No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Some Elements of A Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay
Abstract
This paper outlines a new approach to the study of power, that of the sociology of translation. Starting from three principles, those of agnosticism (impartiality between actors engaged in controversy), generalised symmetry (the commitment to explain conflicting viewpoints in the same terms) and free association (the abandonment of all a priori distinctions between the natural and the social), the paper describes a scientific and economic controversy about the causes for the decline in the population of scallops in St. Brieuc Bay and the attempts by three marine biologists to develop a conservation strategy for that population. Four 'moments' of translation are discerned in the attempts by these researchers to impose themselves and their definition of the situation on others: (a) problematisation: the researchers sought to become indispensable to other actors in the drama by defining the nature and the problems of the latter and then suggesting that these would be resolved if the actors negotiated the 'obligatory passage point' of the researchers' programme of investigation; (b) interessement: a series of processes by which the researchers sought to lock the other actors into the roles that had been proposed for them in that programme; (c) enrolment: a set of strategies in which the researchers sought to define and interrelate the various roles they had allocated to others; (d) mobilisation: a set of methods used by the researchers to ensure that supposed spokesmen for various relevant collectivities were properly able to represent those collectivities and not betrayed by the latter. In conclusion it is noted that translation is a process, never a completed accomplishment, and it may (as in the empirical case considered) fail.
... The establishment of an actor network is contingent upon the ongoing translation of interests among its actors (Callon, 1984;Cohen and Cohen, 2012;Latour, 1983). Translation refers to the process by which actors strive to articulate the interests of other actors on their terms (Law and Hassard, 1999). ...
... Translation refers to the process by which actors strive to articulate the interests of other actors on their terms (Law and Hassard, 1999). Callon (1984) outlines four stages of translation, which are interwoven rather than occurring in a strictly linear fashion. If the translation process is successful, the focal actor 'speaks for others but in its own language' (Callon et al., 1986, p. 26). ...
... This preference leads to a tendency among EMs to 'use smartphones for immediate information acquisition rather than visiting libraries' (B2 In the actor network, EMs' existing information acquisition channels, as nonhuman actors, have attracted EMs by offering convenient information services, thereby establishing stable network relationships. These established relationships may hinder libraries, as new actors, from being integrated into the network, since existing actors strive to maintain the stability of the network (Callon, 1984). Consequently, EM residents lack the motivation to shift their information acquisition habits from current channels to libraries, posing challenges for libraries to pass the OPP. ...
Introduction. Ethnic minorities (EMs) are a significant focus for public libraries striving to enhance more inclusive, egalitarian and sustainable services. Despite the availability of library services to EMs, their engagement in libraries is still relatively low, which can be further attributed to the lack of library consciousness. Method. This study selected City L, an autonomous city for EMs located in the southwest of China, as the research site to explore the human and nonhuman actors of EMs’ library consciousness. The ethnographic method was conducted through a 12-month longitudinal observation and engagement in City L. A total of 35 government officials and librarians, as well as 128 EM residents, were interviewed. Analysis and Results. Adopting actor-network theory as an approach, the thematic analysis reveals the interactive relationship and translation process between human and nonhuman heterogeneous actors (including cultural traditions, education levels, information acquisition channels, economic conditions, EM residents, librarians and government officials) in the establishment of EMs’ library consciousness. Conclusions. Cultural traditions were positioned as the focal actor due to their influence on EMs’ knowledge acquisition processes. Based on the findings, stakeholders in EMs’ library services can take corresponding actions to shape EMs’ library consciousness.
... Наукові розвідки у сфері цифрової економіки, в числі яких праці авторських колективів на чолі О. Булатової [1; 2], О. Десятнюк [16; 17], С. Хаминич [21], Н. Резнікової і В. Панченка [3-7; 27-30], А. Шлапак [10][11][12], Л. Шворак [8; 9], які представляють наукові школи України, можна визначити як сукупність досліджень, які прагнуть проаналізувати, в який спосіб процеси оцифрування, цифровізації та цифрової трансформації впливають на зміни ринкової кон'юнктури, суб'єктів господарювання та всіх учасників як з боку попиту, так і пропозиції, і які при цьому виникають виклики нерівності. [15] відзначили, що сукупність об'єктивних і суб'єктивних норм, а також людська мотивація разом із уявленнями про допустимі межі контролю над поведінкою пояснюють значні відмінності у фактичних реакціях індивідів на становлення нового цифрового середовища. ...
... Квасний і М. Кейл [22]). Серед теоретиків, що абсолютизують роль соціальної динаміки і специфіку накопичення й відтворення соціального капіталу виокремлюємо праці М. Каллон [15], Ж.Дж.П.-А. Се, А. Рай, М. Кейл [20]. ...
... Соціальний вплив і динаміка Теорія акторської мережі (Actor-network theory) описує безперервність мережевих ефектів в системі й виокремлює взаємодію як сукупність чотирьох різних етапівпроблематизація, зацікавленість, зарахування та мобілізація. М. Каллон [15] Ж.Дж.П.-А. Се, А. Рай, М. Кейл [20] Ефекти однолітків (Peer effects) виникають, коли поведінка/дії індивіда безпосередньо залежать від наявності цієї дії в референтній групі. ...
The purpose of the study is to determine the role of social factors in exacerbating manifestations of inequality and the risks of the emergence of new forms of digital inequality as a trigger for increasing development disparities in conditions of transformational changes. The article analyzes the social consequences of digitization and digitalization as components of a larger phenomenon of digital transformation. The digital transformation of the social sphere is becoming a powerful catalyst and factor in enhancing inclusivity: thanks to it, connections between different communities are established faster and more effectively, and information, ideas and products are exchanged. The emphasis is on the phenomenon of digital discrimination in view of the scale of the digital divide between countries. The impact of artificial intelligence on productive capacity is determined and it is proven that the main effect of measures to reduce digital inequality in the context of the development of socio-economic systems is an indirect effect, which is manifested, for example, in increasing labor productivity, increasing the speed and scale of innovations, and increasing returns per unit of resources spent. Three levels of digital inequality are distinguished. The impact of subjective expectations from technological transformations is considered depending on the information gap and information asymmetry. Digital inclusion is considered as a process of promoting the growth of digital capabilities, access, knowledge and skills in the use of technologies, in particular the Internet. It is substantiated under what conditions digital inclusion in the digital system will form new manifestations of inequality. The phenomenon of adverse digital incorporation is considered as a process in which privileged groups benefit at the expense of disadvantaged groups or groups that are situationally in a less advantageous position.
... The focus in this paper is online teaching, and breakdowns are scoped beyond the technologies involved and encompass any social, material or discursive entity. An actor network perspective (Callon 1986;Latour 1987;Law 2000) is used to explore the relationality between social and technological entities, or the sociotechnical assemblage which constitutes online teaching. It argues that (i) crucial factors are hidden by the normative perspective inherent in the implementation of technology systems, and (ii) recognising the connections between the social, material and discursive entities in online learning offers a strong analytic basis for innovative teaching and learning practice. ...
... In this study I bring a relational perspective to the way people work with technologies in their academic practice of teaching and learning. This perspective derives from two theoretical directions which converge in this analysis: an actor network approach (Callon, 1986;Latour, 1987;Law, 1999b) is used to explore the relations between actors -both human and nonhuman -in the situated cases of breakdown in online teaching and learning. Actors, then, are "entities that do things" (Latour, 1992). ...
... Latour refers to "blackboxing" which refers to the way "technical work is made invisible by its own success" (1999, p. 304). A black box is a set of relations, a hybrid of social and material elements, that constitutes the temporary settling of a controversy (Callon, 1986), that persists and is transportable. By implication, there was resistance and still work required in assembling and maintaining the network of relations. ...
The term “innovation” is mainly associated with change in practice using educational technology. This paper explores the question of why innovations in online teaching and learning in higher education break down or deliver less than they promise: why they are so resource intensive, so prone to breakdown, and why they often fail to live up to their promises? Two cases of innovation were selected from a broad doctoral research project across three Australian universities, involving 24 interviewees. One case was a bottom-up, wiki-based learning space inspired by a constructivist commitment, the other a top-down response to organisational change in a degree program. Despite literature on case studies which offer useful evidence-based approaches and models for online pedagogy, there is a lack of analytical perspectives with which to engage with breakdowns and “thwarted innovation” in online learning. The focus in this paper is online teaching, and breakdowns are scoped beyond the technologies involved and encompass any social, material or discursive entity. An actor network perspective (Callon 1986; Latour 1987; Law 2000) is used to explore the relationality between social and technological entities, or the sociotechnical assemblage which constitutes online teaching. It argues that (i) crucial factors are hidden by the normative perspective inherent in the implementation of technology systems, and (ii) recognising the connections between the social, material and discursive entities in online learning offers a strong analytic basis for innovative teaching and learning practice.
