Actor Network Theory

The Techno-Economic: Perspectives for Analysis and Intervention

by Richard Hull

(co-authored with Vivien Walsh, Andrew McMeekin, and Ken Green), Journal of Technology Transfer, Vol. 24(2&3), pp. 185-95, 1999

Amongst the increasing variety of approaches to the relationships between the three broad areas of academic science... more Amongst the increasing variety of approaches to the relationships between the three broad areas of academic science & technology, industrial R&D, and government policies and actions, there is one set of perspectives that have their roots within the extensive research conducted on innovation over the last 30 years (see, for example, Freeman & Soete, 1997, Part Two).  Those ‘innovation studies’ included work on science & technology policy, but also a wide variety of economic and sociological studies of the emergence and effects of scientific and technological change, as well as studies of the management of innovation and technical change.  In this work there are two broad categories of analysis - macro and micro - which focus on ‘the techno-economic’, those groups of linkages between technological, economic and social change .  This paper discusses each of these categories of analysis from the perspective of a central concern with both analysis and intervention - a concern that forms of analysis be policy-relevant, and that policy recommendations are intellectually valid.  In other words, although the paper builds towards a number of practically-oriented suggestions, we contend that it is necessary to first examine the sociological and economic validity of the foundations for such suggestions.

Informing Parents with the Victorian Education Ultranet

by Dr Eva Dakich

Tatnall, A. and Dakich, E. Proceedings of Informing Science & IT Education Conference (InSITE) 2011

Parents of school children want to be well informed and know as much as possible about their
children’s school... more Parents of school children want to be well informed and know as much as possible about their
children’s school and how their children are progressing at school. In mid-2010 in Victoria, Australia the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development launched the Ultranet, a
new web-based product designed to support knowledge sharing, curriculum delivery and online
learning and teaching. This paper describes the Ultranet, how it has been developed and how it is
to be used to inform parents, but as the Ultranet was only beginning to come into operation in late
2010 it has not been possible to include any research findings. With its facilities to inform parents
and to offer collaboration features to teachers, the Ultranet appears to be something not attempted
anywhere before. The paper is thus a theoretical one discussing the Ultranet’s design and possibilities, and is framed by using both an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Siemens’ Theory of
Connectivism. Later papers will examine how the Ultranet performs in practice.
Keywords: Informing communities, Ultranet, Web 2.0 technologies, knowledge sharing, school
communities, curriculum delivery, online learning, actor-network theory, connectivism.

The Ultranet as a Future Social Network: An Actor-Network Analysis

by Dr Eva Dakich

Davey, B., Tatnall, A., and Dakich E., (2011) 24th Bled eConference eFuture: Creating Solutions for the Individual, Organisations and Society June 12 - 15, 2011; Bled, Slovenia

Community development is seen as an increasingly important role for government and the potential of Web 2.0 tools to... more Community development is seen as an increasingly important role for government and the potential of Web 2.0 tools to aid in community development seems obvious. An experimental technology relating to e-government is being introduced by the State Government of Victoria, Australia. This involves a closed social network called the Ultranet which is intended to support social communities of parents, teachers and students in State schools. In this paper the Ultranet is seen as an innovation, and handled accordingly. An Actor-Network approach was used to identify problematisations of this new network and the actors that it seeks to involve and hence to identify potential translations of the innovation. Analysis of these potential translations allows the creation of a theoretical framework that permits a sensible review of the introduction of the Ultranet. The framework allows for the possible production of communities of practice amongst teachers, a ‘door’ for parental involvement as opposed to the ‘windows’ currently common in education, with an ideal that involves a Web 2.0 supported community where all parties (students, teachers, Education Ministry resources, parents and the local community) contribute. The paper will suggest that perhaps this is the future of safe, secure social networking for schools.

