Sorry for the delay in replying,
what did I mean by 'some actors are more equal than others'? Basically, if you
try to draw a network of actors in the way Yuti describes, you quickly arrive at
an indecipherable spider's web of multiple connections. In order to make
progress you have to select those actors relevant to your purpose, so despite
the admonition that all actors are equal, some it appears are more relevant, or
equal than others.
Selecting a purpose imposes upon the network a telos, or set of goods external
to the network.
This leads us back to ethics of the more conventional type we are asked to
consider in research proposals and PhD theses. Such ethical systems tend to
focus on human actors. Some ethical systems, one example being virtue ethic,
another is utilatarianism specifically define ethics in terms of their impact on
human actors, human flourishing (in the case of virute ethics)or happiness (in
the case of utilitarianism)so I suppose you could follow your networks towards
these ends.
Hope this makes some sort of sense
Andrew Bolger





--- On Wed, 19/11/08, yuti ariani <yuti.ariani@...> wrote:

> From: yuti ariani <yuti.ariani@...>
> Subject: Re: [actor-network-theory] Does ANT has Ethics?
> To: actor-network-theory@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, 19 November, 2008, 10:01 PM
> Yup, I also wonder on some more equal than others... Do you
> 'assess'
> this using concept of center of calculation? For instance,
> by
> comparing citation index of one paper to another or by
> seeing the
> discourse(s) used to strengthen some rhetoric?
>
> How can we assess some actor-network is more equal than
> another? Does
> it mean that one actor-network is better than another?
>
> In my experience of trying to make some understanding of
> the actors I
> followed, I use a socio-technogram (graph). I represent the
> actor
> using node and edge in visual and completed it with an
> narration. By
> adopting concept from math and perhaps chemical structure,
> a good
> actor-network/graph is a graph that is compact, and has a
> little
> bridge (since bridge can make actors disconnected from its
> network). I
> try to use this approach to explain about marginality and
> lack of
> access of several actor. Can we say this as some actors are
> more equal
> than others?
>
> Thanks
>
> yuti
>
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 2:34 AM, Patricia Fronek
> <patricia.fronek@...> wrote:
> > 
> >
> > Andrew
> >
> > would you say they tend to be the
> 'spokespersons'? I am interested in your
> > thoughts on some more equal than others
> >
> > tricia
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Andrew Bolger
> > To: actor-network-theory@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 8:25 PM
> > Subject: Re: [actor-network-theory] Does ANT has
> Ethics?
> >
> > Well Bruno Latour might say that the ethics of ANT
> lies in giving all actors
> > a voice, a democracy as Patricia puts it. But my
> expereince of trying to
> > trace and record actor networks suggests that 'all
> actors are equal but some
> > actors are more equal than others'.
> > Andrew Bolger
> > --- On Sun, 16/11/08, Patricia Fronek
> <patricia.fronek@...> wrote:
> >
> > 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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> >
>
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