... 5 We define an assemblage 6 as an open-ended gathering of several different, and sometimes in contrast, elements that can range from material artefacts, to texts, to people or organizations, and that can also include for example cities or biological or linguistic elements. 7 The relations between the elements of the assemblage are non-linear, complex and never predictable, but nonetheless these heterogeneous elements can find an alliance [36], a "sympathy" in Deleuze and Guattari [17] terms, that makes them gather together. ...
... Indeed what we call the code level is an important element of the cheating assemblage in MMORPGs. There are of course a whole set of relations between the game architecture and the game code and they can be analytically distinguished, insofar they have 20 See here an example from edgeofnowhere forums: http://www.edgeofnowhere.cc/viewtopic.php?p=2887795 21 An alternative concept for understanding this process is that of detour, in which actors are often being forced to accept a deviation (see for example [7]; [38]) as part of the betrayal process known as translation [36]. different roles in the assemblage. ...
... It is mainly in this way that software licenses exercise their power. Indeed a license can be defined as what in Actor-Network Theory is called an obligatory point of passage [7]: in other words, if one would like to play the game one must accept the EULA and the ToS. Previously we have described the Warden anti-cheating tool which, among other things, scans the users' machines searching for cheating code in execution. ...
This paper theoretically and empirically explores cheating in MMORPGs. This paper conceptualises cheating in MMORPGs as a sociotechnical practice which draws upon a non-linear assemblage of human actors and non-human artefacts, in which the practice of cheating is the result or the outcome of an assemblage. We draw upon the assemblage conceptualizations proposed in [16] and [8] and on empirical data taken from a pilot study we have conducted during the period September-November 2008 and from an ethnography we are conducting in the MMORPG Tibia (http://www.tibia.com) since January 2009. This game in particular was chosen because CipSoft, the company that develops the game, launched an anti- cheating campaign at the beginning of 2009.
... Actor network theory (ANT) was developed by Latour [14] on the basis of the study of Callon [15] and Law [16]. It posits that the interpretive roles of nature and society in shaping scientific knowledge should be treated symmetrically, meaning that non-human actors (e.g., animals, technologies, ideas, and the environment) have the same dynamic role as human actors [14][15][16][17]. ...
... Actor network theory (ANT) was developed by Latour [14] on the basis of the study of Callon [15] and Law [16]. It posits that the interpretive roles of nature and society in shaping scientific knowledge should be treated symmetrically, meaning that non-human actors (e.g., animals, technologies, ideas, and the environment) have the same dynamic role as human actors [14][15][16][17]. In Callon's study, three marine biologists enlisted scallops, fishermen, and scientific colleagues to form a cohesive action framework addressing the decline of scallops in St. Brieuc Bay [15]. ...
... It posits that the interpretive roles of nature and society in shaping scientific knowledge should be treated symmetrically, meaning that non-human actors (e.g., animals, technologies, ideas, and the environment) have the same dynamic role as human actors [14][15][16][17]. In Callon's study, three marine biologists enlisted scallops, fishermen, and scientific colleagues to form a cohesive action framework addressing the decline of scallops in St. Brieuc Bay [15]. According to ANT, social activities involve heterogeneous actors forming networks to address specific challenges. ...
As the competition of standards among enterprises turns to the competition among innovation ecosystems, how to construct the technology standardization innovation ecosystem (TSIE) is of great significance to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises and even industries. Based on the perspective of actor network theory (ANT) through the case study of Haier, this paper constructs an ANT model for the formation of a TSIE and tries to answer the following questions: how is the TSIE formed? how do the actors gather and what roles do they play in the formation process? and what role do technology standards play in the formation process? This research finds that the formation of the TSIE results from interactions among the actors of ANT over different periods. The focal actors play a crucial role; their roles change from the construction of their own actor network to the empowerment of the sub-actor network construction. Other actors evolve from being defined to defining roles themselves. Standards are also crucial throughout this process: initially, they recruit and coordinate the primary actors to form close relationships, and later they facilitate bidirectional regulation, enable standardization, and coordinate the formation and development of sub-ecosystems. This paper explores the evolution of TSIE through the lens of ANT, advancing its application within this context. It enriches the theoretical research on this subject and offers a theoretical foundation for large enterprise platforms to facilitate the transformation of TSIE.
... In this period, Latham (2002), Leitner (2002) and Cox (1998) evaluated scale within the framework of Actor-Network Theory (ANT). ANT argues that social processes are shaped by people and non-human actors such as objects, technologies and ideas (Latour, 1987;Callon, 1986;Law, 1999). Latham (2002) emphasised how the local and the global are constructed simultaneously through a topological approach, analysing space and scale through relations. ...
... Bu süreçte aktörler, kendilerini ve ilişkilerini yeniden tanımlar. Çeviriyi gerçekleştiren aracılar (intermediaries), ağın farklı noktalarını birbirine bağlayan önemli bağlantılardır (Callon, 1986;Latour, 1987Latour, , 1999Law, 1999). Latham (2002), küreselleşme ve yerel ile küresel arasındaki ilişkiyi yeniden düşünme çabalarını ele aldığı çalışmasında, topoloji yaklaşımını ve aktör-ağlar (actor-networks) kavramını kullanarak, yerel ve küresel olanın nasıl aynı anda inşa edildiğini anlamaya çalışmıştır. ...
... У 1980-х роках дослідники, такі як Баррі Барнс [5], Мішель Каллон [7] і Джон Ло [18], аналізували теми автономії та влади через призму делегування та дії на відстані, уникаючи використання соціальних структур як основи для пояснення колективних дій. Їхні дослідження заклали фундамент для акторномережевої теорії (Actor-network theory), яка вивчає зусилля з визначення суспільства через асоціації, включаючи технічні пристрої. ...
... Вчені, які розвивали цю область, поширили принцип обмеження дискреції на нелюдських акторів. Каллон запропонував чітку формулювання, згідно з яким будь-яка боротьба передбачає визначення акторів і їх характеристик, а їх взаємодія здійснюється через запозичення сили в процесі, позначеному як «трансляція» [7]. ...
У роботі обґрунтовано стратегії мінімізації ризиків, що інтегрують технологічні, економічні, соціальні та культурні аспекти функціонування біткоїна в підприємницькій діяльності. Мета. Дослідження спрямована на теоретичне обґрунтування підходів до управління ризиками при інтеграції біткоїна в бізнес-процеси з використанням акторно-мережевої методології, що дозволяє розглядати криптовалютну систему як сукупність взаємодіючих гетерогенних елементів. Методи. У роботі використано міждисциплінарний підхід, що об'єднує акторно-мережеву теорію, концепції інформаційної безпеки та інституційний аналіз криптоекономічних систем. Проведено систематизацію досліджень функціонування протоколу Біткоїн з позиції взаємодії технічних і соціальних компонентів. Застосовано компаративний аналіз архітектури безпеки традиційних фінансових систем і децентралізованих криптовалютних структур. Результати. Систематизовано основні категорії ризиків, пов'язаних з використанням біткоїна в бізнесі (волатильність цін, регуляторна невизначеність, кіберзагрози, операційні та репутаційні ризики), оцінено їхню специфіку з урахуванням децентралізованої природи криптовалюти. Виявлено подвійну природу транзакцій, що виступають одночасно засобом передачі вартості та об'єктом економічної конкуренції, що створює специфічне середовище ризиків. Проаналізовано практичний досвід провідних учасників криптовалютної індустрії, що демонструє ефективність багаторівневих підходів до управління ризиками. Розглянуто роль технічних особливостей протоколу Біткоїн (децентралізація, криптографічний захист, прозорість реєстру, незмінність даних) в управлінні ризиками. Обґрунтовано, що ці характеристики створюють принципово іншу архітектуру безпеки порівняно з традиційними фінансовими системами, що вимагає від бізнесу переосмислення підходів до оцінки та мінімізації ризиків. Висновки. Ефективне управління ризиками при використанні біткоїна в бізнесі вимагає комплексного підходу, що інтегрує технологічні рішення з фінансовими та організаційними заходами. Фундаментальні характеристики протоколу Біткоїн створюють принципово іншу архітектуру безпеки порівняно з традиційними системами, що зумовлює необхідність перегляду класичних методів оцінки та мінімізації ризиків.
