Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Actor-network theory'
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Orticio, Gino C. "Indigenous/digital heterogeneities : an actor-network-theory approach." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2013. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/61862/1/Gino_Orticio_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis analysed the theoretical and ontological issues of previous scholarship concerning information technology and indigenous people. As an alternative, the thesis used the framework of actor-network-theory, especially through historiographical and ethnographic techniques. The thesis revealed an assemblage of indigenous/digital enactments striving for relevance and avoiding obsolescence. It also recognised heterogeneities- including user-ambivalences, oscillations, noise, non-coherences and disruptions - as part of the milieu of the daily digital lives of indigenous people. By taking heterogeneities into account, the thesis ensured that the data “speaks for itself” and that social inquiry is not overtaken by ideology and ontology.
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Yusuf, Muhammad. "Towards a theory of e-participation : an actor-network theory (ANT) perspective." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2017. https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/towards-a-theory-of-eparticipation(b6548bcb-6916-451d-bf4b-a7558ed7f07e).html.
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Participation in government activity is compulsory and is needed on one level or another for activities across multiple fields including politics, economics, education, health, planning and others. E-Participation is a growing area of research. It is dynamic, complex in both nature and execution and has multiple dimensions. The aim of this research is to better understand the role of technology in the participation processes available, focusing on the education and planning fields in the UK and Indonesia. The Actor-Network Theory (ANT) has been used as a theoretical lens through which to analyse the in-depth comparative case studies presented in the UK and Indonesia. Both countries are separated in different parts of the world, which may have both similarities and differences regarding their respective socio-cultural influences, politics, the economy, history and other contextual backgrounds. This cross comparison between a set of case studies with a different context provides the base from which to explore the participation processes and to capture any generic attributes that arise. The research includes a novel-structured literature review of 612 papers. Also included are four sizeable case studies that took around six months each involving field visits to Indonesia and similar field work in the UK. This research provides contributions, such as a suggested new method for exploring e-participation and a literature review, new models and definitions of e-participation that covers schools and planning which were not well covered in the previously existing literature. Finally, it will contribute a base theory of e-participation.
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Sorensen, Steen Wernberg. "An actor network theory analysis of innovation, technology and organisation." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/8469.
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Nagm, Fouad Information Systems Technology & Management Australian School of Business UNSW. "IS project evaluation in practice: an actor-network theory account." Publisher:University of New South Wales. Information Systems, Technology & Management, 2008. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/41261.
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The dominant view in the information systems (IS) and software engineering literature is that the application of a rigorous pre-investment evaluation methodology is the key to ensuring the selection of the best IS projects ?? that is those with the highest expected value for the organisation and with the highest probability of success. While the literature is replete with methodologies that take a narrow view of IS evaluation, there is insufficient attention given to the evaluation process itself and to what constitutes successful IS evaluation. Whilst some within IS argue that the development of more elaborate evaluation methodologies, especially calculations of costs and benefits, is necessary for the advancement of the field, many report that it is not methodologies as such that need improvement. What is missing is an understanding of IS evaluation processes in practice and how organisations can adopt and apply evaluation methodologies so as to improve these processes. This thesis aims to provide in-depth knowledge of IS evaluation processes in practice and re-conceptualise the notion of the IS project proposal, the evaluation process and evaluation methodology that reflect the needs and critical issues in practice. These aims are achieved by conducting an in-depth case study of IS project evaluation processes in a company with a history of high success rates of its IS projects ($3 billion worth of successfully delivered IS projects in the past few years). By adopting Actor-Network Theory as a philosophy, approach and theoretical lens to the investigation of IS project evaluation processes in the case company the thesis demonstrates that: a) IS project proposals are dynamic, evolving and relational entities that become ??focal?? objects around which the actor-networks of aligned interest tend to emerge; b) that the evaluation process both creates an IS project proposal and its assessment within a core actor-network within which multiple business realities are enacted and continually negotiated; c) the evaluation methodology plays an important role of an actant (a non-human actor) by acting from a periphery of the core actor-network of an IS project proposal evaluation d) the evaluation methodology acts on behalf of management to regulate communication within actor-networks, ensure that company strategy is effectively implemented and that different IS Project Proposals are consistently presented in a mutually comparable manner; e) by defining a series of processes (steps), inscription aids (inscription forms, norms and rules) and mandated checkpoints the evaluation methodology engenders the evaluation process as ??science??; f) by allowing a degree of freedom in conducting the evaluation processes the methodology is also enabling the evaluation processes to emerge as ??art?? thus stimulating creativity and innovation, and finally, g) by balancing the science and the art of IS project proposal evaluation, the methodology is enabling, assisting and inspiring numerous actors in taking on ??journeys?? of IS project proposals and evaluation and thereby making a difference in their business environments. The thesis makes important contributions to knowledge in the IS discipline. Theoretically, the adoption and use of ANT revealed that the IS Project Proposal is not dormant but rather active, and key to the IS evaluation effort. The IS Project Proposal has thus been re-conceptualised as emerging, relational and dynamic. This thesis also makes a contribution to the re-conceptualisation of the evaluation methodology as being multi-purpose and active as it defines the ??science?? and enables the ??art?? in IS evaluation. The thesis also makes a number of contributions to practice, firstly by showing that documents in IS evaluation are not simply ??outputs?? that are archived away, but are active and are used to attract the right stakeholders. Secondly, it reveals that the ultimate success of the IS Proposal relies on finding a balance between the science and the art in IS evaluation and that the evaluation methodology can play a key role in promoting this balance.
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Yamagata, Tadashi. "Networks, acts and artefacts: exploring actor network theory through letterboxing." Thesis, University of Surrey, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.616881.
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This study focuses on actor network theory which deals with any entities equivalently and therefore which serves to elucidate touristic phenomena in society being composed of diverse entities. Through the activity of letterboxing, this study aims at advancing actor network theory in regard to (1) networkscapes, (2) linking acts and (3) artefacts' meanings. Through the qualitative methods of autoethnography, interview and participant-produced drawing, it turns out (1) that the configuration of the letterboxing network has many non-absolute leaders respecting each other and a non-resolute boundary and a non-definite participant composition because of such mutual respect, and (2) that linking acts in the letterboxing network are carried out not only through rationality based tactics and objectivity-based technology but also through corporeality and subjectivity, and (3) that artefacts in the letterboxing network have not only a general meaning and a network-specific meaning but also individual-specific meanings. Basing on these results, this study recommends actor network theory (1) to extend in regard to networkscapes from a presupposed fixative configuration with a single or a few absolute leader(s) and with a resolute boundary and a definite participant composition to a non-fixative configuration with many non-absolute leaders and with a non-resolute boundary and a non-definite participant composition, and (2) to extend in regard to linking acts from a rationality-based tactical and objectivity-based technological linking act to a corporeal and subjective linking act, and (3) to extend in regard to artefacts' meanings from general and networkspecific meanings to individual-specific meanings.
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Van, Oyen Astrid. "Rethinking terra sigillata : an archaeological application of actor-network theory." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648526.
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MARCELLI, Roberto. "Le ecologie del piano: l'Actor-network theory nell'interpretazione della carta di rete ecologica della città di Roma in una prospettiva di nuova razionalità urbanistica." Doctoral thesis, La Sapienza, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/11573/917474.
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Brown, Nicholas G. F. "Ordering hope : representations of xenotransplantation : an actor/actant network theory account." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.264776.
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This thesis elaborates an Actor Network Theory account of the representations through which 'xenotransplantation' (a key facet of the 'new medical biologies') is narrated and extended. In particular, I address the performance (and distribution) of hope across and between xenotransplantation's key network participants. As both a means and a perimeter of network organisation, the temporal dimensions of ordering carry implications for the formation and implementation of Science Studies theory too. ANT, for example, has evolved in relation to a panoply of mainly spatial metaphors (spaces, topologies, differences and similarities etc.). This thesis, by contrast, has sought to respond to the temporal terms of reference which populate representations of xenotransplantation. Amongst other things, competing hopes, desires, right and wrong times, continuities and discontinuities all serve as the principal discursive means through which network management is exercised. My suggestion is that representations of time, as well as the timing of representations, are vital to understanding the production of networks. Also, such terms map onto the many other sense making boundaries which are evoked and challenged through the transpecies exchange of tissues and genes: self and other, human and nonhuman, science and culture, expert and public.
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Parker, Elisabeth. "An actor-network theory reading of change for looked after children." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2016. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/an-actornetwork-theory-reading-of-change-for-looked-after-children(5f46ad09-64c2-44db-b2ab-6ed5af180900).html.
