Concept information
Preferred term
actor-network theory
Definition
- Actor-network theory (ANT), also known as sociology of translation, is a theory initially developed by science and technology studies scholars—notably Michel Callon, Bruno Latour, and John Law—to account for the hybrid and plural nature of scientific work. Instead of starting from culture and society or, conversely, from nature and technology to explain the production of scientific knowledge, ANT scholars proposed from the 1980s to develop what they call a performative view of the production of science, a view that takes into account not only what scientists accomplish in their laboratory or fieldwork but also what nonhumans do, whether they be machines, texts, or even objects of study. [Source: Encyclopedia of Communication Theory; Actor-Network Theory]
Broader concept
URI
https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/actor-network_theory
{{label}}
{{#each values }} {{! loop through ConceptPropertyValue objects }}
{{#if prefLabel }}
{{/if}}
{{/each}}
{{#if notation }}{{ notation }} {{/if}}{{ prefLabel }}
{{#ifDifferentLabelLang lang }} ({{ lang }}){{/ifDifferentLabelLang}}
{{#if vocabName }}
{{ vocabName }}
{{/if}}