... Understanding how a programme is worked out in practice requires an examination of how actors "respond" to this construct. Informed by the work of Bruno Latour (1987) and Michel Callon (1984), Actor-network theory (ANT) focuses on understanding how complex social materialities are worked out and the role of knowledge and meaning in this process. Within ANT, such materialities are constantly being created and maintained through complex interactions between actors and objects. ...
... According to Callon, translation involves human and nonhuman actors coming into alignment in a network, allowing their representation as a single entity. This involves a series of stages through which a particular definition of the network and its purpose are agreed upon (problematisation), leading to certain roles being defined within the network (interessement), followed by actors accepting/assuming these roles (enrolment), enabling certain actors to speak for and direct the network (mobilisation) (Callon 1984). Those actors who succeed in having networks problematised in line with their interests are capable of locking other actors into roles which allow them to mobilise networks in line with their interests. ...
Indonesia established the Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG, now BRGM) in 2016 to address land and forest fire issues through measures to develop and strengthen the implementation of policies to restore some part of the 24 million hectares of the country's damaged peatlands. BRGM was presented as a response to the transboundary haze issue and was applauded globally, with substantial success claimed in delivering changes in local land management behaviours. However, limited detailed analyses have been conducted regarding how the BRGM programme is implemented. Employing concepts drawn from work exploring multilevel governance strategies and actor-network theory (ANT), we explore how the BRGM’s programmes were implemented in seven different district locations in Riau province. We focus on local actors' views concerning the programme to assess local perceptions and responses to BRGM initiatives. Our findings show that multilevel peatland governance, as implemented by BRGM, encounters significant obstacles and challenges. Key issues were linked to poor coordination and synergy between different levels of governance and the actors involved, which in turn hampered collaboration efforts. In addition, problematic implementation due to formal and informal power struggles linked to actors' diverse interests also inevitably impacted local responses to the programme and, hence, its performance and efficacy. We suggest that these underreported factors inevitably affect the BRGM programmes' capacity to deliver on their formal aims sustainably and may hinder the achievement of justice and equity outcomes in the community.
... From the perspective of this article, the notion of interest presented by Callon (1986) is relevant. For Cavalcanti (2016), interest refers to processes in which authors seek to ensure that others will fulfill specific roles -in these "identities processes" are defined in a relational, negotiated, and always a provisional way (Callon, 1986). ...
... From the perspective of this article, the notion of interest presented by Callon (1986) is relevant. For Cavalcanti (2016), interest refers to processes in which authors seek to ensure that others will fulfill specific roles -in these "identities processes" are defined in a relational, negotiated, and always a provisional way (Callon, 1986). Thus, one of the advances of ANT is "[...] the understanding that organizations, the economy, innovations, the various actors, technologies, the social, are effects generated from arrangements (sets of relationships) of the network" (Burtet, 2019, p. 52). ...
Objective: The purpose of this article is to understand the controversies surrounding autonomous vehicles, explaining how this disruptive innovation has been implemented in different ways in Brazil and France.Methodology: We mobilized the perspective of the Actor-Network Theory that overcomes an individualistic view by describing the heterogeneous interactions between humans and non-humans in the innovation process. The method of this study was cartography of controversies. Data were collected through YouTube videos, scientific articles, law texts, texts in magazines and by inserting one of the researchers in a discussion group on the subject.Originality/Relevance: This study departs from a perspective that circumvents the technological determinism of a technoscience that tends to discard broader social implications such as transformations in experiences, ethical and moral issues, inequalities and work.Main Results: Autonomous vehicles transit through different uncertainties that permeate controversies involving four central issues: business models, transport planning and urban mobility, public policies, ethical aspects and legal issues.Theoretical/methodological contributions: The study demonstrates that there is the performance of multiple autonomous vehicles in practices related to public policies, ethical and legal aspects, urban mobility and new business models – in each practice, vehicle technology is enacted in different ways. So far, a VA is not a stabilized artifact, it is a technology whose design is, today, in the midst of several controversies.
... For these reasons, we discuss agency as a phenomenon involving game and player, distinguishing it from the illusion of agency (for players) and a purely structural view (which elides audience expectation and understanding). 3 In some ways our approach might be seen as related to work around concepts such as "actor-network theory," which do not reserve agency for human beings, but suggest that things are also actors [3,4,11]. It might also be seen as compatible with work around "activity theory," which makes a similar move but does not view human and object agency as symmetrical, placing emphasis on the intention behind human agency [10]. ...
... For these reasons, we discuss agency as a phenomenon involving game and player, distinguishing it from the illusion of agency (for players) and a purely structural view (which elides audience expectation and understanding). 3 In some ways our approach might be seen as related to work around concepts such as "actor-network theory," which do not reserve agency for human beings, but suggest that things are also actors [3,4,11]. It might also be seen as compatible with work around "activity theory," which makes a similar move but does not view human and object agency as symmetrical, placing emphasis on the intention behind human agency [10]. ...
... As the major architect of the actor-network theory, Latour argued that for a better understanding of a society, one must investigate human and non-human actors (Latour & Woolgar, 1979). Another proponent and contributor of ANT, Callon, used the concept "translation" to describe the emergence of a network, denoting all kinds of interaction such as negotiation, persuasion, disputes, and even violence between the actors, with " translation" consisting of four critical moments: problematization, interessement, enrollment, and mobilization (Callon, 1984). ...
Introduction: Increasing complexities and changes in global sport governance required the collaboration of international organizations and governments, with traditional governance issues such as gender conflicts still persisted, while new conflicts continued to emerge, international organizations were not able to tackle governance challenges solely. Objective: The study focused on the collaborative governance between the International Olympic Committee and United Nations Women. Methodology: This study constructs diachronic corpus in the framework of actor-network theory, with which high frequency governance participants and keywords were analyzed via AntConc 4.2.4, while BibExcel and Ucinet 6.0 were employed to illustrate their heterogeneous networks, main problems faced in each period as well as participation in a chronological manner. Utilizing the Blau index and Ucinet 6.0, the study calculated networks’ heterogeneity index and density, exploring the development and mechanism of collaborative sport governance. Results: The collaborative sport governance revolved around female leadership, anti-violence and welfare; campaigns and programs need to integrate organizational governance, Olympic legacy inheritance, governmental gender equality, commercialization of sponsorship, etc; governance participants were the most diverse from 2017 to 2019 and exhibited the highest connectivity from 2020 to 2024, indicating that the diversity of participants in collaborative sport governance fluctuated with problems, but multilateral connections have witnessed a continuous steady increase. Conclusions: Governance participants need to balance interests and risks, adopt changes and seek common grounds while respecting differences, therefore forming a diverse, inter-connected, stable and sustainable mechanism for collaborative sport governance, and ultimately achieving gender equality.
... ANT posits that things take shape and acquire their attributes through a network of relations that establish themselves with one another, existing only through these relations (Law, 1999). While entities, in their broadest sense, are generally conceived as having stability and singularity (Law, 2002), ANT, by contrast, argues that they are a result achieved when different heterogeneous elements are continuously brought together, interacting with each other (Callon, 1986;Law, 1999). It is an empirical version of post-structuralism, grounded in empirical studies (Law, 2007;. ...
The creative industries sector is a field where art, culture, technology, entertainment, and management converge. Although it is a promising field for organizational analysis, mainly because it is characterized by dynamism, complexity, and possible contradictions between art/culture and business, little is known about creative work or the organization of creative products or services. Some products of the creative industries have some particularities, such as “live” performances, presented with the presence of an audience in the space and moment in which the action takes place, being organized and experienced simultaneously. Given the scarcity of empirical studies aimed at understanding how artistic/cultural or entertainment events or performances are organized, this article, in the form of a theoretical essay, aims to present two theoretical-methodological approaches that can potentially be explored in understanding the processes of “live” organizing: Actor-Network Theory and the Dynamics of Organizational Routines. It is presented and justified why these approaches can be used to understand “live organizing,” especially performing arts such as plays, operas, ballets, or popular and classical music concerts.