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The education of looked-after children (LAC) in the care of the Local Authority (LA) is supported by government initiatives to reduce the attainment gap that exists between LAC and their peers. Long-term outcomes for LAC pupils are poor (Sebba et al. 2015). The Virtual School (VS) has a statutory role in the education of LAC (DfE, 2014a) and aims to encourage stringent monitoring and intervention for LAC pupils, for example via a personalised education plan (PEP) outlining attainment, strategies intended to accelerate progress, and resources needed for doing so. The PEP process involves termly meetings between pupil, Social Worker and school's designated teacher. The current study uses Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Latour, 1999) as a lens through which to conceptualise change for LAC pupils during the PEP process. Data was collected from three PEP meetings and accompanying documentation in one LA setting, using ethnomethodology, in order to explore the human and non-human actors in the PEP network which are active in creating change for LAC. The analysis made visible the strong role of the PEP document in providing structure for the meeting, along with the instrumental role of the designated teacher and their knowledge of the pupil embodied in non-human entities such as resources, timetabling and grades. The Social Worker influence on the network was less visible. ANT is explored as a material semiotic tool for analysis through a conceptual review of current literature within educational research, with a focus on the construction of research questions. The review demonstrates that ANT can attempt to answer questions about 'how' things came to be and 'who' and 'what' they are composed of. The current research also incorporates an appraisal of evidence-based practice, and a consideration of the implications and dissemination of the findings of the study at LA level and beyond.
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Piper, Stephen. "An actor-network theory study of public sector inter-organisational collaboration." Thesis, Aston University, 2015. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/25295/.
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The literature on inter-organisational collaboration, although wide-ranging, offers little guidance on collaboration as process. It focuses in the main on human attributes like leadership, trust and agency, but gives little consideration to the role of objects in the development of inter-organisational collaborations. A central aim of this thesis is to understand the interaction of objects and humans in the development of a particular health and social care partnership in the North East of England. This socio-material perspective was achieved through actor-network theory (ANT) as a methodology, in which the researcher is equally sensitised to the role of human and non-human entities in the development of a network. The case study is that of the North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus (CTP). This was a unique health and social care collaboration arrangement between North East Lincolnshire Council and North East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust, setup to address heath inequalities in the region. The CTP was conceived and developed at a local level by the respective organisation’s decision makers in the face of considerable opposition from regional policy makers and national regulators. However, despite this opposition, the directors eventually achieved their goal and the CTP became operational on 1st September 2007. This study seeks to understand how the CTP was conceived and developed, in the face of this opposition. The thesis makes a number of original contributions. Firstly, it adds to the current body of literature on collaboration by identifying how objects can help problematize issues and cement inter-organisational collaborations. Secondly it provides a novel account describing how two public sector organisations created a unique collaboration, despite pressing resistance from the regulatory authorities; and thirdly it extends Callon’s (1996) notion of problematization to examine how, what is rather vaguely described as ‘context’ in the literature, becomes enmeshed in decisions to collaborate.
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Ahmed, Mohamed. "Actor-network theory, tourism organizations and the development of sustainable community livelihoods." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/2899.
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Research on existing actor-networks has focused traditionally on outcomes, achievements and success at the expense of a detailed consideration of their formation and ability to function. In recognition of this lacuna, this study examined the formation and functioning of tourism-related actor-networks involved in environmental protection and the management of tourism in the coastal city of Hurghada, Egypt. More specifically, it applied the actor-network theory (ANT). In particular, the study applied its four moments of translation – problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilization – and used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to analyse the influencing factors, whether positively or negatively, and the degree to which the creation and operations of such collaborations were successful. This study employed a sequential, explanatory mixed-methods design, integrating both quantitative and qualitative data. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 510 employees of tourism-related organizations involved in managing tourism’s environmental impacts on Hurghada. Also, the researcher conducted fourteen semi-structured interviews with the managers and assistant managers of tourism-related organizations involved in environmental protection and the management of tourism. The SEM’s findings revealed the existence of a number of tourism-related actor-networks which were attempting to safeguard local community livelihoods through environmental protection, and of four key factors – trust, coordination, commitment, and communication – which were damaging their formation, functioning and outcomes. This study contributed to theory since it enhanced our knowledge and understanding of the relationships between four previously unconnected bodies of literature. These were, namely, ANT, tourism-related organizations, environmental governance, collaboration, and environmental protection. The study highlighted, also, the factors, both positive and negative, which influenced the formation and functioning of tourism actor-networks involved in managing tourism’s environmental impacts on Hurghada. In practical terms, this study analysed the role of tourism-related organizations in order to identify their main strengths and weaknesses In addition, the researcher considered how partnership networks could consolidate the strengths and overcome the weaknesses of the tourism-related organizations involved in environmental protection and the management of tourism in Hurghada. Also, this study will help these tourism-related organizations, through such networks, to adopt suitable activities, policies, strategies and laws for protecting the assets relating to the local community’s livelihoods. Therefore, knowing the key success factors of collaborative networks and good governance will help these networks of tourism-related organizations to improve their performance in terms of assisting Hurghada’s local community and the poor people in particular.
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Stålhand, Henrik, and Matin Davoodi. "Den första digitala medarbetaren : En Actor-Network Theory-studie i en omsorgsförvaltning." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för organisation och entreprenörskap (OE), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-95685.
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Det har visat sig att det finns en viss oro för vad den ökade robotiseringen kommer att innebära, samtidigt som robotiseringens utsträckning skiljer sig mellan branscher. Denna ANT-studie behandlar införandet av en robot i en omsorgsförvaltning. Av detta följer att verksamheten genomgår någon form av förändring, varefter vi ämnat skapa en förståelse för de okända konsekvenser som följer. Studien har även sin utgångspunkt i HRI och antropomorfisering, som givit perspektiv på olika former av aktörskap och deras interaktioner. Studien är till sin natur kvalitativ och har präglats av en abduktiv arbetsprocess, samtidigt som ANT-perspektivet även har haft implikationer på det ontologiska och epistemologiska ställningstagandet. Det empiriska materialet presenteras i form av ett narrativ uppdelat i tre episoder som är berättat av roboten Matilda. Det har visat sig att Matilda har varit en central materialitet för de associeringar som sammanför aktörerna i nätverket, men att hennes införande även medfört nätverkseffekter. Vi kan med säkerhet påstå att effekterna är dynamiska och att de först blir framträdande med tiden. Detta ger ett cirkulärt samband, där idéer förändras och avlöser varandra.It has been shown that there is some concern about what the increased robotization will mean, while the extent of robotization differs between industries. This ANT study deals with the introduction of a robot into a Public Care Department. This is followed by the notion that the organization will undergo some kind of change, after which we intend to create an understanding of the unknown consequences that follow. The study also has its outset in HRI and anthropomorphism, which have given perspectives on different forms of actors and their interactions. The study is by nature qualitative and has been characterized by an abductive work process, while the ANT perspective has also had implications for the ontological and epistemological positions. The empirical material is presented in the form of a narrative, divided into three episodes told by Matilda the robot. It appears that Matilda has been a central materiality for the associations that connect the actors in the network, but that her introduction also has brought network effects. We can say with certainty that the effects are dynamic and that they only become prominent over time. This provides a circular relationship, where ideas change and replace each other.
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Bakhshaie, Amir. "Testing an Actor Network Theory Model of Innovation Adoption with econometric methods." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/32446.
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In this Thesis I will examine technology adoption by analyzing how different organizations come to interpret a technology as a specific kind of innovation based on a certain set of criteria. The kind of innovation an organization interprets a technology to be effects how quickly the organization will adopt that technology. To analyze how organizations come to interpret technologies as a specific kind of innovation I will construct a model. I will utilize the Actor-Network Theory from Science and Technology Studies as the framework to combined theories regarding technology adoption from other disciplines. This new model of technology adoption will be able to address the individual weakness of each theory that I use, and at the same time build on the strengths of the Actor-Network Theory. I will conclude my thesis by testing my new model using an event study from econometrics. Using the surrogate measure of the stock market to represent consumers, the event study will allow me to gauge if the kind of innovation a technology is interpreted as affects the rate of its adoption.Master of Science
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Blackburn, Sarah Kaye. "Understanding project managers at work." Thesis, Henley Business School, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.247551.
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Elsmore, Ian Douglas. "Configuring conservation : an actor-network theory approach to studying the historic built environment." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2008. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/6130/.
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This thesis aims to assess if actor-network theory (Latour, 2005) is capable of providing an alternative method for looking at the redevelopment of the historic built environment. It is argued that although the historic built environment enjoys a great deal of public attention the relationship between buildings and the people that inhabit them has not been extensively studied. Examination of the literature suggests that most previous studies have either focused on the social elements or the physical elements in isolation and have failed to consider how one influences the other. It is proposed that actor-network theory may be able to provide an alternative ontological perspective that bridges this socialphysical divide and allows the influence of the relationships between the human and the non-human elements to be taken into consideration. In order to assess this, the thesis utilises a single case study that focuses on the redevelopment of the former brewery at Henley upon Thames in South Oxfords hire. The events leading to the closure of the brewery and the subsequent redevelopment of the site into two very different uses form the basis of the case study. Whilst initially these events are narrated using a traditional chronological format, the use of such a format hides the complex nature of the relationships that enable the case. Actor-network theory therefore provides a means of exposing some of this complexity and as a result can be regarded a valid methodology for the consideration of the historic built environment by transcending temporal boundaries and aligning local interests with global events. The thesis shows that the actor-network perspective allows the redevelopment of the historic built environment to be considered in a manner that demonstrates the complex interdependent relationships between the physical and the social dimensions.