La théorie de la traduction revisitée ou la conduite du changement traduit. Application à un cas de fusion-acquisition nécessitant un changement de Système d'information

by isabelle walsh

A la fin des années 80, une nouvelle école de pensée voit le jour, menée par Callon et Latour.
Cette école est... more A la fin des années 80, une nouvelle école de pensée voit le jour, menée par Callon et Latour.
Cette école est nommée indifféremment sociologie de la traduction, théorie de la traduction,
sociologie de l’innovation, ou théorie de l’acteur  réseau. Les préoccupations de cette école
étaient pour la plupart philosophiques et épistémologiques ; elles portaient sur la construction
sociale de la science et les conditions d’émergence des innovations techniques et scientifiques.
Cependant les résultats d’une partie des travaux de cette école peuvent être appliqués au
changement organisationnel. Les conséquences d’une  telle interprétation, en termes de
management du changement, n’apparaissent pas comme ayant été complètement exploitées, en
particulier dans la littérature anglo-saxonne.
Dans cet article, une relecture du travail fondateur de 1986 de Callon nous aide à mettre en
exergue un mode de conduite du changement qui n’oublie aucune des parties prenantes à ce
changement, quelle que soit leur nature. Nous proposons un modèle de conduite du changement
traduit qui apparaît comme étant déjà appliqué, de  fait, dans certaines organisations dans le
cadre de fusions-acquisitions. Le changement y est mené pour atteindre ce qui peut être perçu
comme l’alignement multiple de l’ensemble des parties prenantes au sein d’un réseau
organisationnel.

Unravelling knowledge practices: the assistances and resistances of ANT

by Sanna Rimpilainen

Co-authored with Terrie Lynn Thompson, University of Alberta, Canada

As work and workplaces become increasingly distributed, professional knowing practices are more complex and now... more As work and workplaces become increasingly distributed, professional knowing practices are more complex and now reflect an interconnected array of people, ideas, technologies, and other objects. Indeed, sociomaterial sensibilities suggest that it takes both human and nonhuman actors to enact any practice. Actor Network Theory (ANT) is part of the contemporary turn to the relational and material and is well suited to studying hybrid and fluid practices, including connectivity between diverse network elements and the effects generated by such connections.

Yet, not only are approaches to studying these gatherings and heterogeneous processes not well developed, the researcher’s toils in this respect are not often evident in ANT accounts. Having engaged with ANT in our own research, we have learned that it is often challenging to actually apply these approaches to one’s own research questions, methodology, and data. This paper focuses on how we drew on ANT to examine knowing practices of professionals in different work settings and how ANT assisted and resisted our efforts in doing this. We explore more nuanced approaches for the popular ANT edict to “follow the actors” and the importance of attending to multiple and contradictory realities enacted in knowing practices.

We draw on two empirical studies to inform our discussion. Thompson’s research examines how the everyday online work-related learning and knowing practices of the contingent workforce (i.e., self-employed workers) are changing as web and mobile technologies become integrated into globally distributed work-learning spaces. Web-enabled and mobile knowledge spaces are diverse, diffuse, often quite messy, and end up evoking questions of inclusion. Using several ANT-influenced heuristics in an effort to “interview” objects, Thompson examined practices in which human entanglements with objects, such as the posting, the delete button and one’s digital footprint work to shape the learning practices enacted in online spaces. ANT was also used to question the politics of such assemblages. Rimpiläinen carried out a longitudinal, ethnographic case-study, following the unfolding processes of educational research and technology development in an interdisciplinary higher education project called Ensemble, which studied case-based learning in order to develop semantic technologies to support that learning. By drawing on ANT as theoretical practice, approaching the topic through critical ethnographic participation, and using multiple methods for data generation and accumulation, Rimpiläinen opened up to scrutiny the practices, the doing of research and technology development, and was able to trace the emergence of a piece of educational technology through the multiple, at times competing and conflicting, knowledge practices enacted in the project.

Deciding to engage with ANT propels the researcher down a path, influencing the questions asked, the way researchers explore phenomena, what is attended to, how one understands and thinks with their data, and how it might be represented. By exploring the philosophical and practical tensions generated in ANT-influenced research, we hope to create an opportunity for conference participants to interrupt their own knowledge practices as researchers and educators.