... A TAR preconiza que as coisas tomam forma e adquirem seus atributos por meio de uma rede de relações que estabelecem umas com as outras, existindo somente por meio dessas relações (Law, 1999). Enquanto entidades em seu sentido mais amplo são, geralmente, concebidas como tendo estabilidade e singularidade (Law, 2002), a TAR, em contraste, defende que elas são um resultado atingido quando diferentes elementos heterogêneos são continuamente reunidos, relacionando-se entre si (Callon, 1986;Law, 1999). Trata-se de uma versão empírica do pós-estruturalismo, sendo fundamentada em estudos empíricos (Law, 2007;. ...
Resumo As indústrias criativas referem-se a um campo de convergência entre arte, cultura, tecnologia, entretenimento e gestão. Embora seja um campo promissor para a análise organizacional, principalmente por ser caracterizado pelo dinamismo, complexidade e por possíveis contradições entre arte/cultura e negócios, pouco se sabe sobre o trabalho criativo ou a organização de produtos ou serviços criativos. Alguns produtos das indústrias criativas possuem certas particularidades, como as performances “ao vivo”, apresentadas com a presença de público no espaço e no momento em que a ação acontece, sendo organizada e vivenciada ao mesmo tempo. Diante da escassez de estudos empíricos voltados para a compreensão de como eventos ou apresentações artístico-culturais ou de entretenimento são organizados, o presente artigo, no formato de ensaio teórico, tem como objetivo apresentar duas abordagens teórico-metodológicas que, potencialmente, podem ser exploradas para compreender os processos de organizar “ao vivo”: a Teoria Ator-Rede e a Dinâmica das Rotinas Organizacionais. Tais teorias se apresentam e se justificam porque as referidas abordagens podem ser utilizadas na compreensão das “organizações ao vivo”, principalmente as artes performáticas, como peças de teatro, óperas, balés ou concertos musicais populares e eruditos.
... With those, I will retrospectively rebuild, step by step, the different negotiations that happened while making and implementing the algorithm. Following on classical STS literature (Akrich, 1987;Bijker, 1995;Callon, 1984), I will pay particular attention to how the different negotiations happened within the making and implementation of the system that led to its contested outcome. Following Bloor's (1976) principle of symmetry -that encourages us to avoid studying a past controversy following a discourse a posteriori -I will avoid identifying the OfQual algorithm as being neither right nor wrong. ...
In response to the emergence of COVID in England in 2020, the government declared a suspension of face-to-face education. To deal with the cancellation of exams, then minister of education Gavin Williamson assigned the Office of Qualifications (OfQual) with devising a method for awarding grades to students based on the standards they would have met had the examinations not been cancelled. As a response, OfQual implemented a prediction matrix based on the resources available to them: this system is wildly referred to as the OfQual algorithm. However, as the points were delivered on 13 August 2020, disputes arose leading to the cancellation of the algorithm. This paper will focus on the OfQual algorithm as a particularly relevant case to highlight the tensions around the notion of fairness in the implementation of such systems. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies, I will start by opening the black box of the OfQual algorithm. This will, in turn, allow me to identify the conflicting accounts of what is considered as fair in such system and how such accounts were inscribed within this algorithm, questioning what it means for such system to be fair in contexts marked by inequalities.
... A análise foi guiada pelos principais conceitos da ANT: atores humanos e não humanos, agência distribuída, redes sociotécnicas, mediação e tradução (Callon, 1986;Latour, 2005;Sayes, 2014). Foram mapeados os elementos que influenciam o acesso à educação pelas mulheres camponesas, organizados em quadros explicativos que indicam como esses elementos interagem e se relacionam entre si. ...
... Translation, in this context, 2 has to do with turning an issue into a 'portable entity' (Allan, 2017;Barry, 2013;Callon, 1984). For an issue to become an object of global governance, it is important that it be demarcated, but at the same time flexible enough to be understood in different contexts. ...
The enhancement and protection of coastal ecosystems that sequester carbon for climate change mitigation have developed over the last 15 years, and today are part of climate governance. After an initially challenging start in terms of policy interest, Blue Carbon is now included in some countries’ national inventories, and as such, enters the global sums of emissions and sinks, and becomes relevant for market-based mechanisms. This study focuses on how these ecosystems were made governable as carbon sources. This making of Blue Carbon can be seen as a global governance object drawing on the co-production of science and policy. It needs to be understood as both a part of and the result of the broader climate change policy envelope. The application of standardization and the process of making values visible and invisible have been important, inherently building on the idea that the carbon flows of these ecosystems can be managed. They are also subject to their natural actions and responses, and the question of how to manage them if they become greenhouse gas emission sources is left unanswered. Likewise, when Blue Carbon becomes an element of global climate governance in terms of carbon, it blurs the conservation and climate adaptation dimensions of the same systems, which may not be conducive to effective action minding risks and leveraging synergies. Increased plurality in the meaning-making process, with a greater focus on relationality and across policy arenas, could be a way to develop alternative governance mechanisms for coastal ecosystems.
... Dans le secteur associatif, le numérique compense le manque de ressources en améliorant coordination et communication. (Callon, 1986;Latour, 2007) vont plus loin en considérant les outils comme de véritables acteurs des réseaux. Néanmoins, l'adoption du numérique reste difficile dans les associations en raison de formations inadaptées, d'un manque de compétences et d'une fracture numérique persistante. ...
Dans cette étude, nous explorons les effets des usages du numérique sur la collaboration au sein des associations sportives, à travers une recherche qualitative menée auprès de clubs affiliés à la FSGT à La Réunion. En mobilisant la théorie de la structuration d'Orlikowski, nous montrons que l'adoption des outils numériques repose sur trois dynamiques principales : la compétence professionnelle des acteurs, la légitimation institutionnelle et la signification personnelle attachée aux outils. Nous constatons une grande diversité de pratiques numériques, entre initiatives individuelles, contraintes imposées et routines organisationnelles. Nos résultats révèlent une prédominance du travail individuel et de la coordination, au détriment de la coproduction, limitant ainsi l'apprentissage collectif. Nous formulons enfin des recommandations pour accompagner la transformation numérique des clubs, en soulignant l'importance des formations, d'un accompagnement de proximité et d'une stratégie numérique alignée avec les valeurs associatives. Abstract In this study, we explore the effects of digital technology use on collaboration within sports associations through qualitative research conducted with clubs affiliated with the FSGT in Réunion. Using Orlikowski's structuration theory, we show that the adoption of digital tools is based on three main dynamics: the professional competence of the actors, institutional legitimation and the personal significance attached to the tools. Page 2 sur 25 We find a wide variety of digital practices, ranging from individual initiatives to imposed constraints and organisational routines. Our results reveal a predominance of individual work and coordination, to the detriment of co-production, thus limiting collective learning. Finally, we formulate recommendations to support the digital transformation of clubs, emphasising the importance of training, local support and a digital strategy aligned with the values of the association. Les effets des usages du numérique sur la collaboration en milieu associatif : une analyse exploratoire à travers le cas des clubs sportifs
... During this period, researchers heavily drew from functionalism and cultural ecology (McCay 1980;Rappaport 1968;Steward 1955), cultural materialism (Harris,1979), and cognitivism (Pollnac and Poggie 1980). They explored various themes such as competition, autonomy, and the economic stability of fisheries, often in contrast to other theoretical frameworks that adopted a more historically sensitive approach that resonated with post-structuralist studies (Callon 1984;Durrenberg 1990;Einarsson 1989;Palsson 1989). More recently, other authors have delved into fisheries studies through the lenses of political ecology and posthumanist perspectives, bridging the topics of landscape, governmentality, and ethno-ecologies (Lien 2005;Kottak 2006;Swanson 2017). ...
This contribution aims to describe how a small cooperative of fishers, known as the Cooperativa Pescatori del Trasimeno, located in a Central Italian Lake, is developing innovative strategies to address economic and environmental challenges. Through a combination of participant observation and in-depth interviews, this research seeks to determine whether the cultural capital derived from intangible heritage is serving as a strategic asset for the fishers’ cooperative in dealing with both new and longstanding threats. Confronting with the inland pressures of a global market and with the threats posed by invasive species and eutrophication of the lake ecosystem, the fishers rely on their ecological knowledge and emphasize the sustainability of their fishing and processing practices. The primary objective of this article is thus to examine the connections between localized knowledge and resilience-based practices. It does so by delving into the realm of heritage creation through two main areas of focus: the strategic use of intangible heritage to promote economic activities and the importance of community and traditional practices for climate change mitigation and for the self-preservation of the cooperative.