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El, Safty Manal Nour El Din. "Auditing in electronic environments from an actor-network theory perspective : case of Egypt." Thesis, University of Hull, 2009. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:2187.
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This study seeks to explore how the network of auditing in an electronic environment, in the Egyptian context, is constituted. To understand how this network is constituted, the study explores the main actors that have an influence on auditing in electronic environments. It explores how, and why, these actors were enrolled, or found places for themselves, in this network. Moreover, the study discovers how these actors interact together to perform and shape the network. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) was adopted to be the theoretical framework of this study as its main focus is on the process of constructing and maintaining networks; it asks how and for what purposes heterogeneous entities are brought together in a network. By adopting the ANT perspective, this study highlights the notion that auditing in an electronic environment is not only the process of auditing the outcomes (financial statements) of a technical system using technological methods. Rather, it is a network constituted from hybrid human and non-human, local and global actors, who interact with each other through circulating different intermediaries and who have an influence on the audit process. In other words, this study looks beyond the fact that financial auditors are responsible for auditing the financial statements, which are the outputs of advanced electronic systems, to explore the process by which auditing in advanced electronic environments takes place. Thinking of the process of auditing in advanced electronic environments from an Actor-Network Theory perspective extends the list of actors involved in the process, and expands the issues that should be considered in their interaction.
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Kerr, Roslyn Fiona. "Assembling high performance: an actor network theory account of gymnnastics in New Zealand." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Social and Political Sciences, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/4100.
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During every summer Olympic Games, the sport of gymnastics rises briefly to the world’s
attention as the public admire the incredible skills and feats performed by fit muscular bodies
on a range of apparatus. The gymnastics they watch consists of performances in which bodies
assemble with apparatus. This thesis utilises an Actor Network Theory (ANT) perspective to
follow this assembling of gymnastics in the five codes of competitive gymnastics competed in
New Zealand: women’s artistic gymnastics, men’s artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics,
trampolining and competitive aerobics.
This thesis is a descriptive ethnography of the world of high performance gymnastics. It
begins by examining some of the controversies that have operated to both criticise and rework
the sport. Next, the gymnasts are followed through the selection processes that lead them to
become members of national squads and teams. It then moves to the training gymnasium and
examines the variety of non-human actants that work in the gymnasium to assemble
gymnastics. The next two chapters examine how gymnasts are found to enrol and assemble
with video technologies and sports science professionals in their efforts to improve
performance. Following this, gymnasts are observed to produce a routine at a competition
which is translated into a score and ranking through the highly complicated and laborious
process of judging. Finally, the thesis concludes with the story of Angela McMillan, New
Zealand’s most successful athlete within the gymnastic codes. Throughout are a range of
accounts from participants, together with observations, describing attempts to secure the
stabilisation of gymnastics as an actor-network that produces internationally successful
athletes.
All the networks followed involve a continual process of enrolling, un-enrolling, translating
and mediating, with power constantly shifting and being shared between various
heterogeneous actants including coaches, parents, the national federation and the international
federation. At times these networks stabilise with particular actants, such as sports scientists
or technologies, being enrolled, while at other times the paths of the networks come to an end
as particular assemblages or actants, such as physical ability tests, are no longer enrolled. In
contrast to a perception that successful high performance sports include key actors and
resources, this thesis shows how the networks that produce high performance gymnasts are
highly unpredictable and messy, with humans and non-humans both equally influential in
affecting every branch of the networks. Processes such as talent identification, training and
judging are found to be complicated and unstable.
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Hale, Evan L. "Knowledge, Truth, and the Challenge of Revisability: A Critique of Actor-Network Theory." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1333733604.
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Myrup, Emilia, and Mikaela Hargell. "Genusanalysmetoder i film : En jämförelsestudie av Actor-Network Theory, Connotation Frames och Bechdeltestet." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Bildproduktion, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-29296.
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Denna kandidatuppsats undersöker och jämför tre olika metoder för analys av film med grund i ett genusperspektiv. De metoder som undersöks är Bechdeltestet, Connotation Frames och slutligen en analysmetod som vi valt att referera till som Film Actor-Network Theory (FANT). Med FANT kan man analysera film genom att se till karaktärerna och deras fiktiva sociala nätverk. Filmerna som används för analys av metoderna är Juno (2007) och Fight Club (1999). Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka dessa analysmetoder och se hur effektivt de belyser jämställdhet i film. Resultatet är att dessa metoder belyser jämställdhet på olika sätt. Connotations Frames och FANT analyserar på en djupare och mer ingående nivå än Bechdeltestet. Connotation Frames ser till makt och agens i handling och dialog, och Bechdeltestet gör en snabb analys om två kvinnliga karaktärer pratar med varandra om något annat än män. Appliceras alla analysmetoder på en film kan det visa på ett resultat som är närmare en heltäckande genusanalys.
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Lindström, Elin. "Från soptipp till naturreservat : En studie av makt i Lövsta-Kyrkhamn-Riddersvik genom actor-network theory." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för naturgeografi och kvartärgeologi (INK), 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-77592.
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This paper investigates, through an actor-network theory perspective, how the recreation area Lövsta-Kyrkhamn-Riddersvik northwest of Stockholm has developed from being a dumping site into becoming a nature reserve. This investigation also tries to describe and explain which values that have been promoted in the area by the local voluntary associations and companies. Lövsta-Kyrkhamn-Riddersvik has been inhabited for more than 3000 years, originally with farming as the most important business. The area served as Stockholm’s waste disposal site from the late 1890’s and has today become an important area for recreational use. The actor- network theory perspective is used to identify different actors, both human and non-human, that has worked for the protection of the area and thus gained power over the decision-making.
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Smith, Susan M. "SME leaders' learning in networked learning : an actor-network theory and communities of practice theory informed analysis." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2011. http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/61620/.
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This thesis brings a Communities of Practice perspective together with Actor-network theory to provide a rich understanding of the social learning processes of SME leaders within a networked learning programme. Networked learning as an educational approach is a growing area in higher education. The networked learning programme under investigation forms part of the knowledge exchange initiatives at Lancaster university management school. The research explores the learning process through a qualitative, inductive approach underpinned by an (online and offline) ethnography and is supported by qualitative interviews, the researcher‟s own reflections and other secondary data. The study focuses on three main issues. Firstly, it provides an in-depth understanding of the way a learning community comes together. Secondly, it shows how delegates learn through co-constructing knowledge and the practices within the learning community. It is proposed that the learning community constructs, learns and challenges the situated curriculum. This takes place through the process of legitimate peripheral participation. Gaining fuller participation leads to an increased identification with that of „leader‟. Thirdly, the study theorises four conceptual learning spaces to show where the delegates learn. They are conceived of as an effect of the delegates‟ engagement with the integrated learning model underpinning the networked learning programme. The thesis concludes with a discussion presenting a set of learning and design principles. These can be used to inform the design and thinking around networked learning and knowledge exchange. Combining the theoretical frameworks of Actor-network theory and Communities of Practice theory is unique in the context of exploring the learning processes within networked learning. This combination stretches aspects of the main tenets of each theory and offers contributions to all three theoretical frameworks.
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Moberg, Emilie. "Breakdowns, overlaps and ambivalence : an Actor-network theory study of the Swedish preschool curriculum." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Barn- och ungdomsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-148631.
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Within the discipline of early childhood education research, the present study will focus on the Swedish preschool curriculum text, using a sociomaterial approach offered by Actor-network theory (ANT). The study adopts ethnographic methods, foremost participant observations in a preschool, to generate knowledge of how the curriculum text comes to act through moments in the everyday preschool work. The doctoral thesis consists of three research papers. Research paper I explores the delayed access to the field through the occurrence of a water leak. Through the focus on the value of breakdowns in ANT, the water leak becomes an empirical event where the researcher is allowed to learn about the mundane objects and practices making a preschool work, such as schedules and lists. Research paper II reports on the case of the curriculum concept of children´s interests (Moberg, 2017). Here, empirical moments are highlighted where the curriculum concept of children´s interests is defined and made to act by children and materialities. Finally, research paper III (Moberg, in press) reports on the case of an evaluation meeting where an evaluation text is to be produced. Here, the curriculum text is highlighted as vulnerable in its inability of embracing pedagogical dilemmas and ambivalence in the preschool everyday work.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 3: Accepted.
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Grabowski, Louis J. "Real Estate Decision-Making: An Actor Network Theory Analysis of Four, Small Charitable Organizations." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2012. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/bus_admin_diss/7.
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This in-depth exploratory case study examines the real estate decision-making processes in four small, charitable organizations through the lens of Actor Network Theory (ANT). While decision-makers in these cases followed logical pathways and criteria in searching for and evaluating alternatives, this investigation also found these processes were often lengthy, complex, bounded rational, and political. The analysis looked at the relative roles played by various internal and external actors (including influential non-human actors such as feasibility studies, renderings, budgets, and plans) and the resulting fragile, but acceptable outcomes. From the presented engaged scholarship, practical implications emerged that can aid nonprofit managers and their boards in their real estate decision-making processes. Lastly, in addition to helping understand the process of creating real estate decisions in the context of nonprofit organizations, the analysis demonstrates how ANT with its focus on how heterogeneous human and non-human actors interact and come together to act as a whole, can be a valuable framework in examining the socio-technical, political process of real estate decision-making.
