Interessement

Interessement is a concept in Actor-Network Theory (ANT), developed to describe a phase in the process of building a network around a problem or project. It follows problematization, during which a problematic situation is defined and potential actors are identified, and it precedes enrollment and mobilization. Interessement consists of the efforts to attract and align these actors—humans and nonhumans—so they participate in the proposed collective action.

Interessement relies on devices and inscriptions that translate interests into roles and expectations. This can include diagrams, demonstrations, contracts, standards, or technical artifacts that persuade actors to accept a specific position within the network. A key idea is the creation of an obligatory passage point, a point through which all actors must pass to achieve their goals, thereby binding them to the emerging arrangement. Through translation, actors negotiate responsibilities, align incentives, and anticipate how actions will affect others within the network.

Enrollment is the stage where actors accept the roles assigned during interessement, while mobilization refers to the coordinated activity of the network once actors are aligned. A successfully stabilized network is expected to function coherently and continue to act as a unified coalition; failure in interessement can lead to renegotiation or collapse of the proposed arrangement.

Scholars use interessement to analyze how scientific, technological, and organizational arrangements are constructed through persuasion, mediation, and the strategic use of artifacts. Critics have cautioned that the concept may overemphasize alignment at the expense of power asymmetries and conflict, and that empirical applications require careful, nuanced interpretation.