... Dans le secteur associatif, le numérique compense le manque de ressources en améliorant coordination et communication. (Callon, 1986;Latour, 2007) vont plus loin en considérant les outils comme de véritables acteurs des réseaux. Néanmoins, l'adoption du numérique reste difficile dans les associations en raison de formations inadaptées, d'un manque de compétences et d'une fracture numérique persistante. ...
In this study, we explore the effects of digital technology use on collaboration within sports associations through qualitative research conducted with clubs affiliated with the FSGT in Réunion.
Using Orlikowski's structuration theory, we show that the adoption of digital tools is based on three main dynamics: the professional competence of the actors, institutional legitimation and the personal significance attached to the tools.
We find a wide variety of digital practices, ranging from individual initiatives to imposed constraints and organisational routines. Our results reveal a predominance of individual work and coordination, to the detriment of co-production, thus limiting collective learning.
Finally, we formulate recommendations to support the digital transformation of clubs, emphasising the importance of training, local support and a digital strategy aligned with the values of the association.
... Prifti et al. [77]'s categorization of regulation by design here served as a framework to structure the main elements and processes of regulation, as it covers both top-down and bottom-up approaches as described in Section 2.3.1. Further, to capture the notion of translation and map it to the mentioned regulation structure, we drew from Callon [20]'s work on translation in sociology. ...
Explainability and its emerging counterpart contestability have become important normative and design principles for the trustworthy use of AI as they enable users and subjects to understand and challenge AI decisions. However, the regulation of AI systems spans technical, legal, and organizational dimensions, producing a multiplicity in meaning that complicates the implementation of explainability and contestability. Resolving this conceptual ambiguity requires specifying and comparing the meaning of both principles across regulation dimensions, disciplines, and actors. This process, here defined as translation, is essential to provide guidance on the principles' realization. We present the findings of a semi-structured interview study with 14 interdisciplinary AI regulation experts. We report on the experts' understanding of the intersection between explainability and contestability in public AI regulation, their advice for a decision subject and a public agency in a welfare allocation AI use case, and their perspectives on the connections and gaps within the research landscape. We provide differentiations between descriptive and normative explainability, judicial and non-judicial channels of contestation, and individual and collective contestation action. We further outline three translation processes in the alignment of top-down and bottom-up regulation, the assignment of responsibility for interpreting regulations, and the establishment of interdisciplinary collaboration. Our contributions include an empirically grounded conceptualization of the intersection between explainability and contestability and recommendations on implementing these principles in public institutions. We believe our contributions can inform policy-making and regulation of these core principles and enable more effective and equitable design, development, and deployment of trustworthy public AI systems.
... In ANT, the notion of alignment has a fairly precise meaning, referring to the state of agreement generated by a translation, that is, the process whereby a given socio-technical configuration is defined and stabilised around a particular practice that allows the functioning of the whole configuration. Callon suggests that such alignment processes may be observed through the emergence of 'obligatory passage points' (Callon, 1984) framing interactions between actors. He argues that lock-in processes refer to the reinforcement of such states of agreement due to two mechanisms (Callon, 1991): first, the enrolment of a growing number of heterogeneous entities within a given configuration, the accumulation of which increases, for all parties, the obligation to follow any 'passage point' around which this configuration has previously been established; and second, the growth in the degree of reciprocal dependence between the entities of a given sociotechnical configuration. ...
Lock-in mechanisms are common explanations for the persistence of undesirable system configurations in the present. However, studies often analyse lock-ins statically, without tracing and explaining underlying processes. In this article, we explore the development of lock-in over time, by analysing the case study of pesticide lock-in the Senegalese vegetable sector. To this end, we draw on extensive archival document analysis. We trace pesticide lock-in through four periods (from the 1900s to 2024) and explain it as the result of alignment processes across multiple heterogenous dimensions: agricultural policy, input supply, scientific and technical knowledge, on-farm production, and vegetable commercialisation & consumption. These dimensions have aligned in stages, fuelling a dynamic of growing dependence on chemical control. To date, this overall alignment has only been partially challenged, stimulating several adaptations, reinforcing the chemical intensification process, and marginalising attempts to reduce pesticide use. The paper ends with a discussion of conformities and deviations in a case study from the existing literature on lock-in within the agri-food sector in the Global South, before suggesting ways out of the current pesticide lock-in.
... There is always a risk of competing network constellations challenging framing attempts. Thus, distancing is important for framing (Callon 1986(Callon , 1998a. This might concern competing identities. ...
The study aims to contribute knowledge about how we can understand control of digitalization and why digitalization becomes a dispersed practice. The study offers two main contributions. First, we introduce the metaphor chasing digitalization to describe the observed mode of control of digitalization. Control involved chasing after digital solutions—getting hold of things—and chasing in, which entails facilitating activities to ensure organizational adoption. The second contribution deepens our understanding of why digitalization frequently results in a dispersed practice. Chasing in often triggers chasing after and vice versa. For example, when many actors are chasing after, a need arises to coordinate more. Against the backdrop of recurring reports of failed digitalization projects in the public sector, the study contributes by conceptualizing control challenges. The contribution is the result of an empirically grounded analysis based on the actor‐network concepts of framing and overflowing. The empirical case focuses on the Swedish school sector.
... After the data is taken and pulled next done data analysis using Actor Network Theory analysis with Social Network Visualizer application version 3.1. More detailed, according to Callon (1984) socio-technical network analysis carried out through four mutual stages related from the translation process . The four stages are: problematisation, one or more actors formulate the problem; interest, all actors identified in the first stage are assigned roles; enrollment, the success of an activity to attract actors to be involved in solving a problem; and mobilization, when networks of actors are formed with stronger alliances ...
Lake Rawapening is one of the 15 lakes prioritized for preservation based on Presidential Regulation No. 60 of 2021. due to high environmental degradation caused by sedimentation rates that can reduce water depth and quality and harm ecosystem sustainability. This research aims to analyze the roles and contributions of each stakeholder and key actor in the utilization of sediment from Lake Rawapening. The research method used in this study is a qualitative survey method. The number of respondents in this study consists of 18 key informants, 15 main informants, and 3 supporting informants. The analysis used employs Actor Network Theory analysis with the Social Network Visualizer version 3.1 application. Research shows that in the utilization of sediments in Lake Rawapening. The government as the determiner of policy formation and implementation; the sediment utilization institution, which is currently inactive, playing a role in coordination and synergy among stakeholders; sediment dredging fishermen as sediment extractors; sediment porters as the delivery service from the boat to the sediment collection site; sediment collectors as raw material distributors and managers of the sediment collection process; and fertilizer distribution as the link between producers and farmers. The actor with the highest EVC in sediment utilization at Lake Rawapening is the sediment collector at node 5, who becomes the most important actor with an EVC of 100% due to extensive involvement with various parties. Fertilizer distributors from Purwodadi and Ambarawa followed in second place with an EVC of 87.51%, while sediment porters recorded the lowest EVC (0%). The collector at node 7 has the highest CC score (43.61%). Lake Rawapening's sediment collectors have a 39.45% control rate (BC score = 39.45)
... This implies that such expert knowledge is universally applicable and politically neutral, obscuring its social, ethical and political dimensions. But as Callon's (1984) work on translation and other STS analyses have amply shown, engineers, consultants and other infrastructure experts who promote new technological solutions do not merely apply neutral expertise to solve predefined problems, actively shaping, redefining or even inventing problems to align with their available technology, specific expertise and economic and political interests. This process of framing or (re-)inventing urban problems reinforces the authority of technical actors or bureaucrats while masking the contingent and contested nature of infrastructural expertise. ...
This introduction to the special issue critically explores the pervasive logic of solutionism in infrastructure-led urban development and planning-a logic marked not only by the strong belief in the transformative power of infrastructures but also by a tendency to reframe how urban problems are prioritised and governed. Although infrastructures are increasingly positioned as key tools for urban decarbonisation, circularity, resilience or smartness, this introduction critically questions dominant solutionist approaches to complex urban problems. Drawing on recent urban scholarship, it explores infrastructures as ongoing, relational, and contested sociotechnical processes, rethinking transformative urban change as a situated, incremental, and ambiguous process shaped by local politics, materiality, and everyday repair and patching. Contributions to this issue highlight how infrastructural initiatives, even when partial or unrealised, can challenge dominant interests and practices and open space for alternative urban futures. Rather than repudiating infrastructural solutions, therefore, we suggest that the special issue foregrounds infrastructures' contested potential to enable progressive, transformative change. We pull out four transversal themes from the papers, around rethinking governance, repoliticising infrastructure development, embracing incremental and context-sensitive approaches, and expanding conceptions of justice. In doing so, we call for approaches to infrastructural transformation that remain open to uncertainty, friction, and possibility.