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Hemmingway, Emma. "Into the newsroom : using actor network theory to investigate the construction of news facts." Thesis, Nottingham Trent University, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.431911.
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Mpazanje, Flora Titani Harriet. "Towards understanding as-lived experiences in information systems projects : an actor-network theory perspective." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5668.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-174).This research project began with a literature review of IS project management theories which aimed to explore and describe the as-lived experience of practitioners in an IS project network. The study builds on this body of knowledge by providing a narrative of as-lived experiences of IS project participants. The study involved a cross-sectional study of two IS projects cases from two countries in sub-Saharan Africa, namely, Malawi and South Africa. Information was collected and analysed qualitatively using Actor-network Theory. Unstructured interviews were the main data gathering technique supplemented with secondary data and observations. Most interviews were audio recorded. All interviews were transcribed before analysis.
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Selig, Elin. "Museet för glömska : berättelsen om ett nomadiserande konstmuseum i ett Actor-Network Theory-perspektiv." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för samhälls- och välfärdsstudier, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-138784.
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Samtidskonsten innebär att en mängd nya sätt att organisera presentationen av konst på har uppstått. Museet för glömska är en mindre samtidskonsthall med starkt idébaserad grund som kan sägas vara allt från ett kulturprojekt till ett idébaserat museum. Denna uppsats belyser vad Museet för glömska är och hur det görs i ett ANT-perspektiv. En del av uppsatsen är också att se hur en organisation som Museet för glömska låter sig studeras. Syftet med uppsatsen är att öka förståelsen för icke-traditionella museum och samtidskonsthallars organisation. Detta genom att synliggöra de förbindelser och relationer som bildar Museet för glömska. Tidigare studier av har visat att problematiken med samtidskonsten och dess organisering är att konsthallarna står i en beroendeställning till finansiärer varför det kritiska perspektiv som kännetecknar samtidskonsten kan vara svår att åstadkomma. Därför finns det anledning att studera alternativa organisationsformer. Museet för glömska undgår i viss mån denna problematik eftersom verksamheten sker på ideell grund. För att beskriva hur förbindelserna inom Museet för glömska hålls på plats använda begreppet obligatorisk passagepunkt, vilket kan sägas vara ett sätt att belysa hur makten fördelas i en organisation och vilka strategier som används för att bibehålla en maktposition. För att ytterligare beskriva vad Museet för glömska är och hur det görs används också begreppen objektskapande- och rumsligt nätverksperspektiv. Museet för glömska består, i ett ANT-perspektiv, av två kretslopp. Ett litet för varje utställningstillfälle och ett stort som beskriver Museet för glömskas identitet. Det lilla kretsloppet består av delarna utställningsidén, konstnärerna, konstverken, platsen och finansieringen. Det stora innehåller delarna utställningar, Medier utan minne och icke-platsen samt anti-grupperna museer, akademin, media och konstvärlden. Den sammanhållande faktorn för båda kretsloppen är en obligatorisk passagepunkt i form av talespersonerna och en obligatorisk icke-passagepunkt i form av artikeln Medier utan minne. Talespersonernas strategier för att bevara nätverket varierar beroende på vilken aktör i nätverket som ska intresseras. I ett objektskapande nätverksperspektiv är de små kretsloppen och det stora kretsloppet olika, men sammankopplade, objekt som skapar Museet för glömska. I ett rumsligt nätverksperspektiv existerar endast ett litet kretslopp, det som för tillfället är aktivt. När kretsloppet övergår till att inte länge vara aktivt så övergår det till att vara en del av det stora kretsloppets rumsliga nätverksform genom att det då endast existerar på Museet för glömskas webbsida. Jag hävdar genom uppsatsen att Museet för glömska kan ses på många olika sätt men att det i min uppsats ska förstås som en icke-organisation bestående av två kretslopp som hålls samman av en obligatorisk icke-passagepunkt i form av Medier utan minne och en obligatorisk passagepunkt i form av två talespersoner vars kommunikationer med kretsloppens olika delar och utpekandet av anti-grupper är essentiell för att Museet för glömska ska kunna bibehålla sin homeomorfism. Studien bidrar till att öka förståelsen för icke-traditionella konsthallar och museer genom att utvidga vad idébaserade museum kan vara och genom att visa på anti-gruppernas betydelse för icke-traditionella konsthallars identitetsskapande. Utöver detta visar också uppsatsen hur icke-organisationer kan studeras.The emergence of contemporary art implied many new ways of organizing and presenting art. The Museum of Forgetting is a small and nomadic contemporary art gallery with a strong idea-based foundation. This thesis describes, what the Museum of Forgetting is and how it is made through an Actor Network Theory-perspective. Because of the complexity in what Museum of Forgetting is, it is also relevant to examine how an organization such as Museum of Forgetting can be studied. The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of non-traditional museums and contemporary art galleries by displaying the associations with and within the Museum of Forgetting. Previous studies of contemporary art have shown that one problem of contemporary art and its organization is the dependence on external financiers. Therefore, the critical perspective, characterizing contemporary art, can be difficult to achieve. Because of this, there is reason to study alternative organizational forms of presenting and organizing art. This thesis increases the understanding of non-traditional art galleries and museums by expanding what idea-based museums can be and by showing the importance of anti-groups for the creation of the identities of non-traditional art galleries and museums. The empirical and analytical findings show, that the Museum of Forgetting, through an ANT perspective, consists of two cycles. A small one, that is actualized at each exhibition and a large one, describing the identity of the Museum of Forgetting. The small cycle consists of the following units: the exhibition-idea, the artists, the artworks, the place and the financing. The large cycle consists of: exhibitions, the article ”Media without memory” and non-location as well as anti-groups. The unifying factors for both cycles are one obligatory passage point manifested in two spokespersons and one obligatory non-passage point manifested in the article Media without memory. The spokespersons strategies to maintain their position as obligatory passage point varies, depending on which actor to enrol in the network. In essence, according to my findings, the Museum of Forgetting should be understood as two cycles which are coalesced by an obligatory non-passage point, manifested in Media without memory and an obligatory passage point, manifested in two spokespersons, whose communications with the different parts of the cycles and identification of anti-groups, are essential for maintaining the homeomorphism of the Museum of Forgetting.
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BARBANTI, CAMILLA VIRGINIA. "Actor-Network Theory e ricerca educativa: il ruolo degli artefatti in una scuola steineriana." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10281/170821.
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La ricerca si inserisce nell’ambito delle ricerche qualitative in educazione e si rifà in particolare agli studi che, a livello nazionale e internazionale, indagano il tema materialità nei processi educativi e formativi. Al centro delle analisi di tali studi sono gli elementi eterogenei che concorrono a creare materialmente e quotidianamente le esperienze educative.
Per studiare le condizioni situate e materiali che producono e riproducono gli eventi educativi, si è fatto riferimento all’Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Tale approccio sociomateriale permette di tracciare come elementi umani e non-umani si assemblano, articolando e disarticolando le pratiche formative. Tali assemblaggi danno vita a reti attive nelle quali persone, regole, discorsi, artefatti si connettono in una relazione di reciprocazione. Nella prospettiva ANT ad essere capaci di agency (la capacità di modificare uno stato di cose) e ad influenzare la pratica educativa non sono solamente gli individui ma anche gli artefatti.
L’ipotesi di fondo da cui muove la ricerca è che portare in primo piano gli aggregati sociomateriali che performano le pratiche educative permette di tracciare ciò che quotidianamente mette in scena l’azione educativa e di ripensare i processi formativi in un ottica non human centred.
Si è svolta una ricerca sul campo facendo uno studio di caso (instrumental case study) presso una scuola Steineriana del Nord Italia. Attraverso un’osservazione etnografica si sono tracciate le interazione tra umano e non umano presenti nella scuola e ricostruite le reti a cui esse davano vita. Si sono poi integrati i dati dell’osservazione con delle interviste agli insegnanti chiedendo loro, coerentemente con l’approccio ANT, di raccontare ancorandosi agli oggetti.
Attraverso la ricerca, si sono potute riscostruire alcune delle reti sociomateriali e dei significati agenti nella scuola. Si è visto come gli artefatti osservati influenzano le pratiche della scuola steineriana. L’ANT inoltre si è rivelato essere un approccio utile in ambito pedagogico poiché permette di indagare lo scarto tra il dichiarato e l’agito dell’azione formativa.This research belongs to the field of qualitative inquiries in education. Specifically, it draws from national and international studies that investigate the role of materiality in educational processes. These studies focus on the heterogeneous elements that create the educational experience on a daily basis, with particularly attention to materiality. According to these studies the educational experience is something that emerges from a social and material organization. The educational process is viewed as an entanglement of temporality, spatiality, corporality, artifactuality and symbols. In order to study the situational and material elements that produce and replicate the educational event, the framework of reference is provided by the Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Such sociomaterial approach allows to trace how human and non-human elements assemble, thus entangling and dis-entangling the educational practices. These assemblages enact active networks in which people, rules, narratives, artifacts, and such are interconnected and exert influence on each other. From the ANT perspective, not only individuals, but also the artifacts themselves have agency and have an impact on the educational practice. The research hypothesis is that bringing to the forefront the sociomaterial assemblages in education allows to trace the enactment of every day educational practices and to re-think the educational processes in a non human-centred perspective. The research was an instrumental case study at a Waldorf School in northern Italy. Through an ethnographic observation, the interactions between human and non-human elements were identified, as well as the networks these elements generated. Data from such observation were integrated with teacher interviews asking them, consistently with ANT approach, to tell the experience starting with objects. Through this research, it was possible to identify some of the sociomaterial networks of the school and their attached meaning. It was observed that the selected artifacts had an impact on the school practices and modes of this impact were described. ANT also became a useful approach in this pedagogical inquiry since it allowed to reveal the discrepancy between the declared intention and the actions in the educational practice.
