The Routledge Companion to Actor-Network Theory (Routledge Companions)

This companion explores ANT as an intellectual practice, tracking its movements and engagements with a wide range of other academic and activist projects. Showcasing the work of a diverse set of ‘second generation’ ANT scholars from around the world, it highlights the exciting depth and breadth of contemporary ANT and its future possibilities. The companion has 38 chapters, each answering a key question about ANT and its capacities. Early chapters explore ANT as an intellectual practice and highlight ANT’s dialogues with other fields and key theorists. Others open critical, provocative discussions of its limitations. Later sections explore how ANT has been developed in a range of social scientific fields and how it has been used to explore a wide range of scales and sites. Chapters in the final section discuss ANT’s involvement in ‘real world’ endeavours such as disability and environmental activism, and even running a Chilean hospital. Each chapter contains an overview of relevant work and introduces original examples and ideas from the authors’ recent research. The chapters orient readers in rich, complex fields and can be read in any order or combination. Throughout the volume, authors mobilise ANT to explore and account for a range of exciting case studies: from wheelchair activism to parliamentary decision-making; from racial profiling to energy consumption monitoring; from queer sex to Korean cities. A comprehensive introduction by the editors explores the significance of ANT more broadly and provides an overview of the volume. The Routledge Companion to Actor-Network Theory will be an inspiring and lively companion to academics and advanced undergraduates and postgraduates from across many disciplines across the social sciences, including Sociology, Geography, Politics and Urban Studies, Environmental Studies and STS, and anyone wishing to engage with ANT, to understand what it has already been used to do and to imagine what it might do in the future. Actor-Network Theory as a Companion: An Inquiry Into Intellectual Practices by Ignacio Farías, Anders Blok and Celia Roberts SECTION 1: SOME ELEMENTS OF THE ANT PARADIGM(S) Introduction by Ignacio Farías, Anders Blok and Celia Roberts 1. What if ANT Wouldn’t Pursue Agnosticism but Care? by Daniel López-Gómez 2. How to Make ANT Concepts More Real? by Adrian Mackenzie 3. Is ANT’s Radical Empiricism Ethnographic? by Brit Ross Winthereik 4. Can ANT Compare with Anthropology? by Atsuro Morita 5. How to Write After Performativity? by José Ossandón 6. Is ANT a Critique of Capital? by Fabian Muniesa 7. How to Use ANT in Inventive Ways So That Its Critique Will Not Run Out of Steam? by Michael Guggenheim SECTION 2: ENGAGING DIALOGUES WITH KEY INTELLECTUAL COMPANIONS Introduction by Anders Blok, Ignacio Farías and Celia Roberts 8. Is Actant-Rhizome Ontology a More Appropriate Term for ANT? by Casper Bruun Jensen 9. What Can ANT Still Learn From Semiotics? by Alvise Mattozzi 10. What Did We Forget About ANT’s Roots in Anthropology of Writing? by Jérôme D. Pontille 11. As ANT is Getting Undone, Can Pragmatism Help Us Re-Do It? by Noortje Marres 12. Why Does ANT Need Haraway for Thinking About (Gendered) Bodies? by Ericka Johnson 13. How Does Thinking with Dementing Bodies and a. N. Whitehead Reassemble Central Propositions of ANT? by Michael Schillmeier 14. What is the Relevance of Isabelle Stengers’ Philosophy to ANT? by Martin Savransky SECTION 3: TRADING ZONES OF ANT: PROBLEMATISATIONS AND AMBIVALENCES Introduction by Ignacio Farías, Anders Blok and Celia Roberts 15. What Can Go Wrong When People Become Interested in the Non-Human? by Nigel Clark 16. What Possibilities Would a Queer ANT Generate? by Kane Race 17. Is ANT Capable of Tracing Spaces of Affect? by Derek P. McCormack 18. How to Care for Our Accounts? by Sonja Jerak-Zuiderent 19. Is ANT an Artistic Practice? by Francis Halsall 20. How to Stage a Convergence Between ANT and Southern Sociologies? by Marcelo C. Rosa 21. What Might ANT Learn From Chinese Medicine About Difference? by Wen-Yuan Lin SECTION 4: TRANSLATING ANT BEYOND SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Introduction by Celia Roberts, Anders Blok and Ignacio Farías 22. What About Race? by Amade M'charek and Irene Van Oorschot 23. What Might We Learn From ANT for Studying Healthcare Issues in the Majority World, and What Might ANT Learn in Turn? by Uli Beisel 24. What is the Value of ANT Research Into Economic Valuation Devices? by Liliana Doganova 25. How Does ANT Help Us to Rethink the City and Its Promises? by Alexa Färber 26. How to Study the Construction of Subjectivity with ANT? by Arthur Arruda Leal Ferreira 27. Why Do Maintenance and Repair Matter? by David J. Denis SECTION 5: THE SITES AND SCALES OF ANT Introduction by Anders Blok, Ignacio Farías and Celia Roberts 28. Are Parliaments Still Privileged Sites for Studying Politics and Liberal Democracy? by Endre Dányi 29. How Does an ANT Approach Help Us Rethink the Notion of Site? by Albena Yaneva and Brett Mommersteeg 30. How Does the South Korean City of Kyŏngju Help ANT Think Place and Scale? by Robert Oppenheim 31. How Can ANT Trace Slow-Moving Environmental Harms as They Become Eventful