... Das Neue ist Ergebnis kollektiver Übersetzungsprozesse und unvorhersehbarer Vernetzungen unterschiedlichster Entitäten und Verbündeter. Basierend auf einer Skepsis gegenüber Planungsallmachtvorstellungen, Wirkzusammenhängen und Machbarkeitsphantasien arbeiten ANT-Vertreter:innen mit einem Übersetzungsmodell (Callon 1984), welches den lokalen und diskontinuierlichen Prozess der Mobilisierung und DIMAI (2025) www.bwpat.de/profil-11_ostendorf 5 ...
... Although traditionally, only humans were recognized as members of a group (and become 'membershipped' therein, Garfinkel, 1967, p. 94), we find both in research and our everyday experience that artefacts are attributed human characteristics, that they are equipped with roles or ascribed human desires, at least temporarily. Perhaps most radically, this has been expressed by proponents of ANT: in his case study of the domestication of scallops, Callon (1984) describes how these shellfish, traditionally not assigned social roles or considered "social" actors, become enrolled into the strategies of researchers that sought to explain the decline of their population. ...
Processes of algorithmic selection, mediation, and decision-making increasingly structure and affect everyday practices. However, as opaque infrastructures that often hide their doings and as embedded into (and reproducing) existing social relations, their influences frequently remain unnoticed by human actors, who either lack the awareness of their presence or the skills necessary to detect encounters with algorithmic systems. Nevertheless, and despite the relative novelty of these technologies, a sociological interest in the background features that guide action is not entirely new: Already in the 1960ies, Harold Garfinkel’s "ethnomethodology" investigated the methods and activities (methodologies) of people (ethnos) that, mediated by their "natural attitude" and a resulting "common sense", enable everyday actions and maintain what is perceived as social order. As a central heuristic of this approach, Garfinkel attempted to “make trouble” and to surface the obscure and taken-for-granted operations of common sense by disrupting social order and “breaching” seemingly natural expectations. Inspired by these ideas, this thesis investigates the possibilities that an ethnomethodological perspective and “breaching experiments” offer to researching the entanglements of algorithmic systems and everyday practices. Following Garfinkel’s question of “what can be done to make trouble?”, this classical approach is interrogated for its potentials, possible applications and practical use cases in a more-than-human world and along the disruption of taken-for-granted practices that surround algorithmic systems in everyday life. A classification of algorithmic breaching experiments is developed by identifying four main dimensions of disruption: nature, type, target, and aim of disruption. Various approaches to algorithmic breaching experiments can thus be facilitated either to violate internalized practical knowledge around algorithmic applications, to surface normative expectations, orders of interpretation or processes of meaning-making. By transferring a classical approach of social science research into the domain of algorithmic sociality, the investigation evaluates the potential of experimental approaches for gaining a better understanding of the lived experiences within the intimate entanglements of algorithms and human practice.
This volume constitutes a significant step in establishing field research as a central methodological approach in translation and interpreting studies. Following an integrative approach, it addresses both translation and interpreting across professional, paraprofessional, and non-professional settings. The chapters in this volume focus on lived experiences in diverse, real-world contexts—including refugee centres, UN missions, NGOs, virtual environments, and the workplaces of specialised translators. They offer rich insights into the situated and dynamic nature of translation and interpreting practices and discuss common aspects and challenges such as the researchers’ reflexivity, ethical considerations, and the role of materiality in fieldwork. By shedding light on underexplored areas and offering critical reflections on field research methodology, the volume contributes to expanding the boundaries of translation and interpreting studies and deepening our understanding of translation and interpreting in their social and material contexts. Published with the support of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
In this Curated conversation, we bring together five scholars with a shared interest in collaborative approaches to grand challenges but who offer distinct approaches and foci. Our intention is to deepen the conversation between different communities in management research, with the ultimate objective of exploring potential avenues for mutual inspiration, learning, and collaboration. In their individual essays, the contributors to this conversation offer pointed insights into different aspects of collaboration in the context of grand challenges. In addition, we identify four pivotal themes across these essays, which, so we argue, constitute suitable foci for scholarly collaboration across community boundaries with the potential to recenter the “big picture” of collaboration. Our hope is to facilitate cross-pollination and thereby generate additional rigorous, realistic, and actionable approaches to the topic.
Ocean governance is the subject of a vibrant and expanding literature in International Relations. Much of this literature has examined the role of rule-making sites in governing the seas, and the extensive role of private, commercial actors therein. While scholars point to expertise as one of the main sources of power and legitimacy for private actors in global rule-making, little scholarship has sought to explore how and why commercial actors have achieved a position of such prominence in maritime policy processes. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies and debates in Historical IR, this paper examines the role of technical expertise and commercial infrastructure as historical drivers of the power of corporate actors in international maritime governance. To do this, it analyses the case of classification societies (in particular, Lloyd’s Register) in the development and implementation of load line regulations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This case study demonstrates how the mobilization of technical expertise and a global commercial infrastructure for the implementation of safety standards beyond the nation state was crucial to the establishment of an international standard of ship loading, centring private actors in maritime governance structures.
Artificial intelligence (AI) presents transformative opportunities and complex ethical challenges. This paper adopts a socio-technical perspective, emphasizing that AI is not an isolated technology but rather deeply embedded in evolving societies. It critiques governance models, particularly rule-based approaches in the West, which, whilst addressing some risks, often stifle innovation and fail to engage diverse societal needs. This paper proposes an alternative framework integrating Western risk-management strategies with Chinese ethical principles rooted in Confucianism and Daoism. These principles emphasize dynamics, flexibility, relational stakeholder participation, and context-sensitive solutions to align AI with societal and environmental goals. The proposed model advocates for a co-learning approach to AI ethics, recognizing the dynamic interactions among developers, users, policymakers, and the public. By fostering participatory governance and adaptive ethical frameworks, it addresses both known and unknown risks while promoting equitable, sustainable development. It calls for cooperation to harness AI's transformative potential, ensuring it evolves in ways that benefit society and mitigate harm.
Purpose
This paper aims to synthesize the expanding research on user innovation communities (UICs). It identifies key enablers, decision-making interventions and outcomes while proposing directions for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
Using bibliometric methods, including keyword co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling, 784 published articles on UICs were analyzed. The study maps dominant themes, traces their evolution and highlights the theoretical and practical aspects of UIC research.
Findings
Lead users and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are identified as critical enablers of UICs. Key decision interventions like enabling trust, motivating users, building social networks and empowering users significantly enhance user-driven innovation.
Research limitations/implications
This study relies on Scopus, but including WoS and Google Scholar could offer deeper insights; future research may also use Citespace for enhanced analysis and empirically model the links between enablers, interventions and outcomes.
Practical implications
This study reinforces key theories in UICs, including diffusion of innovation for innovation adoption and diffusion, technology acceptance model for user engagement, theory of planned behavior for knowledge sharing, uses and gratification theory for user motivation and actor-network theory for digital innovation dynamics. Practically, firms can leverage lead users, ICT, trust-building and motivation strategies to enhance the effectiveness of UICs.
Originality/value
This paper uniquely combines bibliometric analysis and content analysis to offer a roadmap for advancing UIC research and practical strategies for innovation-driven organizations.
Psychiatric and psychological research has confirmed that less than 1% of the research on eating disorders is focused on males. However, for the first time, the occurrence of eating disorders is reportedly growing faster among the male population. Nevertheless, men still are more likely to stay undiagnosed. This paper bridges this gap and offers an analysis of male eating disorders (MEDs) and particularly drawing from a feminist technoscience perspective, it examines how male eating disorders are made up in clinical practices and encounters. Specifically, in this paper, I investigate the different ways by which male eating disorders emerge as a situated matter of concern and object of clinical care. In other words, I explore the ‘making present’ of the male and maleness in the clinical practices treating eating disorders in the Australian healthcare system. Based on the data from 25 semi‐structured, qualitative interviews with clinicians, the paper draws out how care in relation to eating disorders is organised and, specifically, how the enactment of a female/male binary mobilised in clinicians' accounts of clinical practices may act to constrain care. Finally, I demonstrate how care practices could attend to male eating disorders differently in a more sensitive and intersectional way.