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Doyle, Rosemary. "Doing, describing and documenting : inscription and practice in social work." Thesis, St Andrews, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/766.
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Bredemo, Fredrik. "Hörbarhet i praktiken : En Actor Network analys av arbetet kring hörbarhet." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för teknik och estetik, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-995.
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Abstrakt Tv-branschen är en jätteindustri som styrs av ett fåtal stora sändningsnätverk. I Sverige är den största distributören Sveriges Television (SVT) och på grund av detta så är sannolikheten att personer som arbetar inom ljud i Sverige någon gång kommer att arbeta på projekt för dem väldigt hög. I min uppsats har jag utfört en Actor Network-analys av empiriska studier jag utfört på postproduktionsbolaget Europa Sound and Vision. Med hjälp av analysen vill jag undersöka vad begreppet ”god hörbarhet” består av och därmed kunna definiera uttrycket tydligare. Jag jämför sedan SVTs syn på hörbarhet med den jag fått fram genom dessa studier för att till slut ändra på den nuvarande synen och på det regelverk SVT har.Abstract The television industry is a huge industry that is governed by a few big broadcasting networks. The biggest distributer and producer of television in Sweden is Sveriges Television (SVT) and everyone working with sound will, more likely than not, work for them in a project. In this study I’ve analyzed the results of two months of empirical work, I’ve identified the actors that make up the network “God hörbarhet” (good audibility) and the reason this is interesting is for determining a more solid definition for the term “good audibility”. I’ve then put this more solid definition up against SVT’s loose definition, this only to expand on their current system and delivery specifications.
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Sternehäll, Tove. "Understanding State Fragility through the Actor-Network Theory: A Case Study of Post-Colonial Sudan." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS), 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-57787.
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Despite the broad discourse on fragile states and the threat they pose to the contemporary world order, the literature on the subject does to a large extent ignore the material factors behind the causes of state fragility. Scholars and organizations in the field have almost exclusively adopted the Social Contract Theory (SCT) in order to explain state fragility as a problem caused by social factors. This study broadens the discourse by applying SCT as well as the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) on the case study of Sudan, in order to do a deductive theory testing of the added value of each theory. The results of this study show that while the Social Contract Theory does explain many factors behind state fragility, the application of the Actor-Network Theory adds to this by also incorporating the networks between the social and material determinants in societies. This research contributes to the debate on fragile states by adding to the scarce research on the materiality of fragility through the use of the Actor-Network Theory. The positive results of this thesis encourage future use of this theory in the field as it has the potential to give new insights in how to deal with fragile states.
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Rosenqvist, Robin, and Alfred Gårdeskog. "Digitala servicescapes : En undersökning om samspelet mellan dramaturgi, storytelling, och servicescapes i en digital miljö." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för teknik och estetik, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-959.
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Denna undersökning utgår ifrån Mary Jo Bitners servicescape-modell om hur fysiska miljöegenskaper formade efter en berättelse eller tema påverkar serviceverksamheter. För att sedan implementera modellen i en digital miljö. Resultatet av att nyttja teorierna kring servicescapes på exempelvis serviceverksamheter ger besökare möjlighet att fly undan vardagen, medvetet eller omedvetet, genom en kombination av olika sinnen. I undersökningen såg vi att besökarens självmedvetenhet kunde jämföras med Mihaly Csikszentmihalyis teorier om ”flöde”, där medvetandetillståndet hos en individ blir uppslukat av individens aktivitet. Ur denna jämförelse kunde förutsättningarna och kriterierna för ”flöde” nyttjas. Undersökningen påvisar att anpassning av servicescape i en digital miljö leder till en förlust av sinneskombinationer i jämförelse med fysiska servicescapes. Detta ändrar dock inte det faktum att besökaren upplever ett mervärde av platsen då tillämpning av servicescapes i skapandet av fysiska som digitala miljöer öppnar upp för besökare att inte bara bevittna respektive berättelse utan även delta i den.This study is based on Mary Jo Bitner’s servicescape-model of the physical environment, shaped by a story or a certain theme, towards adapting the model into a digital environment. The result of applying the theories surrounding servicescapes to where a service process takes place, gives visitors an opportunity to escape from the everyday life, consciously or unconsciously, through a combination of the human senses. The study found that the effect, a lesser amount of self-awareness, could be compared with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theories of "flow", a mental state where an individual becomes fully immersed in the process of the activity. The conditions for "flow" could therefore be used as a foundation in the creation of “digital servicescapes”. The adaptation of servicescape towards a digital environment led to a loss of possible combinations of senses in comparison with physical servicescapes. Though this did not result in removing all the added value of adapting the servicescape-model into a digital environment, for it is still expanding the opportunity for visitors to interact with the story respectively, instead of being idle observers.
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Andrews, Erin. "Navigating Land Rights Institutions in the Greater Accra Region of Southern Ghana: An Actor Network Theory Approach." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/37072.
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Especially since the publication of Hernando De Soto’s book The Mystery of Capital in 2000, there has been a great deal of scholarship on the relationship between property rights and economic growth. There is fairly broad consensus among policy makers and many academics that secure property rights have a wide range of benefits but significantly less agreement on what impedes secure property rights in developing countries, what types of rights work best and under what circumstances, or how to improve the situation in developing countries. Through a case study of land institutions and reform in the Greater Accra Region of Southern Ghana this thesis examines the complexities of overlapping and often contradictory land tenure regimes. Actor Network Theory is used to analyze the role of the various actors, including humans, organizations, and material actors, like documents. I argue that although the system of land rights institutions in Ghana is extremely complex, one of the main challenges is a relatively simple one: the materiality of the documents, and the related costs of producing, storing, managing, and maintaining them., Despite attempts by the state, with the support of the World Bank, to codify existing land relations, transaction costs have not been dramatically reduced. The result is a complicated environment of institutional pluralism, in which the documents involved in registration have taken on a life of their own, where users must recruit these material actors to support their land claims if they wish to have their rights protected. This process of producing and collecting documents to support their land claims can be costly for landholders, in terms of both time and money. In this way, the centrality of documents can be burdensome for landholders, but also creates interesting opportunities for landholders to mobilize land documents in unconventional ways in order to support their claims and seek protection for their rights to land. Especially since the publication of Hernando De Soto’s book The Mystery of Capital in 2000, there has been a great deal of scholarship on the relationship between property rights and economic growth. There is fairly broad consensus among policy makers and many academics that secure property rights have a wide range of benefits but significantly less agreement on what impedes secure property rights in developing countries, what types of rights work best and under what circumstances, or how to improve the situation in developing countries. Through a case study of land institutions and reform in the Greater Accra Region of Southern Ghana this thesis examines the complexities of overlapping and often contradictory land tenure regimes. Actor Network Theory is used to analyze the role of the various actors, including humans, organizations, and material actors, like documents. I argue that although the system of land rights institutions in Ghana is extremely complex, one of the main challenges is a relatively simple one: the materiality of the documents, and the related costs of producing, storing, managing, and maintaining them., Despite attempts by the state, with the support of the World Bank, to codify existing land relations, transaction costs have not been dramatically reduced. The result is a complicated environment of institutional pluralism, in which the documents involved in registration have taken on a life of their own, where users must recruit these material actors to support their land claims if they wish to have their rights protected. This process of producing and collecting documents to support their land claims can be costly for landholders, in terms of both time and money. In this way, the centrality of documents can be burdensome for landholders, but also creates interesting opportunities for landholders to mobilize land documents in unconventional ways in order to support their claims and seek protection for their rights to land.
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Mettig, Till. "Wandel in Organisationen durch Netzwerkbildung : eine Fallstudie auf Basis der Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie /." Marburg : Tectum-Verl, 2007. http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=3013134&prov=M&dok_var=1&dok_ext=htm.
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Kavanagh, Donncha. "Multi-firm, temporary networks : a study of process." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.287249.
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Eriksson, Lina, and Mattias Hildén. "Vem tar beslut om inte chefen? : -en kvalitativ studie om chefslösa organisationer." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Sociologiska institutionen, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-295504.
