Actor Network Theory Susan Halford, Sociology and Social Policy Susan.Halford@soton.ac.uk Please use the dd month yyyy format for the date for example 11 January 2008. The main title can be one or two lines long.

Intellectual Context SSK, EPOR & SCOT Critiques of technological determinism – of beliefs/claims that there is an inevitable trajectory of progress; technology as the determining force behind social change; known/knowable outcomes SCOT – Pinch and Bijker Social shaping – Mackenzie and Wajcman Attention to controversies in evolution of artefacts -> black boxing Attention to users Inherently social nature of science and technology ‘politics of scientific invention’ Contingency BUT have we replaced technological determinism with social determinism? If using a school logo, make sure that if you have a long page title, it does not encroach on the logo. Allow about 2cm around the logo. Run the page title onto two lines if necessary.

An impasse between technical and social determinsm? Calls for sociological understanding of how technical things matter (Winner 1999) For ‘neither technological determinism nor social constructionism’ (Ackrich 1992) but something that can grasp both the technical AND the social AND the relations between them. Aim today To outline key elements of ANT To outline major critiques of ANT To consider where that leaves us!

Actor Network Theory Science in Action (1987): what does it take to establish facts beyond the laboratory? How are scientific findings done in one place extended to other places? Not simply the inevitable spread of ‘truth’! Attention to the networks that hold facts together over distance – networks of humans, and non-humans - especially shared instruments, methods of calibration, etc. so that experiments can be replicated, findings discussed in the same terms and so on.

15th and 16th Century Portuguese imperialism (Law 1986) Held together by a network of human and non-human actors It is impossible to understand Portuguese expansion unless ‘… the technological, the economic, the political, the social and the natural are all seen as being inter-related … of course kings and merchants appear in this story. But so too do sailors and astronomers, navigators and soldiers of fortune, astrolabes and astronomical tables, vessels and ports of call, and last but not least the winds and the currents that lay between Lisbon and Calicut’ (p.235)

Michel Callon ‘The ingredients of the VEL are the electrons that jump effortlessly between the electrodes; the consumers who reject the symbol of the motor car and are ready to invest in public transport; the ministry of the quality of life which imposes regulations about the level of acceptable noise pollution; Renault which accepts it will be turned into a manufacturer of car bodies; lead accumulators whose performance has been improved and post industrial society which is on its way. None of these ingredients can be placed in a hierarchy or distinguished according to its nature. The activist in favour of public transport is just as important as the lead accumulator’. (Callon 1992; 86)

Principles of ANT  A materialist perspective: ‘We are never faced with objects or social relations. We are with chains which are associations of humans … and non-humans’ (Latour 1991; 110) Neither technology nor social action is the main actor ‘[T]he processes that concern us are ‘necessarily both technical and social’ Ackrich 1992; 206

Heterogeneous Networks The world ‘ … emerges thorough diverse assemblages of the social, natural and material’ (Conradson 2003). The world as we see it is the outcome, or effect, of heterogeneous networks What we might see as ‘the social’, ‘the natural’ or ‘the technical’ – imperialism, science, the environment – is always the combination of human and non-human actors brought together in particular networks of action

Radical Symmetry In principle, human and non-human actors are equally important Whilst particular actors may acquire greater importance that is a network effect; there is no pre-existing hierarchy Network evolution is a ‘process of translation’ from initial aims and intentions -> identifying actors -> getting actors on board -> mobilizing the network There is no action at a distance – macro phenomena are always local actions albeit extended via networks

There is nothing inevitable about networks Entities in a network have relational ontologies – are shaped by relations with other entities with which they come into contact Networks are performative – exist only so long as the actors continue to perform in repetitive ways: ‘Technologies, knowledges and work may be understood as the effects of materially, socially and conceptually hybrid performances. In these performances, different elements assemble together and act in certain ways to produce specific outcomes.’ (Law and Singleton 2000; 774)

 For ANT the point is to follow the actors and trace the networks The ‘social’ is an emergent effect of these heterogeneous networks The social is always material and vice versa The sociology of associations (Latour 2005): a sociology of how society is held together; rather than the science of what is already held together ‘‘In this meaning of the adjective the social does not designate a thing among other things, like a black sheep among other white sheep, but a type of connection between things that are not in themselves social’ (Latour 2005; p.5).  For ANT the point is to follow the actors and trace the networks

Critiques of ANT Agency Radical symmetry – does this produce, in principle, an obscuring materialism? Despite radical symmetry does ANT focus more on human actors? (How to follow scientists and engineers). Focus on agency at the expense of the conditions of agency? (2) Loss of attention to social groups, inequality, policy (3) Just another form of constructivism? Non-humans only given meaning in their relations with humans (but also vice versa, and non-humans conceptualised as ‘having interests) (4) ANT is highly dynamic – Latour’s four criticisms in ANT and After

Conclusions Wide acceptance of need for a ‘middle way’ ANT type arguments found beyond ANT Lucy Suchman Donna Haraway’s injunction that we should explore ‘The myriad daily negotiations among humans and non- humans that make up the consensus called technology’ (Haraway 1997; 127):

A Manifesto for Web Science? ‘The computer is a trope, a part-for-whole figure, for a world of actors and actants, not a Thing Acting Alone. ‘Computers’ cause nothing but the human and non-human hybrids troped by the figure of the information machine remake worlds’ (Haraway 1997;126)

Sismondo Chapter 7 Actor Network Theory Matthewman Chapter 6 The Socio-Technical Construction of Society: Actor-Network Theory 1: What are the key principles of ANT (just to understand these) 2: Describe the Web from an ANT perspective (just to show it can be done) 3: How does ANT challenge and/or confirm your understanding of the Web? 4: What are the implications of ANT for future development of and/or intervention in the Web?

Ackrich, M. (1992) ‘The de-scription of technical objects’ in Bijker, W. and Law, J. (Eds) Shaping Technology/Building Society MIT Press Conradson, D. (2003) ‘Doing organisational space: practices of voluntary welfare in the city’. Environment and Planning A, 35, pp.1975-1992. Haraway, D. (1997) Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan©_Meets_OncoMouse™ London, Routledge. Mackenzie, D., and Wajcman, J., (1999) Latour, B. (1987) Science in Action Latour, B. (2005) Re-Assembling the Social Oxford, OUP. Latour, B. (1991) ‘Technology is society made durable’ in Law, J. (ed) A Sociology of Monsters: essays on power, technology and domination London, Routledge. Latour, B. (2005) Re-assembling the Social: an introduction to Actor Network Theory Oxford, OUP. Law, J. (1986) ‘On the methods of long distance control: Vessels, navigation and the Portugeuse route to India’ http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/sociology/research/resalph.htm#lr Law, J. (2008) ‘On Sociology and STS’ Sociological Review 56:4, pp.623-649 Law and Singleton (2000) ‘Performing technology’s stories’ Technology and Culture Vol 41 pp.765- 775Law, J., (1986)