Actor Network Theory and Its Cultural Uses

This chapter traces the history of what has come to be known as Actor Network Theory (ANT). Beginning in Parisian intellectual circles in the late 1970s and early 1980s, ANT grew quickly in popularity, but also drew fierce criticism, and this resulted in what its creators have called various misunderstandings. Despite their efforts to clarify their concepts and thinking, these early contributors found themselves unable to ‘control’ ANT when other, newer scholars took it on and developed it in novel ways. Therefore the story of ANT is not one great narrative but several small ones. In this chapter, I aim to set out an account that starts with the early forms of ANT, considers its ontological and methodological principles and central concepts, and then turns to consider recent developments in terms of ANT’s relevance for cultural sociology today. Yet if we are to believe ANT scholars, this task is not in fact possible to accomplish. This is for two reasons: first, ANT is not one, stable thing (which can of course be said of any school of thought), and second, ANT is not an abstract set of principles but instead is a body of empirical knowledge. In other words, ANT should be done, not explained.