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Hierarkier har funnits under en lång tid och är för många en självklarhet inom organisationer. Vi vill i denna uppsats undersöka tre organisationer i Sverige, som menar att de utmanar den hierarkiska strukturen genom att de inte har några chefer. Syftet med uppsatsen är att öka kunskapen om dessa organisationer genom att undersöka hur beslut tas och färdas. Vi undersöker även vad det är som påverkar beslut och beslutsfattande i dessa organisationer. Tidigare forskning behandlar dels organisationsutveckling ur ett historiskt perspektiv och hur beslut kommer till, olika beslutsmodeller, hur beslut färdas och implementeras och kopplingen mellan beslut och ansvar. Det teoretiska perspektivet är Actor- Network Theory, ANT. Empirin har samlats in genom nio stycken kvalitativa intervjuer. Den har kodats och analyserats utifrån teorins begrepp aktör-nätverk, performativitet, handlingsnät och översättning. Beslut har analyserats som en symbol, vilken kan skapas och färdas inom organisationen med hjälp av olika aktörer. Studien visar på att begreppet beslut är starkt kopplat till ett agerande. Beslut som något performativt blir en översättningskedja som består av många detaljer som lättare beskrivs med ett sammanfattande beskrivande begrepp, beslut, för att kunna begripliggöra vad det är. Vi har även hittat faktorer i materialet som visar på hur beslut är kopplat till den decentraliserade strukturen samt att medarbetaren som individ blir viktig. Slutligen förs en diskussion av resultatet i förhållande till frågeställningar, tidigare forskning, teori och metod samt ger implikationer för vidare forskning inom ämnet.
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Donovan, Grant. "The human insulin debate : a case study of contested innovation in medical technology." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.325660.
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Gottschling, Paul Thomas. "To submit is to relate : a study of architectural competitions within networks of practice." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2016. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/to-submit-is-to-relate-a-study-of-architectural-competitions-within-networks-of-practice(c3f8961d-94a8-4c91-91e2-935a6dcc4bf9).html.
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This is a study of architectural competitions as they engage with the design practices of architects within the UK and Europe. Since only one firm or one design emerges at the end, and the project programme exists prior to the submissions, there tends to be a gap between programme and practice, past and future, language and situation. It is the aim of this research to investigate what changes in our understanding of architectural practice when we acknowledge that architects work to linear programmes and submit deliverables within the set of relations that make up the competition. In conducting this research I address a gap in the social scientific understanding of architectural practice. While ethnographies of architectural studios have described the way design emerges through an interplay of humans and nonhumans, formats or structures like the competition have not yet become analytical categories in the ethnographic literature. To bridge what seems like a gap between the immaterial world of the competition and the material world of the studio, I draw from actor-network theory to view the competition as a set of relations that include objects and practices. Considering the technology of the competition, I follow five different strands of research. I identify the matters of concern that architects talk about when they talk about competitions; examine the documents involved in administering a competition; follow an atelier at an architectural school where students participate regularly in competitions; observe the Office of Metropolitan Architecture prepare a concept design; and visit an exhibition of submissions. Here I describe the ways in which competitions come together within the practice of architects. This study makes three contributions. First, the study adds to our understanding of architecture as a set of relations, rather than a stable identity. The second contribution has to do with language and practice, demonstrating that ‘big’ categories like ‘building’ nevertheless act within collectives of architects, clients, contractors and so on. A final implication is for methods. Since certain categories exist between sites, organising the activity of actors in different offices across what might be hundreds of miles, ethnographic fieldwork on architecture can become fragmented and multi-sited. The implications of the architectural competition for an ethnographic understanding of architectural practice, then, are to see more and ‘bigger’ collectives within the lives of architects.
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Prudnyk, Iuliia. "“Injection of war” : disentangling the Donbas war. A case study informed by Actor-Network Theory." Thesis, Försvarshögskolan, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-8425.
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The following thesis presents an empirical investigation of hybrid war in eastern Ukraine, drawing on the insights from Actor- Network Theory and New Type Wars theory. Taking a different route in studying a complex phenomenon of hybrid war, this study focuses on the social-material networks which constitute the hybrid war. This thesis aims to identify the actors and analyse their interactions at different stages of war. Actor-Network Theory will be used in this research to ask the questions, what role do the non-human actors play in hybrid warfare in eastern Ukraine, and how do they affect the dynamics of war. Highlighting the significance of non-human actors, this thesis aims to contribute to the existing literature on hybrid warfare in eastern Ukraine and thus shed light on the peculiarities of this phenomenon.
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López-Cotarelo, Pérez Juan Pablo. "HRM in practice : an application of actor-network theory to human resource management in retail." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2012. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/57619/.
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HRM practices have predominantly been seen as means put in place by top management to achieve certain ends. This thesis argues that approaching the HRM phenomenon in this way is limiting because it establishes a divide in HRM activities between those aspects that conform to top management intentions, contribute to consistency of HRM practices, and produce desired effects; and those that are not part of top management design, are a source of variability in HRM practices, and are at best irrelevant, at worst detrimental to the efficacy of HRM practices. Variability in HRM practices within organisations has become an important focus for debate in the strategic human resource management (SHRM) literature. This thesis argues that an alternative view of HRM is required for the field to move forward. Practice perspectives in organisation and management studies provide the basis for an alternative approach to studying HRM. Actor-network theory is particularly well suited for examining patterns of repetitive activity across time and space, and thus constitutes a useful framework for understanding consistency and variability in HRM practices. This thesis presents empirical research that applies actor-network theory to provide a ‘flat’ description of HRM activities in a large UK-based fashion retailer. Through an innovative research design that uses participant narratives of HRM episodes (n=112), HRM activity in the company is characterised as distributed, emergent and patterned. It is distributed in the sense that employment outcomes were produced through assemblies of heterogeneous –human and nonhuman– elements. It is emergent in the sense that the set of associations that were made in order to produce an employment outcome was not predictable, nor was the outcome itself. Both were the result of the associations that became stabilised during the flow of activity. Finally HRM activities were patterned through the standardising actions of central actors and their associated artefacts. In particular members of the HR department found ways to retrieve information from the field, transform it into standards, and deploy these standards back to the field in order to produce repetitive patterns. This alternative view of HRM implies a novel understanding of the nature of HRM practices, the role of variability and consistency, and the ways in which the effects of HRM may be produced. Such understanding acknowledges that effects of HRM are produced as much through variability as through consistency, and that these must not be understood as opposite, mutually exclusive features of HRM systems. The implications for research and practice are wide-ranging. This thesis strongly advocates a case study research programme that provides rich descriptions of HRM activities in diverse settings, as the best way to advance the field and produce practitioner relevant knowledge and advice. Practitioners are advised to pay attention to the processes through which HRM outcomes are produced in their organisation, and to the means by which they themselves deploy their agency to create patterns in those processes.
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Ogilvie-Whyte, Sharon Anne. "An analytical ethnography of children's agency, power and social relations : an actor-network theory approach." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/17093.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis connects with and extends inter alia the recent but as yet peripheral move within the sociology of childhood to open up children's agency to empirical analysis. Drawing heuristically upon actor-network theory and thought of this kind its aim is to expose the networks of heterogeneous associations upon which children's agency and power depends. Focusing upon children's every day play activities; the analytical lens is extended to consider the role of nonhumans that are embedded in children's mundane play interactions within their local neighbourhood and within their school playground. In doing so, this thesis argues that nonhumans are crucial participants in social interaction that are implicated in and pivotal to the heterogeneous networks of associations that children, as heterogeneous engineers, actively create to achieve their particular goals and desires. As a corollary to this, an analytical incorporation of nonhumans has drawn attention to the wider role that nonhumans play in the life worlds of children. In respect to this, the argument this thesis advances is that nonhumans,in their diverse forms, are functionally important in holding children's social relations in place. Drawn from ethnographic fieldwork with children, this thesis argues that children's agency, power and social relations, take their form and are an outcome of the heterogeneous associations that take place between humans and `things'.
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Elovaara, Pirjo. "Angels in Unstable Sociomaterial Relations : Stories of Information Technology." Doctoral thesis, Karlskrona : Blekinge Institute of Technology, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-00306.