Political Disruptions? by Kregg Hetherington 32. Is ANT Equally Good in Dealing with Local, National and Global Natures? by Kristin Asdal 33. What Happens to ANT and Its Emphasis on the Socio-Material Grounding of the Social, in Digital Sociology? by Carolin Gerlitz and Esther Weltevrede SECTION 6: THE USES OF ANT FOR PUBLIC–PROFESSIONAL ENGAGEMENT Introduction by Celia Roberts, Anders Blok and Ignacio Farías 34. Can ANT Be a Form of Activism? by Tomás Sánchez Criado and Israel Rodríguez-Giralt 35. How Has ANT Been Helpful for Public Anthropologists After the 3.11 Disaster in Japan? by Shuhei Kimura and Kohei Inose 36. How to Move Beyond the Dialogism of the ‘parliament of Things’ and the ‘hybrid Forum’ When Rethinking Participatory Experiments with ANT? by Emma Cardwell and Claire Waterton 37. How Well Does ANT Equip Designers for Socio-Material Speculations? by Alex Wilkie 38. How to Run a Hospital with ANT? by Yuri Carvajal Bañados Section 1 - ANT as an intellectual practice -- Why and how should we distinguish between modes of doing ANT? / Daniel López Gómez -- How to make concepts with ANT? / Adrian Mackenzie -- Is ANT a critique of capital? / Fabian Muniesa -- How to use ANT in inventive ways so that its critique will not run out of steam? / Michael Guggenheim -- Is ANT's radical empiricism ethnographic? / Brit Ross Winthereik -- Can ANT compare with anthropology? / Atsuro Morita -- How to write after performativity? / José Ossandón -- Section 2 - Engaging dialogues with key intellectual companions -- What can ANT still learn from semiotics? / Alvise Mattozzi -- What can ANT learn from the anthropology of writing? / Jerome Pontille -- What else besides publics could ANT learn from pragmatism? / Noortje Marres -- What is the relevance of Stengers to ANT? / Martin Savransky -- Would we have been better off if ANT had indeed flagged its Deleuzian roots by being called actant-rhizome ontology? / Casper Bruun Jensen -- Why does ANT need Haraway for thinking about (gendered) bodies? / Ericka Johnson -- How does thinking with dementing bodies and A.N. Whitehead reassemble central propositions of ANT? / Michael Schillmeier -- Section 3 - Illicit trading zones of ANT - critical provocations -- What so often goes wrong when people become interested in the non-human? / Nigel Clark -- How to stage a convergence between ANT and Southern Sociologies? / Marcelo C. Rosa -- Is ANT capable of tracing spaces of affect? / Derek McCormack -- What possibilities would a queer actor-network theory generate? / Kane Race -- How can ANT learn from contemporary art? / Francis Halsall -- How to care for our accounts? / Sonja Jerak Zuiderent -- What might ANT learn about difference from Chinese medicine? / Wen-Yuan Lin -- Section 4 - Translating ANT beyond science and technology -- But what about race? / Amade M'charek & Irene Oorschot -- What might we learn from ANT for studying health care issues in the majority world, and what might ANT learn in turn? / Uli Beisel -- What is the value of ANT research into economic valuation devices? / Liliana Doganova -- How does ANT help us rethink the city? / Alexa Färber -- Can ANT cope with subjectivity? / Arthuro Arruda Leal Ferreira -- Why do maintenance and repair matter? / David Denis -- Section 5 - The sites and scales of ANT -- Are parliaments still today privileged sites for studying politics and liberal democracy and at what price? / Endre Danyi -- Is ANT equally good in dealing with local, national, and global natures? / Kristin Asdal -- What happens to ANT, and its emphasis on the socio-material grounding of the social, in digital sociology? / Carolin Gerlitz & Ester Weltervrede -- How do ANT and architectural notions of sites speak to each other? / Albena Yaneva and Brett Mommersteeg -- Does the South Korean city of Kyongju make a specific difference to how ANT can think the category of place? / Robert Oppenheim -- What is ontologically challenging about Paraguayan soybeans when they enter the courtroom? / Kregg Heatherington -- Section 6 - The uses of ANT for public-professional engagement -- Can ANT be a form of activism? / Tomás S. Criado and Israel Rodríguez-Giralt -- Has ANT been helpful for public anthropology after the 3.11 disaster in Japan? / Shuhei Kimura & Kohei Inose -- How can we to move beyond the dialogism of 'the parliament of things' and the 'hybrid forum' when rethinking participatory experiments with ANT? / Claire Waterton and Emma Cardwell -- How well does ANT equip designers for socio-material speculations? / Alex Wilkie -- How to run a hospital with ANT? / Yuri Carvajal Bañados -- Index "This companion explores ANT as an intellectual practice, tracking its movements and engagements with a wide range of other academic and activist projects. Showcasing the work of a diverse set of 'second generation' ANT scholars from around the world, it highlights the exciting depth and breadth of contemporary ANT and its future possibilities. The Routledge Companion to Actor-Network Theory will be an inspiring and lively companion to academics and advanced undergraduates and postgraduates from across many disciplines across the social sciences including Sociology, Geography, Politics and Urban Studies, Environmental Studies and STS"-- Provided by publisher.