Selling the selling point: How innovation communication creates users of Virtual Worlds Architecture

by Ursula Plesner

With Maja Horst. Published in Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, February 2012

This article explores how virtual worlds are rhetorically constructed as obvious, innovative spaces for communication... more This article explores how virtual worlds are rhetorically constructed as obvious, innovative spaces for communication about architecture. It is argued that the marketization of an innovative use of new media platforms happens in early phases of the innovation processes, and the success of new media technologies such as virtual worlds hinges on the creation of expectations, which are intertwined with the discursive construction of future users. Drawing on the sociology of expectations and the sociology of technology, the article argues that the configuration of expected users is a central part of the communication about the innovation. It is demonstrated that the creation of markets does not begin when innovations such as Virtual Worlds Architecture are settled, but is intertwined with early expectations about their promises and limitations. Rather than seeing virtual worlds as settled and secluded sites for social and cultural innovation in themselves, we have examined how actors involved with them try to sell them as such. A crucial challenge for these actors turns out to be the interpretative flexibility of the innovation, since arguments designed to attract one kind of expected user might problematize the configuration of other types of users.

Is Actor Network Theory Critique?

by Andrea Whittle

Strategy, enrolment and accounting: the politics of strategic ideas

by Andrea Whittle

Intra-Preneurship and Enrolment: Building Networks of Ideas

by Andrea Whittle

The effects of Facebook use on civic participation attitudes and behaviour: A social network study (DPhil research proposal)

by Mark Dix

Unpublished DPhil research proposal

This research proposal suggests a network analysis approach to study the effects of web communication on civic... more This research proposal suggests a network analysis approach to study the effects of web communication on civic participation.

A three-phase mixed methods research design is proposed to examine the effect of supplementary communication via the social networking site Facebook, on the structure (quantity) and content (quality) of social ties within a network of citizens engaged in health and social care policymaking.

Subsequently, it is proposed that the network variables of tie structure and content are tested in an affective capacity against the participatory attitudes and behaviour of networked individuals.

By reframing the study of web use and civic participation under a network theoretical framework, when executed, the proposed study will add to the existing literature in the field through recognition of the mediative capacity of relational ties in the formation of participatory capital.

It is suggested that it is through their effect on relational tie structure and content within citizen participation networks, that social networking sites such as Facebook affect participatory attitudes and behaviour.

To set a critical context for the proposed study, a final qualitative phase of research is suggested to examine the professional power structures impacting upon participatory agency.

The Material-Cultural Turn: event and effect.

by Dan Hicks

Cite this paper as: Hicks, Dan 2010. The Material-Cultural Turn: Event and Effect. In Dan Hicks and Mary C. Beaudry (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies. Oxford: OUP, pp. 25- 98.

The full references are provided in the bibliography for the published volume.

Big Fish Hunting: interpretation of stone clubs from Lepenski Vir

by Ivana Zivaljevic

Published in N. Vasić (ed.) Harmony of Nature and Spirituality in Stone (Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference in Kragujevac, Serbia, March 15-16, 2012), Stone Studio Association: Belgrade: 195-206.

In this paper, I discuss a specific type of stone tool found at Lepenski Vir: clubs or mallets - which may have been... more In this paper, I discuss a specific type of stone tool found at Lepenski Vir: clubs or mallets - which may have been used in fishing as stunners. The significance of large fish species (especially beluga sturgeon) in the diet, settlement patterns and cosmogony of the inhabitants of the Mesolithic-Neolithic settlement of Lepenski Vir (c. 6200-5900. cal. BC) is amply manifested in the archaeological record, namely by significant quantities of sturgeon bones, the famous ‘fishlike’ sandstone sculptures and isotopic dietary signatures of humans buried at the site. Ironically, there is less evidence to suggest how exactly these great animals were caught. The massive and often ornamented stone clubs were initially interpreted as ‘magic’ and ‘ritual’ devices; however, it should be noted that the ‘ritual’ and ‘profane’ uses of an object need not exclude one another. The aim of this paper is to present the material and stylistic properties of these tools, look into and interpret their contextual provenience, and offer an understanding of them not as passive objects, but as powerful agents in dramatic encounters with the big fish.