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I have explored spaces, where negotiations of border transgressions take place and where issues of technology and politics mingle. We meet a diversity of actors in the world of information technology (IT): political texts, people and technology participating in numerous sociomaterial relations. Time is the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium, 2000. Years, when IT occupied the western world and created its own fuzzy discourse. Years, when IT stole the biggest newspaper headlines and years, when IT became a mundane everyday part of our work practices. Years, when we learned to live in heterogeneous worlds. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Actor-Network Theory and After (ANTa) provide analytical and methodological perspectives when working with the empirical material. I present a chronological exposé of some of the key concepts of ANT and ANTa. I also discuss how the classical ANT perspective has changed during the last few years from being a theory of networks to become a methodological and analytical approach to other kinds of spaces such as fluid and fire. The heart of the thesis consists of six empirical cases. My aim of writing stories of information technology has been to investigate the black box of information technology. Investigating includes also efforts of opening. Concepts that are taken for granted, such as the very notion of information technology in my case, can be explored, questioned, transgressed, blurred and opened up. Each of the diffracted stories is specific and unique, with its own actors, context, location and situatedness. But the stories are also connected through ANT, and feminist technology and technoscience studies. Case number one, ‘Discourses and Cracks – A Case Study of Information Technology and Writing Women in a Regional Context ’, is about a project, where questions concerning discourses of information society with a special focus on citizenship are discussed and where global and national politics are translated to local and situated practices. Case number two, ‘Translating and Negotiating Information Technology ’, consists of two main parts. The fi rst one is about a regional library project. The analysis of the project is based on the classical Actor Network Theory (ANT) approach that invites the study of the heterogeneous and negotiable shaping of IT. The second part is about librarians developing web-based services. The analysis is inspired by the later development of ANT (called ANTa in the thesis) in order to include more invisible actors, relations and negotiations. Case number three, ‘Negotiating Information Technology: Politics and Practices of The Public Sector Web Production’, is about work practices of a municipal web developer, through which creation of sociotechnical relations of everyday information technology practices is analysed and also mirrored to national and local IT politics. Case number four, ‘Making e-Government Happen – Everyday Co-Development of Services, Citizenship and Technology’, is presenting the same web developer as in the third case, but now his everyday practices are connected with an expanded and wider circuit of co-constructors of information technology. The text is a co-production of a multidisciplinary research group aiming to describe, analyse and problematise connections when creating practices, where technology and society collaborate. Case number fi ve, ‘Citizenship at the Crossroads of Multiple Layers of Sociotechnical Relations’, enrols technology as an active actor in the construction of citizenship in an IT context in Sweden. The perspective emphasising the active agency of non-humans both enhances and challenges the Scandinavian approach of systems development by suggesting a direction towards a cyborgian approach towards technology design. Case number six, ‘Between Stability and Instability – a Project about e-Democracy ’, takes its point of departure from a small-scale project having as its goal the development of e-democracy in a municipal context. In the text the focus is on the stabilisation processes in shaping the technology (‘e’) and democracy parts of the project. I also discuss what kinds of spaces exist in between (the hyphen in e-democracy) and ask if integration between technology and democracy is possible as a whole. Finally, my intention is to step further into stories and practices not yet existing. Inspired by the French philosopher Michel Serres, I introduce the fi guration of an angel as a cartographer, intermediator and (co-) constructor of sociomaterial relations. Angels are needed to sew the separate fi elds of technology, politics and everyday practices to a rich seamless tapestry. They are the ‘artful integrators’ (Suchman).
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Holm, John. "How managers got their powers : an actor network examination of the emergence of management." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2001.
Find full textAbstract:
How are we to understand the development or management
not as a general activity that all humans engage in but as a
specialist activity associated with a particular group within the work organization? (Grey 1999 p. 565).
My purpose in writing this thesis is to unsettle the naturalness or the assertion that managers are "an agency or control" (Thompson and Mchugh 1995 p. 362). I argue that the stories or managers tell make two claims that
unsettle this assertion. I suggest that managers are the result a series or historical processes through which they colonised the co-ordination and control within organisations. In making this argument I adopt a Foucaultian approach or looking at firsts: that is "a moment or discontinuity a moment when something new
emerges" (Kendall 2001 p. 2). Then using an actor-network framework I examine how 'this' first came to be. I examine how three early managers, Daniel McCallum, Fredrick Taylor and Chester Barnard, colonised the firm. Their stories reveal that managers actively negotiated their way into the firm. This is the managers' first unsettling claim - managers are no-one's agents but their own.
I then argue that the process or negotiation required managers to construct a rationality or 111anagernent. This rationality or management was in essence a body or knowledge about what it meant to be a manager. This knowledge was constructed around the notion that profit was a "question or control" (Legge 1995 p. 15). To investigate this I take up Edwards's suggestion that managers have sought control in two ways: technologically - through the
structure of work, and socio-organisalionally - through the structure of the organisation. Therefore I seek out the two managers who were first to construct their management knowledge around these two techniques of control. I find Daniel McCallum, who was the first to use socio-organizational structures when he colonised the New York and Eire Railroad Company in 1854. I also find Fredrick Taylor, who was the first to use technological structures when he colonised Midvale Steel Company in 1878. I argue that the knowledge about management these two managers
constructed served two purposes. First, this knowledge made the domain of management visible and enabled the actions of managers to be rendered meaningful. This is follows Foucault's notion of power/knowledge (Foucault
1993). Second, this knowledge enabled managers themselves both to exist and to occupy a position of privilege in the firm. This follows Hacking's notion of dynamic nominalism, which suggests, "a new body of knowledge brings into being a new class of people or institutions that can exercise a new kind of power" (Hacking 1986 p. 27). I conclude that it is through the construction of this management knowledge that managers were able to colonise co-ordination and control in the firm. What the stories of McCallum, Taylor and Barnard also tell us is that this colonisalion required more than simply knowledge of control. This is the managers' second unsettling claim. Control was not enough to secure the existence of managers - managers also had to construct manageable workers. McCallum and Taylor both struggled lo sustain their existence as managers because workers were reluctant to accept the constraints that management imposed. Essentially their workers were not amenable to management. I argue that Barnard was the first to resolve this problem when he introduced industrial psychology into his management practice. Industrial psychology made the motivations of workers visible to managers. I suggest that this was not unlike the process Rose has identified that constructed governable populations under liberal governance (Rose 1990). I argue both processes
share the same foundation, namely the use of the psy-sciences to construct calculable souls. Finally I conclude by reflecting on what the stories that McCallum, Taylor,
and Barnard tell us of the future of managers. What these three managers tell us is that they secured their existence by promising owners profit and by psychologising the workers. I am tempted to conclude further and suggest
that managers tomorrow will secure their existence in much the same way. However, this is not something McCallum, Taylor and Barnard actually tell us so, in the spirit of actor-network theory, I stop short.
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Piterou, Athina. "A network perspective on sociotechnical transitions : the emergence of the electronic book." Thesis, Brunel University, 2009. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/4165.
Full textAbstract:
The sociotechnical system of print-on-paper for the dissemination of textual information prevails despite widespread concerns about its sustainability. On the basis of sociotechnical transitions theory the print-on-paper system is perceived as a regime. Information technology is identified as one of the generic technologies that has the potential to address the unsustainability of the incumbent regime. Its potential effects are examined through the development of the electronic book, which is defined as those IT applications providing an alternative form of textual display to printed paper. Yet, such applications have remained marginal. According to sociotechnical transitions theory the electronic book can be seen as a niche in relation to the print-on-paper regime. An alternative conceptualisation of transitions as a process of network reconfiguration is suggested. On that basis, the electronic book is depicted as a number of emergent innovation networks. Social Network Analysis methods informed by network approaches to innovation theory are applied to visualise and discuss these emergent networks. In one of the representations, the electronic book is mapped as a sociotechnical network including organisations, users and technologies. It emerges that network formation often transgresses a distinct niche-regime divide. Patterns of network interaction are explored and assessed as to whether they represent a sociotechnical transition in progress. The analysis reveals different patterns of network formation which are indicative of prospective sociotechnical trajectories where different concepts of the electronic book are emphasised. It emerges that the discussion of sustainability and the emergence of the electronic book remain largely unlinked.
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Rivera, Gonzalez Gibran. "The use of actor-network theory and a practice-based approach to understand online community participation." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.632822.
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Rivera, Gibran. "The use of actor-network theory and a practice-based approach to understand online community participation." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/4000/.
Full textAbstract:
Participation in online communities is problematic. Take up of community technologies is often patchy and subject to resistance, particularly in organisational settings. Previous literature, mainly influenced by a cognitive tradition, tends to explain this either through features of the technology such as interface design or through individual motivational structures. This study explores the insights Actor-Network Theory (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1986; Law, 1986c; Law, 1986b; Law, 1992) and a practice-based approach (Gherardi, 2000; Orlikowski, 2002; Reckwitz, 2002; Schatzki, 2002; Nicolini et al., 2003; Schatzki, 2005; Gherardi, 2009b; Feldman and Orlikowski, 2011; Nicolini, 2011; Cox, 2012) provide to more fully explain participation in online communities. The study focuses on the failure to establish an online community supported by a collaborative technology as part of a Human Resources project within a multi-campus University in Mexico. A range of methods for data collection were used, however semi-structured interviews were the main basis for analysis. Initially, analysing communication activity in the community showed low levels of participation, leading to conduct 30 interviews with actors playing different roles during the project; 17 interviews were conducted in the initial stage of the study and 13 interviews in the final stage. Work-related documentation and observation in online meetings were also used as sources of data. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and a practice-based approach (PBA), both members of the praxeological family of theories (Reckwitz, 2002), were used in sequential order to inform the analyses. During the first stage of the research, ANT was used to explore how a group of actors aimed to promote participation in the online community by developing different strategies to enrol the collaborative technology supporting participation into their network. By strengthening the relations between the collaborative technology and other relevant actors within the network participation was expected to occur. The analysis reveals that lack of participation arose from an inability of the technology to develop strong relations with key actors; processes of betrayal from human actors to the technology; failure of strategies and lack of political power from the actors sponsoring the community; incomplete internal translation of the technology; and existence of competing actors. In the second stage of the research, insights from PBA were used to further explore how pre-existing practices shaped participation in the online community. This analysis showed that factors shaping participation included the interconnection of HR practices to other practices of the University; the existence of habits and the sense of routinisation and habituation reflected in HR practitioners´ patterns of interaction and media use; the concern of practitioners that participation in the online community did not support the enactment of shared knowings critical in the performance of HR practices; and the features of HR practices being at odds with participation at the online community. Although offering distinct accounts, the findings of ANT and PBA offered two perspectives that deepen our current understanding of participation by foregrounding the relational and collective, historical and emergent, and highly contextualised character of participation. On the basis of the findings, the study provides a series of considerations that might be of relevance when conducing praxeological research to study organisational phenomena. Bringing power issues to the fore of the analysis, the use of alternative approaches to better deal with power concerns, the use of ethnographic methods, the adoption of different angles from observation, acknowledging the emergent and historically-shaped character of phenomena, and the need to foreground the socio-material character of phenomena are highlighted as relevant considerations.