Purpose
Developing countries are recording high cryptocurrency adoption rates surpassing more advanced economies. Considering that this is the opposite of the realities of most other technologies in these areas, this high uptake is puzzling. With a case study of crypto use for cross-border payments in the Nigerian context, this paper aims to address the paucity of empirical research on the phenomena of cryptocurrency adoption and diffusion in developing countries. We put forward a sociotechnical and empirically grounded innovation translation account of the high rates of crypto transactions in developing countries that overcome criticisms against extant arguments in the literature.
Design/methodology/approach
We take a case study approach and analyse the use of cryptocurrency for cross-border payments. Data collection involved two rounds of interviews with retailers from Nigeria, suppliers from China, informal exchangers, crypto brokers and mediators. We analysed themes using an approach sensitised by actor–network theory (ANT) constructs. Our methodological approach focuses on ANT’s relational dynamics to examine how human and non-human actors enable cryptocurrency adoption in a developing-country context.
Findings
We show evidence to suggest that crypto adoption and diffusion in developing countries occurs through an iterative process of technology transformation and appropriation, a strong coalition of the interests of diverse actors and a dynamic relationship between the technical elements of crypto and contextual political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental influences. Findings have implications for crypto-focused companies, development institutions and policymakers who increasingly show interest in the popularity of cryptocurrencies in developing countries.
Originality/value
This research breaks ground as a sociotechnical and empirically grounded description of the widespread use of cryptocurrencies in developing countries. The study provides an insightful approach to understanding technology adoption as a relational and context-sensitive process. Insights from the framework might be useful for addressing adoption challenges and designing inclusive financial systems in similar contexts.
This chapter shows how the real estate sector has long been subject to a transition within its value chain and management strategies and is now called to embrace new values and stakeholders. Unlike the past, when the sector was characterized by a sequence of relatively predictable cycles ‘coupled’ with the upward trends of leading socioeconomic indicators, nowadays, global trends are inducing substantial changes while significantly influencing the relationship between demand and supply of real estate products and services. There is a clear need to rediscover stakeholders’ expectations and design innovative solutions that meet those expectations via digitalisation. Therefore, the ‘service’ component appears more and more relevant, and the real estate value chain needs to consider novel strategies and business models leveraging technology.
Management ideas, comprising principles and practices for optimising organisational resources, drive organisational change and are increasingly a global phenomena. However, their translation into different geographical contexts remains poorly understood. This study explores how the embeddedness of actors influences the translation of management ideas, using Agile software development as a case. Agile has rapidly become a widely adopted management idea in the IT industry that emphasises flexibility, iterative development, and customer collaboration. This research uses a comparative case study of two geographically distinct R&D sites of a transnational corporation in China and Sweden. It draws on interviews and ethnographic observations to explore how Agile was translated into these local contexts. The findings reveal how the idea of Agile management is shaped by the embeddedness of the actors implementing it. The study contributes to the debate on the geography of the firm by providing insights into how the embeddedness of actors shapes management ideas.
Drawing on actor-network theory, this study delves into how digital technologies reshape the economic dynamics of Daoist temples in contemporary China. Through fieldwork at four Daoist temples on Z Mountain in southern China, the research identifies four types of agencies through which digital technologies influence the economy of Daoist temples: (1) expanding the reach of religious activity announcements and fundraising initiatives, (2) enabling remote participation in religious activities, (3) facilitating fee payments and donations, and (4) increasing public exposure to Daoism. These types of agencies jointly boost the abilities of the Daoist temples on Z Mountain to sell religious products and attract donations. However, the impact of digital technologies differs among Daoist temples and other religious institutions due to contextual factors such as government regulations, the reputation of religious institutions themselves, and competition among religious institutions. The findings underscore digital technology’s role as a mediator-not merely a tool-in temple economies, while highlighting the contingent nature of its impact within relational actor networks.
This article explores the concept of ‘translator’s posture’ within translation studies, drawing on research from literary sociology. It first reviews the work of scholars such as Alain Viala and Jérôme Meizoz, who have theorized the notion of ‘authorial posture ’ – the way writers present and position themselves within the literary field. The article then evaluates how posture materially manifests ‘translatorial habitus’, the formation of which is not observable. Therefore, we construct a multidimensional framework for analyzing translators’ postures, both textually and socially. By observing how translators occupy a position in their domain of practice, the study of postures, or stances, promises to offer new analytical affordances for translation research, complementing existing approaches focused on sociological factors shaping the translation process and product, and the actors. Teaching habitus directly, while auspicial, is not feasible. However, it is more plausible and feasible for aspiring translators to be taught how to acquire a translator’s posture, and project a capable image of themselves. The development of such presentational skills may be a valuable component of translator education, within and without academic institutions.
Drawing on Actor-Network Theory, this paper examines FinTech innovation in India through two case studies-NPCI's Unified Payments Interface and the RBI's NBFC-P2P peer-to-peer lending framework. It demonstrates how ANT's four moments of translation (problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilisation) provide insight into the evolving roles and inscriptions of human and nonhuman actors in the shaping of financial networks. Complemented by the Technology-Organisation-Environment framework, the analysis highlights the interplay between regulatory design, technological readiness, and organisational capacity. The proposed "ANT in Practice" framework translates these insights into actionable guidance for founders, executives, regulators, and implementation teams to diagnose, design, and respond to socio-technical networks. This integrated approach offers a strategic roadmap for navigating innovation in complex, regulated ecosystems.
In recent years, various theoretical advances have provided new scholarly approaches to the study of the concept of ‘landscape’. Common to most of these approaches is that objects acquire meaning through social attribution and cannot actively contribute to the production of landscape. Actor-network theory (ANT) calls for the abolition of the separation between the natural and the social to better study the emergence of complex ‘actor networks’ in the interaction between human and non-human actors. This approach is used to examine the diverse socio-spatial urban landscape of Tübingen, using the evaluation of various qualitative data collections in conjunction with the principles and methods of ANT to identify actors and trace the relationships involved. The possibilities and limitations of the empirical application of ANT to landscape are explored also.
A re-examination of the case of Mendel suggests that he was neither ignored in the 1860s nor simply re-discovered in 1900. In 1900, the concern for priority among De Vries, Correns and Tschermak, and the controversy between Bateson and the biometricians over species variation, led scientists to reconstruct the relevance of Mendel's hybridization experiments with Pisum in terms of their own work on natural selection. By contrast, an examination of the original paper indicates Mendel's concern, not with variability, but with the very process of speciation via hybridization.
The need for an integrated social constructivist approach towards the study of science and technology is outlined. Within such a programme both scientific facts and technological artefacts are to be understood as social constructs. Literature on the sociology of science, the science-technology relationship, and technology studies is reviewed. The empirical programme of relativism within the sociology of scientific knowledge and a recent study of the social construction of technological artefacts are combined to produce the new approach. The concepts of `interpretative flexibility' and `closure mechanism', and the notion of `social group' are developed and illustrated by reference to a study of solar physics and a study of the development of the bicycle. The paper concludes by setting out some of the terrain to be explored in future studies.
In-depth studies of the development of particular pieces of scientific knowledge form the hallmark of recent work in the sociology of science (1). Broadly informed by a relativist approach, the authors of such case studies have attempted to explain scientific development in a fully sociological manner. That is, the main explanatory weight is given to the social world rather than to the natural world.
I Discovery Accounts.- The Interaction between Theory and Data in Science.- The Scientist as an Analogical Reasoner: A Critique of the Metaphor Theory of Innovation.- Is it Possible to Reconstruct the Research Process? Sociology of a Brain Peptide.- II Discovery Acceptance.- Theoreticians and the Production of Experimental Anomaly: The Case of Solar Neutrinos.- The Role of Interests in High-Energy Physics: The Choice between Charm and Colour.- The Effects of Social Context on the Process of Scientific Investigation: Experimental Tests of Quantum Mechanics.- On the Construction of Creativity: The 'Memory Transfer' Phenomenon and the Importance of Being Earnest.- III The Research Process.- Struggles and Negotiations to Define What is Problematic and What is Not: The Sociologic Translation.- The Development of an Interdisciplinary Project.- IV Writing Public Accounts.- Discovery: Logic and Sequence in a Scientific Text.- Contexts of Scientific Discourse: Social Accounting in Experimental Papers.- V The Context of Scientific Investigation.- The Context of Scientific Investigation.
