actor network theory, n.All

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

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

Actor-network theory is a problematic theory which is a step backwards towards positivist positions.

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 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-network theory is a study of how a lot of hard work in which heterogeneous bits and pieces -test tubes, reagents, organisms, skilled hands, scanning electron microscopes, radiation monitors, other scientist, articles, computer terminals, and all the rest -that would like to make off on their own are juxtaposed into a patterned network which overcomes their resistance.

Actor-network theory is an analytic stance rather than an ethical stance when it says that there is no difference between people and objects. Indeed, we use the analytic stance to sharpen ethical questions about the special character of the human effect.

Actor-network theory is a theory which gives equal importance to the material world as the human world such that pasteur's discovery of lactic acid is a great event not only in his life, but in the life of the yeast.