Elsewhere Collaborative: Museum Collections

by Stacey Marie Garcia

Scaling Cigars

by Valerio Simoni

Gathering, Translating, Enacting. A study of interdisciplinary research and development practices in Technology Enhanced Learning

by Sanna Rimpilainen

A PhD Thesis

This is an ethnographic case-study of research and development practices taking place in an interdisciplinary project... more This is an ethnographic case-study of research and development practices taking place in an interdisciplinary project between education and computer sciences. The Ensemble-project, part of the Technology Enhanced Learning programme (2008-12), has studied case-based learning in a number of diverse settings in Higher Education, working to develop semantic technologies for supporting that learning. Focussing on one of the six research settings, the discipline of archaeology, the current study has had three purposes. By opening up to scrutiny the practices of research and development, it has firstly sought to understand how a shared research question is answered in practice when divergent research approaches are brought to bear upon it. Secondly, the study has followed the emergence of a piece of semantic technology through these practices. The third aim has been to assess the advantages and disadvantages of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) in studying unfolding, open-ended processes in real time. Through critical ethnographic participation, multiple ethnographic research methods, and by drawing on ANT as theoretical practice, the study has shown the precarious and unpredictable nature of research and development work, the political nature of research methods and how multiple realities can be produced using them, and the need for technology development to flexibly respond to changing circumstances. We have also seen the mutual adoption and extension of practices by the two strands of the project into each others’ domains, and how interdisciplinary tensions resolved, while they did not disappear, through pragmatic changes within the project. The study contributes to the interdisciplinary fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS) where studies on the ‘soft sciences’, such as education, are few, and a new field of Studies in Social Science and Humanities (SSH) which is emerging alongside and from within the STS. Interdisciplinary endeavours between fields pertaining largely to the natural and the social sciences respectively have not been studied commonly within either field.

Navigating the Bio-politics of Childhood: How Far can Hybridity Take Us?

by Nick Lee

A much improved version is available in Childhood: a Global Journal of Child Research

Co-authored with Dr. Johanna Motzkau

The study of childhood is currently weakened by a biological/social dualism, separating ‘social’ from ‘developmental’... more The study of childhood is currently weakened by a biological/social dualism, separating ‘social’ from ‘developmental’ traditions and falsely identifying the investigation of life processes with the naturalisation of childhood. Researching the emerging space of childhood bio-politics, in which life processes are central to social and political processes, requires that these problems be managed. The view of childhood as a ‘hybrid’ phenomenon allows for the management of dualism but has difficulty navigating bio-political space. A supplementary approach based on multiplicities of ‘life’, ‘voice’ and ‘resource’ is described. The argument is illustrated by discussion of sonic ‘teen deterrents’ in the UK. .

The Prüm regime: Situated dis/empowerment in transnational DNA profile exchange

by Victor Toom

Barbara Prainsack and Victor Toom (2010), ‘The Prüm regime: Situated dis/empowerment in transnational DNA profile exchange’, British Journal of Criminology, 50(6): 1117-1135.

This paper takes critique of surveillance studies scholars of the shortcomings of the panoptic model for analyzing... more This paper takes critique of surveillance studies scholars of the shortcomings of the panoptic model for analyzing contemporary systems of surveillance as a starting point. We argue that core conceptual tools, in conjunction with an under-conceptualization of agency, privilege a focus on the oppressive elements of surveillance. This often yields unsatisfying insights to why surveillance works, for whom, and at whose costs. We discuss the so-called Prüm Decision, pertaining to transnational data exchange for forensic and police use in the EU, to illustrate how—by articulating instances of what we call ‘situated dis/empowerment’—agency can be better conceptualized, sharpening our gaze for the large extent to which the empowering and disempowering effects of surveillance depend on each other.

Key words: surveillance, forensic DNA technologies, Prüm Decision, situated dis/empowerment, European Union

Ingeniería del Conocimiento y del Producto

by José Pino-Díaz

Ponencia impartida en el Curso de Ingeniería del Conocimiento y del Producto, organizado por AINVEX y Techné Research Group, en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad de Granada, los días 12 y 14 de abril de 2012.
Enlace del curso:
http://secretariageneral.ugr.es/pages/tablon/*/noticias-canal-ugr/2012/04/01/la-ugr-organiza-un-curso-sobre-aingenieria-del-conocimiento-y-del-productoa-para-el-desarrollo-de-productos-comerciales-innovadores
Enlace a página de Techné:
http://www.ugr.es/~tep028/eventos/curso_IC_IP_2012/curso_IC_IP_2012.php
Enlace a página de AINVEX:
http://ainvex.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/curso-ingenieria-del-conocimiento-y-del.html

