scholarly journals The Politics of Purity, Disgust, and Contamination: Communal Identity of Trotter (Pig) Sellers in Madina Zongo (Accra)

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 421
Author(s):  
Rashida Alhassan Adum-Atta
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Communal Identity ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Mary Douglas ◽  
Boundary Making ◽  
Market Women ◽  
Ethnic Neighborhood

The interplay of food, people, and market in the multi-religious and multi-ethnic neighborhood of Madina Zongo, Accra, results to some extent in food exchange. In a plural setting like Madina Zongo, an important aspect of their co-existence is the sharing of food; in so doing people claim their identities and mark boundaries; consequently, food in this sense becomes a potential for conflict. My primary aim in this paper is to focus on pig feet (trotter) sellers by drawing attention to their conflicting experiences and encounters in selling trotter. Pig feet (trotter) is a commodity that comes through a global network and is considered haram and unclean by Muslims. Actions by religious practitioners, thereby, play a pivotal role in provoking these experiences and, for this reason, it is prone to triggering tensions. In this paper, I explore the embodied encounters between these traders in the market (inhabited by people of different religious traditions) and, to some extent, the buyers and how this triggers religious sensibilities and at the same time evokes strong responses among those frequenting the space (e.g., market women and customers) and those (trotter sellers) who live in predominantly Muslim neighborhoods. In my analysis on tensions and pollution, I take into consideration groundworks by authors such as Mary Douglas’ Purity and Danger, Sara Ahmed’s and Deborah Durham’s notion of disgust and the anthropology of imagination, and inspired works on materiality such as the Latourian Actor-Network Theory (ANT) which draws attention to the agency of the non-human. This paper studies how religiously contested and so-called “contaminated” foodstuffs such as pig feet (trotter) result in boundary-making practices among members of the market and Zongo community. I argue that ideas of purity are influenced largely by cultural and religious convictions which seems not to be compromised by religious practitioners. The paper also investigates strategies people/sellers develop to negotiate these social relations.

Understanding the Implementation of IT Governance Arrangements and IT Infrastructure Using Actor Network Theory

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Hafizah Mohamad Hsbollah ◽  
Alan Simon ◽  
Nick Letch
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
It Governance ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Global Network ◽  
It Infrastructure ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Governance Arrangements

The implementation of IT governance (ITG) arrangements and its relationship to IT infrastructure has not received much attention in either the ITG or the information systems (IS) literature. Based on the premise that the foundation on which ITG is implemented lies in the interaction between ITG arrangements of structures, processes and relational mechanisms and IT infrastructure, the authors present a discussion of how actor network theory (ANT) can be used as an overarching theoretical framework of explanation. The authors propose a model of ITG implementation and discuss how ANT, in particular the local/global network approach, can be applied to understand the relationship that exists between ITG arrangements and IT infrastructure.

Beyond ANT

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Till Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Theoretical Design ◽  
The Social ◽  
Actor Networks

Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) offers an ‘infra-language’ of the social that allows one to trace social relations very dynamically, while at the same time dissolving human agency, thus providing a flat and de-centred way into sociology. However, ANT struggles with its theoretical design that may lead us to reduce agency to causation and to conceptualize actor-networks as homogeneous ontologies of force. This article proposes to regard ANT’s inability to conceptualize reflexivity and the interrelatedness of different ontologies as the fundamental problem of the theory. Drawing on Günther, it offers an ‘infra-language’ of reflexive relations while maintaining ANT’s de-centred approach. This would enable us to conceptualize actor-networks as non-homogeneous, dynamic and connecting different societal rationales while maintaining the main strengths of ANT.

On the Trail of Alexander von Humboldt in the Altai: A Mental Time Travel?

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-199
Author(s):  
Olaf Guenther ◽  
Vitaly Vedernikov
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Mental Time Travel ◽  
Material Object ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Alexander Von Humboldt ◽  
Space Networks

The article discusses “trail travel” as mental travel in time as well as the idea of a symbolic presentation of a material object and the material framing of social relations, which altogether produce tourism. In order to reveal the meaning of the material for “trail travel”, the author uses the three metaphors conventional for actor-network theory (space, networks, and flows) unconventionally. The author illuminates the meaning of space for time travel through “containerization”, that is, the allocation of a material object into which the traveler can “enter” and, in so doing, move through time. In other words, the container, in this case, is not the previously-criticized territory preserved for tourists, but the packed space-and-time. The metaphor of fluid allows the author to reveal how a tourist, looking at a material object (such as a geological exhibit), can observe the retroactivity of time explaining the space changes. Finally, the network metaphor allows the author to show that time is not a flow of irreversible sequences, but a way of representing space. In this way, the article weaves together space and time and shows, that in “trail travel”, time is space and space is time.