A way of treating interests which differs from those of both Woolgar and Barnes is here recommended. This third `enrolment' or `networking' theory approach notes that actors attempt to enlist one another in a variety of different ways, including the transformation of imputed interests. Some of the strategies adopted in this process are considered. Overall, it is suggested that interests should not be imputed to actors as background causes of action, but rather that they should be seen as attempts to define and enforce contingent forms of social order on the part of actors themselves.
It is argued that long-distance control depends upon the creation of a network of passive agents (both human and non-human) which makes it possible for emissaries to circulate from the centre to the periphery in a way that maintains their durability, forcefulness and fidelity. This argument is exemplified by the empirical case of the fifteenth and sixteenth century Portuguese expansion and the reconstruction of the navigational context undertaken by the Portuguese in order to secure the global mobility and durability of their vessels. It is also suggested that three classes of emissaries - documents, devices and drilled people - have, together and separately, been particularly important for long-distance control, and that the dominance of the West since the sixteenth century may be partly explained in terms of crucial innovations in the methods by which passive agents of these three types are produced and interrelated.
Die Denunziation.
Die Unterscheidung von individuellem und kollektivem Handeln bildet einen der grundlegenden Gegensätze, auf denen — häufig implizit, da derart selbst-verständlich — die Soziologie wie die Sozialgeschichte der Protestweisen beruht. Genereller wird sie zur Trennung der Gegenstandsbereiche von Psychologie und von Soziologie herangezogen. Im vorliegenden Aufsatz wird demgegenüber eine Fragestellung umrissen, die jenen Gegensatz mittels einer Grammatik zu überwinden sucht, die — un ter Verwendung derselben Regeln — gleichermaßen die Variationen der Protestakte je nach Präsentation als «individuelle» bzw. «kollektive» wie die von den anderen an sie herangetragenen Normalitätsurteile zu interpretieren gestattet. Entwickelt wird diese Fragestellung anhand des Phänomens der Öffentlichen Denunziation. Mittels statistischer und stilistischer Analyse von Denunziationsbriefen aus dem Archivmaterial einer grofien Pariser Tageszeitung lassen sich in einem ersten Anlauf 2 Fragen beantworten : 1. Welche Bedingungen muß eine öffentliche Denunziation erfullen, uni als normal zu gelten ; 2. Aus welchen Gründen wird ein solcher Akt öffentlicher Denunziation begangen, der aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach als anormal wahrgenommen wird ?
This paper criticizes the ways in which `power', `interests', and related notions are used in the analysis of social relations. Two broad approaches to power analysis are considered. The first involves `capacity-outcome' conceptions in which power is defined in terms of the capacity of an agent to secure particular outcomes. The second involves more general usages in which power is supposed to be effective not only as regards the outcomes of particular struggles, but also in the determination of the conditions of struggle themselves by the systematic exclusion or suppression of certain interests. I argue that both approaches operate to foreclose serious analysis of the constitution of arenas of struggle and the forces active in them by means of gross oversimplification of the conditions in which struggles take place.
The replication of scientific experiments is discussed stressing the problem of communication between the originator of an experiment and a scientist intending to replicate it. Models of communication are set up, with reference to established fields. A more marginal field is then investigated in the light of these models and it is concluded that scientists in the latter field should not be seen as engaged in replicating original experiment, but in negotiating the rules of replication, and hence the nature of the phenomenon under investigation.
This paper is an empirical analysis of the way in which a group of scientists sought to maximize the attractiveness of one of their papers. It records negotiations about the title, the introduction, and the second paragraph (in which a polymer was characterized). The analysis suggests that scientists array or `network' particulars in a way which they hope will allocate appropriate relative value to elements of that array. In doing so, three factors — the citation of colleagues, the display of facts, and problems of syntax — have to be simultaneously juggled.
Critical studies of science reject the programmatic separation between technical and social aspects of science. By analyzing the social history of controversies, the rhetoric of scientific discourse, and informal aspects of laboratory work, recent studies have attempted to demonstrate that the objective products of scientific research are fraught with social contingency. The present paper agrees that the products of scientific activity are inextricable from the social contexts of their production, but raises the further question of how the relevance of any of the potentially endless varieties of social contingency is to be established in concrete instances of scientific work. Commonly, social studies of science specify such contingent relationships by relying on the established methods of the social science disciplines, while ignoring the fact that the natural scientific disciplines studied themselves include inquiries which specify such relationships as a necessary part of their ordinary practice. The alternative recommended here is to take an ethnomethodological approach. The distinguishing feature of the latter approach is that it recognizes the analytic primacy of context-specifying activities which occur at the sites of natural scientific inquiries. A transcript of conversation in a neuroscience lab is analyzed to show how `critical inquiry' operates as a practical feature of natural science research rather than being a privilege of professional social scientists.
This paper examines a debate over the certainty of scientific knowledge which has arisen in solar neutrino science. Material drawn from Interviews with participants is used to show the different perceptions of certainty available. It is argued that the craft element of science gives scientists confidence in their own results, but is also a source of uncertainty for scientists unfamiliar with the craft practices in use outside their own fields. The fundamental uncertainty of scientific knowledge encountered by scientists working at the research frontiers is discussed, and it is suggested that this type of uncertainty is unlikely to be revealed in interview material because scientists are aware of the possible public audience for their remarks. The implications of this for the analysis of public- science debates where scientific certainty is a contentious issue are briefly discussed.
This paper examines the controversy that took place between 1900 and 1914 about how best to measure statistical association. The divergent views of the two sides are examined by means of a study of the work of the major participants in the controversy: Karl Pearson (1857-1936) and George Udny Yule (1871-1951). It is argued that the theorizing and scientific judgments of the two sides embodied different 'cognitive interests': that is to say, differing goals in the development of statistical theory resulted in approaches to the measurement of association that were structured differently. These different cognitive interests arose from the different problem situations of statisticians whose primary commitment was to eugenics research and those who lacked any such strong specific commitment. It is suggested that eugenics embodied the social interests of a specific sector of British society, and not those of other sectors. Thus differing social interests are seen as entering indirectly, through the 'mediation' of eugenics, into this episode in development of statistical theory in Britain.
One can either debate the possibility of the historical sociology of scientific knowledge or one can do it. Ludwik Fleck took the latter course of action. In Entstehung und Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache Fleck’s overriding concern was with the interpretation of a particular episode in the history of science, and his focus never strayed from the empirical materials pertinent to that task. His more general theoretical statements always arose out of and referred to the historical particulars and circumstances of that episode. Thus, one way of characterizing Fleck’s book is to regard it as the work of a practising scientist, intimately familiar with the genesis and career of the Wassermann test: and this would not be an incorrect characterization. Another way of appreciating his accomplishment would be to see it as a piece of empirical history, providing a concrete exemplification of the sociology of scientific knowledge. The only wholly misguided approach to Fleck’s work would be to distill his theorizing out of the empirical concerns in which it was grounded.
Struggles and negotiations to define what is problematic and what is not; the socio-logic of translation The Social Process of Scientific Investigation
- Callon
- Michel
Callon, Michel (1980), ‘Struggles and negotiations to define what is problematic and what is not; the socio-logic of translation’, in K. D. Knorr and A. Cicourel (eds). The Social Process of Scientific Investigation. Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook, Vol. 4, D. Reidel Publishing Company
On interests and their transformation: enrolment and counter-enrolment’, rMichel Callon – Some elements of a sociology of translation 28
- Callon
- Michel
- Law
- John
Callon, Michel and Law, John (1982), ‘On interests and their transformation: enrolment and counter-enrolment’, rMichel Callon – Some elements of a sociology of translation 28 Social Studies of Science, 12, 615-625
Les mécanismes d’intéressement dans les textes scientifiques
- Callon
- Michel
- F Bastide
- S Bauin
- J.-P Courtial
- W Turner
Callon, Michel, Bastide, F., Bauin, S., Courtial, J. -P. and Turner, W. (1984) ‘Les mécanismes d’intéressement dans les textes scientifiques’, Cahiers STS-CNRS, 4, 88-105
Le développement de l'aquaculture: Analyse d'un Système social complexe, mimeo, CSI
- Bauin Serge
- M Callon
- J P Courtial
The sociology of an actor-network
- Callon Michel
Visualisation and Cognition
- Latour Bruno