases to become a single and coherent object and becomes visible as a network of electronic components and human interventions.

A Network masks the components of a working object, institution, or body.

The Network is that which, when working properly (a working television, a healthy body) masks the networks that produce it.

A Network is when it is functioning as expected, a single block which disappears and is replaced by the action itself (i.e. One sees the television show rather than the television). The way the effect is generated is also effaced -neither visible or relevant.