Imagined Selves

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-149
Author(s):  
Yurika Wakamatsu
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Art Making ◽  
Alternative Perspective ◽  
Heterosexual Relationship ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Modes Of Engagement

Abstract Beauty by Plum and Window, a hanging scroll produced in 1907 by the Japanese artist Okuhara Seiko, calls into question fundamental presumptions about literati art, a mode of art-making often seen as a means of self-representation. Instead of creating a singular subject that indexes the artist's self, this work deploys diverse pictorial and literary tropes to construct multiple personae, enabling the viewer (including the artist) to shift among them. The scroll effects the viewer's movement from one subject position to another, undermining the binary of spectator and spectacle, heterosexual relationship and homosocial bond, and subject and object. Engaging with Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, this article argues that if we do not assume a direct alignment between the subject of representation and the represented subject, a literati artwork can become a mediator of multiple shifting “selves” rather than an extension of a singular, unified “I.” Literati art thus functions not merely as a repository of self-expression but also as a generative mediator of identities and social relations. In staging multivalent modes of engagement, Seiko's scroll ultimately offers an alternative perspective on the role of subjectivity in the interpretation of literati art.

scholarly journals From anthropocentrism to sociology of things and digital sociology

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-16
Author(s):  
S. Kibakin
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Object Oriented ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Information And Communication

The genesis of socio-humanitarian and sociological knowledge, namely: understanding and studying the phenomenon of human life, its biological, vital, informational and social aspects has been revealed. The regularity of the transformation of anthropocentrism under the influence of the development of science and technology, the emergence of the concept of post-humanism has been substantiated. The examples of man-made disasters, the use of weapons of mass destruction, as social facts, that had a significant impact on the development of mankind, have been adduced. The conditions for the emergence of object-oriented sociology and the sociology of things have been shown, some scientific approaches have been disclosed within the framework of this concept of Graham Harman, Brun Latour and his followers. Separately, the methodological approaches of the actor-network theory have been disclosed, the main one has been highlighted. Separately, the methodological foundations of cognition of the world of things have been described within the framework of object-oriented sociology, related to the rejection of opposing pairs of the concepts “society and nature”, “truth is non-truth”, “structure and process” and others. The connection of this theory with the sociology of translation has been shown. The characteristic of the problems of development of the scientific and methodological base of digital sociology in the context of changing the content of social relations “man – machine” on the example of the information and communication network Internet has been given. Among them, have been allocated the problems of delegation to digital technologies, more and more powers in solving complex socio-technical problems, the global centralization of digital resources management, the emergence of virtual actors of social interaction. The author reduces specific examples of the use of actor-network theory to interpret the processes and phenomena of interaction between users of Internet resources with individual components of the Internet. Separately, promising areas of research in this area, related to the phenomena of the Internet of things and neuronet, have been highlighted.

scholarly journals Actor-network theory in studies of the nation and nationalism: the methodological aspect

KANT ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 281-291
Author(s):  
Konstantin Maltsev ◽  
Artem Alaverdyan
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Social ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
Empirical Generalizations ◽  
Constructivist Approaches ◽  
The Relationship

Methodological provisions of B. Latour's actor-network theory: methodically grounded doubt in the conceptual reality and reality of the social, the need to distinguish between the social in social relations and the social in associations, the methodological requirement of "symmetry in the interpretation of nature and society" and the related new understanding of the social actor, are essentially close to the influential constructivist (R. Brubaker) approach in understanding the nation and the national. The article analyzes the relationship between "categorical" and "network" concepts in the study of the nature of "national", methodological problems of "compatibility" of actor-network and constructivist approaches to building the concept of "nation"; the conclusion is drawn that the permissibility of "methodological syncretism" is limited to the area of practical-oriented "empirical generalizations" that guide the political practice of nation-building and the regulation of national conflicts.

scholarly journals Digitale forbindelser og nye fornemmelser. Et etnografisk studie af Facebook

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Nina Charlotte Schiøtz ◽  
Sophie Bo Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
Society Today

