Actor network theory and after

This edited volume brings together some of the central figures within Actor Network Theory; Michel Callon, Bruno Latour, John Law with authors from other theoretical perspectives; Kevin Hetherington, Annemarie Moll, Marilyn Strathern, and Helen Verran. Actor Network Theory was one of the major theoretical perspectives that emerged within social theory in the 1990s. Taking a lead from post-structuralist thinking, ANT is concerned with finding new ways to configure two of the central oppositions which have dominated social theory for centuries; that of 'subject' and 'object'; 'structure' and 'agency'. Broadly speaking, ANT argues that the complexity of contemporary organisation forms such as networks mean that the binary oppositions of 'subject' and 'object'; 'structure' and 'agency' no longer hold. Instead, actors negotiate the social world where power is not possessed by individuals, nor by institutions, but is constructed by the relations between these things. Here, we see the influence of thinkers such as Foucault on ANT. This theoretical lens is used to examine a range of social spaces; from laughter in Nigerian classrooms, to Western financial markets, to art galleries and museums. The book tracks how ANT has become a central force within sociology and technoscience studies, anthropology, economics, feminism, geography, philosophy and organisational studies.