SOCI 325: Sociology of Science

Agenda

Actor–
network
theory

  1. Administrative
  2. Actor–network theory:
    overview and key points
  3. Discussion

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Administrative

Group peer assessments

  • You should have received a message in the “Talk” section of the course fileshare with a link to your mid-term group peer evaluation form
  • Completing this form is required; due Wed, Nov 4 at 23h59
    You do not need to turn it in, just fill it out in place
  • Please fill out a numerical score (0 to 10) for each topic for each member of your group
  • The numerical results will be aggregated and shared with the relevant group member
  • Text comments are optional and are just for me
  • The results of this mid-term evaluation will not affect your scores — they are just to let people know how they are doing

Worksheet peer assessment

Actor network theory (ANT)

a close-up color photograph of a red ant's head. The background is stark black.

Overview of ANT

  • ANT was a new theoretical approach to studying science, emerging in the early 1980s.
  • Notable proponents / developers of ANT: Bruno Latour; Michel Callon; John Law
  • Broadly, ANT takes issue with the Modern idea that culture and nature are inherently distinct.
  • According to ANT, objects do not need to be seen in relation to humans to have meaning.
  • Since its introduction, ANT has expanded beyond STS and is used in a wide array of sociological research.

ANT and the Strong Programme

“Supersymmetric”

  • ANT applies the principle of symmetry from Bloor’s Strong Programme in a much more fundamental way.
  • Rather than just treatinng ‘true’ and ‘false’ ideas as equally founded on social processes, ANT argues that the social and the material result from the same (relational) processes.
  • ANT’s symmetry can be seen either as a generalization or a refutation of the Strong Programme.

The role of scientists in society

  • ANT criticizes the Strong Programme for giving sociologists a monopoly on theories of social processes.

The role of non-humans in science

  • ANT criticizes the Strong Programme for giving humans a monopoly on reality, restricting the ability of non-humans to affect our understanding of them.

Actor networks

Alliance

  • For ANT, technoscientific endeavors are processes of creating and strengthening networks of alliance.
  • Networks (and therefore everything) are made up of (human and non-human) actants, objects with interests that cause them to act.

Translation

  • Alliances rely on translation.
  • Translation frames the interests of actors so that they are working toward the same goal.
    E.g. attachment of larvae in Callon (1984)

Power

  • Translation and alliance lead to power relations.
  • Distinct translations/frames can lead to distinct actions.

Animation of six characters in different brightly colored full-body outfits placing their hands in the center of a circle (power rangers). A spark of energy seems to shoot from their bodies to the point where their hands meet

Actor network theory

A network diagram showing stylized icons of seven actants: Three scientists, Ocean currents, Scallop larvae, Scientific colleagues, Pecten Maximus, and Scallop fishers. All of the relations except those connecting to the scientists and the relation between the scallop larvae and the pecten maximus are faded.

Epistemology in ANT

Not purely social-constructivist

  • ANT emphasizes that reality is not centered on humans.
  • The networks that define the reality of entities can exist far from human influence.

Relational materialism

  • Objects’ reality is dependent on their relations.
  • Reality is in the relationships between entities.
  • “A little bit of constructivism takes you far away from realism; a complete constructivism brings you back to it.”
    —Bruno Latour

Epistemology in ANT

An illustration of an old man being chased by a ghostly figure in a robe

What makes an atom more real than a ghost is not that the former exists as a real state of affairs and the latter only in our minds. Instead, what makes the atom more real is that it has more allies, including allies stretching well beyond the human realm. Experiments testify to the atom’s existence; instruments stabilize it and make it indirectly visible; the scientific profession is transformed by it; generations of children learn about atoms and pass the word along; Brownian motion shows that particles of water are moved by atoms…. By contrast, the ghost has only a paltry number of allies bearing witness to its reality, such as hysterical children and a few old legends. But it might also happen that the atom’s allies desert it one day too.

Harman, Graham. 2009. Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour
and Metaphysics. Anamnesis. Prahran, Vic.: Re.press.
pp. 110–11

Next class

Political economy of science & technology

  • Sismondo (2009)
    Chapter 17: Political Economies of Knowledge

(No group work)

Image credit

a close-up color photograph of a red ant's head. The background is stark black.

“Red ant” by USGS Bee Lab, Public Domain Mark

Animation of six characters in different brightly colored full-body outfits placing their hands in the center of a circle (power rangers). A spark of energy seems to shoot from their bodies to the point where their hands meet

Power Rangers animation from via tenor

A network diagram showing stylized icons of seven actants: Three scientists, Ocean currents, Scallop larvae, Scientific colleagues, Pecten Maximus, and Scallop fishers. All of the relations except those connecting to the scientists and the relation between the scallop larvae and the pecten maximus are faded.

Source images from Noun Project
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

An illustration of an old man being chased by a ghostly figure in a robe

Illustration by Arthur Rackham in The Ingoldsby legends

By building a network around the frame of “attachment of larvae” the three scientists were able to build a network of alliance in which they were the most powerful actor They did this by excluding relations within other networks

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Link to Hacking