Artiklen bygger på en undersøgelse af den sociale netværkstjeneste Facebook, som vi foretog i efteråret 2008 i forbindelse med specialeskrivning på Sociologisk Institut, KU. I nærværende artikel argumenterer vi først og fremmest for, at Aktør-Netværk-Teorien kan være et givtigt sted at starte, når vi skal forstå menneskets samspil med digitale teknologier, og vi vil fremlægge de metodiske udfordringer og muligheder, som et felt som Facebook byder på. Dernæst vil vi give en karakteristik af de nye tekno-sociale praksisser, som vi ser opstå med unges hverdagsbrug af Facebook og vise, hvordan disse praksisser betyder, at mennesker i stigende grad knyttes sammen via fornemmelsen for hinanden. Søgeord: Sociale netværkstjenester, ANT, sociologi, Facebook, digital etnografi. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Nina Charlotte Schiøtz and Sophie Bo Schmidt: Digital Connections and New Awareness: An Ethnograhpic Study of Facebook This article explores the characteristics of the new kinds of social ties between people that are emerging with the use of Social Network Sites. The article builds on the results of an ethnographic study of young Danish Facebook users in late 2008. First we argue that Actor Network Theory is a useful strand of theory for studying technological phenomena. Then we describe two general techno-social practices that emerge from users’ engagement with Facebook. Finally, we argue that the substance of the social relations that emerges with the use of Social Network Sites is relations of awareness. This form of connectedness does not replace traditional social relations, but is rather a new dimension in the way people relate and make ties in society today. Key words: Social Network Sites, SNS, Facebook, ANT, sociology, digital ethnography.

Entangled photographers: Agents and actants in preschoolers’ photography talk

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari-Jatta Rissanen
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

Photographs taken by young children have engendered a growing amount of research across diverse academic disciplines. Photographs have been used as visual data for analysing for example children’s social relations and well-being. However, only a few studies have addressed the photographic practices of young children as means for them to explore, imagine and coexist with the surrounding world. In this article, I introduce a case study that draws on research from art education and sociology of childhood. The data were gathered in a photography workshop in a Finnish early childhood education and care centre, where fourteen preschoolers discussed their photographs inspired by contemporary Finnish art photography. In order to expose diverse human and material actors and their interactions in preschoolers’ photography talk, I applied Bruno Latour’s actor-network-theory. Thus, preschoolers’ photography is seen as a practice of visual meaning-making wherein agency is distributed among several actors.

scholarly journals Understanding and designing sociotechnical scenarios: a multi-theoretical approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Alysson Prado ◽  
Cecilia Baranauskas
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Real World Problem ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

Technology evolution is pushing the limits of our comprehension of the world and of ourselves, blurring the boundaries between people and objects. To understand this interweaving of ubiquitous computer systems and their dynamic social relations different theoretical sources are necessary. Socially Aware Computing provides a deep understanding on how information systems emerge from and interact with the social context, whereas Actor-Network Theory represents a promising referential to explain how people and artifacts mutually actuate to render social structures. In this paper, we assess the paradigmatic compatibility of these two theories, proposing a blend that provides a single basis to enrich the understanding of complex scenarios for designers of sociallyaware technology. In the sequence, we present an application of such proposal in a real-world problem. Finally, we discuss how this approach can be further extended to model nondeterministic interactions involving people and devices in social situations.

STRUCTURING A SUCCESSFUL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PROCESS: A CASE STUDY FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF ACTOR NETWORK THEORY

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huda Ibrahim ◽  
Hasmiah Kasimin
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Technology Transfer ◽  
Transfer Process ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Private Company ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Technology Transfer Process

An effi cient and effective information technology transfer from developed countries to Malaysia is an important issue as a prerequisite to support the ICT needs of the country to become not only a ICT user but also a ICT producer. One of the factors that infl uences successful information technology transfer is managing the process of how technology transfer occurs in one environment. It involves managing interaction between all parties concerned which requires an organized strategy and action toward accomplishing technology transfer objective in an integrated and effective mode. Using a conceptual framework based on the Actor Network Theory (ANT), this paper will analyse a successful information technology transfer process at a private company which is also a supplier of information technology (IT) products to the local market. This framework will explain how the company has come up with a successful technology transfer in a local environment. Our study shows that the company had given interest to its relationships with all the parties involved in the transfer process. The technology transfer programme and the strategy formulated take into account the characteristics of technology and all those involved.  

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