From: Patricia Fronek <patricia.fronek@...>
Subject: Re: [actor-network-theory] Does ANT has Ethics?
To: actor-network-theory@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, 16 November, 2008, 7:44 PM

hi yuti

 

I m far from being an expert so please take my comments with a grain a salt - perhaps someone else will have more informed comments - one of the criticisms is that ANT does not make judgments - but then the strength is that it does not - in this way the action of the actors can be followed

 

I can see how you are struggling with democracy and ANT because ANT is about power struggles but then again so is democracy - because a dominant ideas still becomes a constructed fact - is it a democractic process or is really about new actors being convinced of the idea and how this is done - how are they being convinced to adopt the idea? how are people convinced about democracy? maybe you need to unpack democracy a bit and understand it in terms of power to be able to apply it?  I would imagine a key difference is that democracy relies on traditional stuctures of power whereas ANT does not - maybe your argument is how it is very different to democracy or is it? politics of any flavour is all about power - perhaps the ideology of democaracy has been 'blackboxed' and accepted as it is presented when what is really happening is the same power struggles to convince others to believe in the same ideas?

 

just some thoiughts - good luck

 

tricia

 

----- Original Message -----

From: yuti ariani

To: actor-network-theory@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 9:36 AM

Subject: [actor-network-theory] Does ANT has Ethics?

Dear all,
When using ANT, I always wonder whether ANT has ethics or not? Can ANT
make an assessment whether something is good or bad? Or in ANT, it is
not important to assess good or bad of several actions/phenomena, its
roles are to explain actor constellation?

For instance, when I try to examine national innovation system. I
follow several actors simultaneously, then I try to make the
actor-network constellation. But when I try to explain the
constellation with sustainability and democracy issues, I became
confused. As a way out, I use the concept qualculation by Law and
Callon to assess the phenomena, but I am still curious how to relate
ANT with democracy.

Do you have any suggestion?

warm regards,
yuti

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