ANT - Aktør Netværk Teori

Jeg har læst en hel del Actor Network Theory på det seneste. Hvad er det for en teori?. Ganske kort: Det er en teori om, hvordan man kan forstå og analysere netværk eller systemer af relationer mellem menneskelige og ikke-menneskelige 'aktører' - også kaldet aktanter.


"ANT is a semiotics. That is, it is a method (or better, a sensibility) that has to do with and explores relations, relationality.... All entities, it says, achieve their significance by being in relation to other entities... Nothing that enters into relations has fixed significance or attributes in and of itself. Instead, the attributes of any particular element in the system, any particular node in the network, are entirely defined in relation to other elements in the system, to other nodes in the network. And it is the analyst’s job... to explore how those relations – and so the entities that they constitute – are brought into being."(John Law, 'Networks, Relations, Cyborgs: on the Social Study of Technology', (draft))


Blandt de fremtrædende repræsentanter for denne teoriretning findes Bruno Latour, John Law og Michel Callon. ANT udvikledes i løbet 1980erne og 1990erne - især inden for Science and Technology Studies.