Introducir el concepto de Vigilancia Tecnológica, herramienta de la Ingeniería del Conocimiento, para el desarrollo de... more Introducir el concepto de Vigilancia Tecnológica, herramienta de la Ingeniería del Conocimiento, para el desarrollo de productos comerciales innovadores como fuente prometedora de empleo para las nuevas generaciones de licenciados e ingenieros es el objetivo del curso ”Ingeniería del Conocimiento y del Producto”, organizado por el Grupo de investigación “Techné. Ingeniería del Conocimiento y del Producto” y la Asociación de Investigadores Extranjeros, AINVEX; con la financiación del Vicerrectorado de Estudiantes, y la colaboración de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad de Granada

Según explica Rafael Bailón Moreno, profesor del Departamento de Ingeniería Química e investigador responsable de “Techné, Ingeniería del Conocimiento y del Producto”, “La industria moderna para ser competitiva necesita lanzar al mercado productos cada vez más innovadores y competitivos. La dinámica es tan rápida e implica tantos factores de tipo comercial, científico, tecnológico, sociológico, etcétera, que los responsables de tomar decisiones en las empresas, así como los técnicos y científicos que desarrollan los productos, deben estar perfectamente informados y tener un conocimiento fiable y preciso de las últimas innovaciones en productos comerciales”.

De esta manera, la información científica y tecnológica, procedente de los miles e incluso millones de documentos publicados tales como artículos de revista científica, patentes de invención, informes tecnológicos, publicaciones en prensa de divulgación, anuncios publicitarios, etcétera, es tan amplia que no es humanamente abarcable por la simple lectura de todos estos documentos. Este proceso se denomina Vigilancia Tecnológica y emplea, para ser eficaz, los denominados Sistemas de Conocimiento, basados en el análisis de palabras asociadas. Los sistemas de conocimiento pueden leer automáticamente el contenido textual de miles y miles de documentos y convertir esta información en conocimiento positivo para que las personas que deban tomar decisiones lo hagan de forma razonada. Estas técnicas de Ingeniería del Conocimiento son muy útiles en muchos ámbitos científicos y empresariales, como la búsqueda de empleo, por ejemplo, y son de vital importancia en el desarrollo de productos comerciales innovadores y competitivos.

En el curso “Ingeniería del Conocimiento y del Producto” los alumnos se introducirán de forma práctica en las técnicas de Vigilancia Científica y Tecnológica, basadas en la denominada teoría actor-red y que emplea el análisis de palabras asociadas para extraer el conocimiento positivo de miles de documentos a la vez. Se les indicará, en una primera etapa, cómo utilizar estas técnicas, que incluyen la cartografía del conocimiento, en la búsqueda inteligente de empleo. En este bloque temático se realizarán prácticas con el software Redes 2005 y se accederá a diversos portales de empleo.

Los alumnos fabricarán crema cosmética diseñada previamente con requerimientos tecnocientíficos

En un segundo bloque, los alumnos se introducirán en la Ingeniería del Producto de mano de la Vigilancia Tecnológica. De acuerdo con la teoría actor-red, los elementos científicos y tecnológicos son de igual importancia que los elementos sociológicos y de costumbres de los usuarios, en el desarrollo de productos comerciales. La parte práctica incluirá búsquedas de patentes de invención y de marcas comerciales en la Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas; y se harán ejercicios de interpretación de etiquetas de productos que están en el mercado (en especial sobre la información respecto de la composición de estos productos).

Como los campos de la detergencia, productos de higiene, cosméticos, de alimentación y farmacéuticos, son dentro de la industria, los campos donde el producto es más relevante, los alumnos fabricarán en el laboratorio una crema cosmética que se habrá diseñado previamente atendiendo a requerimientos tecnocientíficos y de costumbres sociales y de uso. Este producto tendrá los requisitos de cualquier producto de los que hay en el mercado y cada alumno se llevará su propio tarro de crema a su casa y podrán usarlo exactamente igual que uno adquirido en el comercio.

Concrete needs no metaphor: Globalized fences as sites of political struggle

by Anna Feigenbaum

Multiregional Emergence of Mobile Pastoralism and Non-Uniform Complexity across Eurasia

by Michael Frachetti

Current Anthropology 2012