Aktørnettverk

Aktørnettverk, often translated as actor-network theory (ANT), is a framework for understanding how things gain agency and influence within a social system. It emerged from the work of scholars like Bruno Latour, Michel Callon, and John Law. ANT proposes that social phenomena are not solely created by human actors but are the result of dynamic interactions between heterogeneous elements, including humans, objects, technologies, texts, and even abstract concepts.

The core idea is that agency is not an inherent quality but is distributed and relational. An actor, whether human or non-human, has power or influence only in relation to other actors within a network. ANT emphasizes the importance of tracing these relationships and the processes through which certain actors become more powerful or influential, often by enrolling or aligning other actors to their cause.

Instead of focusing on pre-defined categories of actors (like individuals, organizations, or technologies), ANT encourages researchers to follow the actors themselves, observing how they connect, collaborate, conflict, and transform. This approach treats all elements within a network as potentially significant and avoids making prior assumptions about their importance. The goal is to describe the unfolding of social processes in detail, without imposing a priori social structures or intentions. ANT has been applied to a wide range of fields, including sociology, science and technology studies, anthropology, and political science, offering a way to analyze complex systems where human and non-human elements are intertwined.