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au, sbell@orange usyd edu, and Sarah Jane Bell. "Researching Sustainability: Material Semiotics and the Oil Mallee Project." Murdoch University, 2003. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20040302.153647.
Full textAbstract:
Sustainability responds to crises of ecology and human development and the relationships between them. Sustainability cannot be adequately described using disciplinary categories arising from the modern dichotomy between nature and culture. Sustainability research requires a methodology that reflects the reality of its subject.
This thesis presents material semiotics as a methodology for sustainability research. Material semiotics refers to the work of actor-network theorists and latter developments of alternate spatial metaphors for material relationality. Actor-network theory is a methodology that describes human and non-human actors in the same terms. It follows actor through networks of material relationships that they constitute and are constituted by, depicting heterogeneous objects without recourse to prior categories of nature or culture. The description of material relationships in fluid and regional, as well as network, spaces expands the descriptive power of material semiotics to include Others and to better represent complexity.
The Oil Mallee Project is a case study of sustainability in the Western Australian wheatbelt. Indigenous eucalypts, oil mallees, are planted on land that was cleared for agriculture. The above ground biomass can be processed for eucalyptus oil, electricity and activated carbon, and the rights to carbon stored in the extensive mallee roots, or in unharvested trees, can be sold. The Project responds to a number of sustainability issues, including ozone depletion, land degradation, climate change and rural decline. This thesis follows the actors that comprise the Oil Mallee Project to describe its complexity, multiplicity and sustainability. Qualitative interviews with actors in the Project and the wheatbelt provided the primary data, which is supported by documentary material.
Three contingent phases can be identified in the history of the Oil Mallee Project eucalyptus oil industry, dryland salinity management, and greenhouse response. The Project has persisted because it is simultaneously a regional, network and fluid object. Mallees grow well in the tough conditions of the wheatbelt. Mallees can be integrated with existing networks of industrial agriculture. The Project has achieved contingent stability in policy documents and the networks of scientific research. The fluidity of the Project has enabled it to change shape and identity in response to threats and opportunities, and as relationships break and form, without complete disruption. Specific humans have been central heroes in different phases of the Project. The mallees themselves are the only actors that have been consistently central to the identity of the Project.
Sustainability requires knowledge of the relationships between humans and non-humans that constitute the multiple crises of ecology and human development. Sustainability is the re-ordering of those relationships in ways that make possible ecological integrity and human fulfilment. Material semiotics is a methodology for knowing sustainability in ways that reveal the possibilities for such re-orderings.
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Graham, Raewyn Alice. "Who killed the bookies? : tracking totalisators and bookmakers across legal and illegal gambling markets." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Sociology and Anthropology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/1026.
Full textAbstract:
The thesis provides an account of the development and the eventual elimination of the illegal horserace gambling market. Prior to the introduction of totalisators in 1870 bookmakers (bookies) provided the only option for legal on-course horserace gambling. Using an Actor-Network approach (Latour 1986) I track the transformations of totalisators across times and places to provide a historical account of the development and the co-existence of both legal and illegal horserace gambling markets, documenting the 100 year struggle by racing clubs and successive Governments to remove illegal bookmakers from horserace gambling markets. My argument is that the illegal gambling market survived for as long as it did because bookmakers' constructed extensive actor-networks that enabled them to provide a faster and more accessible betting service to punters. A significant feature in their survival was also the public and police tolerance of their presence. I argue that no one actually 'kills the bookies'. At each stage in the transformation of the scale and operation of totalisators, punters gradually began to use the services provided by a legal market. I document how the drift of legislation, coupled with technological changes and the establishment of new legal gambling sites, led to the expansion of global legal gambling markets that included sport bookmakers and legal horse racing bookmakers. These developments, especially computerisation, enabled the legal market to expand and reconfigure networks providing flexible, real and online access points for betting. These developments ultimately eliminate the comparative advantages of the local illegal bookmakers and bring to an end the illegal horserace gambling market.
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Molloy, Eamonn. "Management technologies : ideas, practices and processes." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.323068.
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Crawshaw, Julie Scott. "Beyond targets : articulating the role of art in regeneration." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2013. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/beyond-targets-articulating-the-role-of-art-in-regeneration(18ce8df5-63d4-445c-938e-51269769c379).html.
Full textAbstract:
An anthropological study of urban practice, this thesis contributes a nuanced understanding of the role of visual art in regeneration. Inspired by the experiential philosophy of Dewey (1934), we have traced the effects mobilised by art as part of urban transformation. The literature of cultural policy and ‘culture-led regeneration’ (Vickery, 2007), discusses art as physical artworks, in support of development; or as socially-engaged practice, in support of social renewal. Through tracing the movements of all the actors involved, our research goes beyond explanation in support of policy targets. We have described what happens in practice, on its own terms. To account for a range of professional perspectives, the research included four empirical studies at different proximities to practice: an exploratory study embedded in art practice; eighteen in-depth interviews with a range of art and regeneration professionals; sixteen in-depth interviews with practitioners of an Urban Regeneration Company (URC) case study; and a six-month ethnography of the same URC case. Accounting for the agency of humans and non-humans (Latour, 2007a), our explications took close account of the effects produced by the associations of urban relationships, between: engineers, planners, construction workers, and artists; as well as plans and drawings, objects, materials, concepts, ideas and natural elements. Through tracing actors at the ‘microscopic’ (Geertz, 1973) scale, we did not observe art as ‘works’, but the way art works as a driver for re-imagining the urban. In practice, we see regeneration not as buildings or communities, but as a continuous process of re-shaping human-physical relationships. As part of this relational network, art ‘mediates’ (Hennion, 1997) participation, collaboration and reflection on the ambitions of regeneration: producing new ideas for urban possibilities. The effects are produced through the continuous associations between ‘inner’ (human) and ‘outer’ (physical) materials. These material associations meld to create a neutral platform for professionals to shift from their usual remit; to re-consider the ‘big picture’ from a new perspective. Regeneration is an active part of the political landscape. As a catalyst for urban imagination, rather than deliver policy objectives, art re-shapes them. Through tracing practice this research contributes new understandings to the study of art and regeneration. By revealing urban networks through tracing art, rather than explaining regeneration as physical or social, we have made a contribution to urban studies by describing the micro movements of regeneration as a relational practice. As a contribution to art studies, through tracing how art works in regeneration, we have produced nuanced descriptions of how art ‘mediates’ action and reflection in and on urban practice. As a contribution to policy and practice, we have articulated the role of visual art in regeneration as: mediating emergent imaginings; re-shaping rather than delivering objectives. As a tool for the policies of the time, ‘regeneration’ has a shelf-life. As an articulation of the role of art as a catalyst for collaboration in support of positive urban transformation, the findings of this study continue to be relevant.
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Fleming, Eric Felton. "Situating Creativity: Developing a Non-Cartesian Approach to the Creative Process." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2013. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/216542.
Full textAbstract:
PhilosophyPh.D.
In this dissertation I argue that creativity should be understood as a situated and distributed process. As I develop my approach to understanding creativity over the course of this dissertation, three core claims emerge: 1) that the creative powers of particular agents are constituted within the concrete circumstances (both social and material) in which they are situated, 2) that the creative process itself unfolds across networks of associating actors, and 3) that these networks of associating actors include nonhumans of diverse sorts as active participants in the creative process. Understanding the creative process in this way distinguishes my approach from the ways in which creativity has traditionally been understood, which I argue are marked by a deep Cartesianism. This Cartesianism manifests itself in the way that creativity is predominantly studied and conceived of as a cognitive process that occurs within the minds of individuals. Because creativity is seen to occur within the minds of individuals, and because these minds are seen to function autonomously of their context, there is a resulting lack of attention to how the creative process is shaped by and extended out into the material and social environment. Furthermore, because creativity is understood to be solely a manifestation of human agency and human intentions, the active role of nonhumans in the creative process has not been taking into account. Drawing upon literature within feminist epistemology, cognitive science, science and technology studies, disability theory, and situated action theory, I argue that to better understand creativity, we must consider the creative process as it occurs within particular social and material environments, as it is distributed across diverse networks of actors, and as it is shaped in essential ways by nonhuman actors. It is only by considering creativity in its context, out in the world and in the interactions between things, that we can get an adequate understanding of the creative process.
Temple University--Theses