So, some questions I've had as I reflect on ANT.
What are people's thoughts on the permanency, portability, permeability and polymorphism of actors, networks, artifacts (etc) in ANT?
Are the boundaries between networks discernible? How? Are we able to discern the interaction between networks as boundary interactions that result in actor behaviour and interaction?
Do networks, which are emergent or unstable/ephemeral or transnational exist in a state where a boundary or a boundary interaction can be observed?
If a network is determined by the interaction of one or more actors does the network not exist until the interaction? Or is there the potential of a network by virtue of an artifact or is that network extant but in a non-interacting (null?) state?
Okay, that's a start.
Thoughts?
B
Very interesting questions! Two references come immediately to my mind: the first is Marilyn Strathern's "Cutting the Network" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3034901?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents), which addresses the limits of networks both as objects and as analytical concepts. The other is John Law and his colleagues' paper "Modes of Syncretism" (Article Modes of Syncretism: Notes on Noncoherence
), which offers a couple of tools to examine how various actor-networks may relate to each other.- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Social Science