Editing Actor–network theory (section)

== Actor–network theory and specific disciplines ==
Recently, there has been a movement to introduce actor network theory as an analytical tool to a range of applied disciplines outside of sociology, including nursing, public health, urban studies (Farias and Bender, 2010), and community, urban, and regional planning (Beauregard, 2012;<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Planning with Things|last = Beauregard|first = Robert|date = 2012|journal = Journal of Planning Education and Research |volume=32 |issue = 2|pages=182–190|doi = 10.1177/0739456X11435415|s2cid = 145378820}}</ref> Beauregard and Lieto, 2015; Rydin, 2012;<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1356405/|title = Using Actor-Network Theory to understand planning practice: Exploring relationships between actants in regulating low-carbon commercial development|last = Rydin|first = Yvonne|date = 2012|journal = Planning Theory |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=23–45|doi = 10.1177/1473095212455494|s2cid = 145707008|doi-access = free}}</ref> Rydin and Tate, 2016, Tate, 2013).<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Growth management implementation in Metro Vancouver: Lessons from actor network theory.|last = Tate|first = Laura|date = 2013|journal = Environment and Planning B |volume=40 |issue= 5|pages=783–800|doi = 10.1068/b37170|s2cid = 145701530}}</ref>

=== International relations ===
Actor–network theory has become increasingly prominent within the discipline of [[international relations]] and [[political science]].

Theoretically, scholars within IR have employed ANT in order to disrupt traditional world political binaries (civilised/barbarian, democratic/autocratic, etc.),<ref name="ejt.sagepub.com">Austin, Jonathan Luke., 2015. [http://ejt.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/11/26/1354066115616466.abstract "We have never been civilized: Torture and the Materiality of World Political Binaries."] ''European Journal of International Relations'', [[doi:10.1177/1354066115616466]]</ref> consider the implications of a posthuman understanding of IR,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cudworth |first1=Erika |last2=Hobden |first2=Stephen |title=Of Parts and Wholes: International Relations beyond the Human |journal=Millennium: Journal of International Studies |date=2013 |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=430–450 |doi=10.1177/0305829813485875|s2cid=52209290 |url=http://roar.uel.ac.uk/2577/1/2013_Cudworth_Hobden_parts-and-wholes.pdf }}</ref> explore the infrastructures of world politics,<ref>Barry, A., 2013. "Material Politics."</ref> and consider the effects of technological agency.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leander |first1=Anna |title=Technological Agency in the Co-Constitution of Legal Expertise and the US Drone Program |journal=Leiden Journal of International Law |date=2013 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=811–831 |doi=10.1017/S0922156513000423|s2cid=32051642 }}</ref>

Empirically, IR scholars have drawn on insights from ANT in order to study phenomena including political violences like the use of torture and drones,<ref name="ejt.sagepub.com"/> piracy and maritime governance,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bueger |first1=Christian |title=Practice, Pirates and Coast Guards: the grand narrative of Somali piracy |journal=Third World Quarterly |date=2013 |volume=34 |issue=10 |pages=1811–1827 |doi=10.1080/01436597.2013.851896|doi-access=free }}</ref> and garbage.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Acuto |first1=Michele |title=Everyday International Relations: Garbage, Grand Designs, and Mundane Matters |journal=International Political Sociology |date=2014 |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=345–362 |doi=10.1111/ips.12067}}</ref>

=== Design ===
The actor–network theory can also be applied to design, using a perspective that is not simply limited to an analysis of an object's structure. From the ANT viewpoint, design is seen as a series of features that account for a social, psychological, and economical world. ANT argues that objects are designed to shape human action and mold or influence decisions. In this way, the objects' design serves to mediate human relationships and can even impact our morality, ethics, and politics.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Yaneva|first=Albena|title=Making the Social Hold: Towards an Actor-Network Theory of Design|journal=Design and Culture|date=2009|volume=1|issue=3|pages=273–288|url=https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1b6452&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-NON-PUBLISHERS.PDF|doi=10.1080/17547075.2009.11643291|s2cid=143849758}}</ref>

=== Literary criticism ===
The literary critic [[Rita Felski]] has argued that ANT offers the fields of [[literary criticism]] and [[cultural studies]] vital new modes of interpreting and engaging with literary texts. She claims that Latour's model has the capacity to allow "us to wiggle out of the straitjacket of suspicion," and to offer meaningful solutions to the problems associated with [[critique]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Limits of Critique|last=Felski|first=Rita|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2015|isbn=9780226294032|location=Chicago|pages=175}}</ref> The theory has been crucial to her formulation of [[postcritique]]. Felski suggests that the purpose of applying ANT to literary studies "is no longer to diminish or subtract from the reality of the texts we study but to amplify their reality, as energetic coactors and vital partners."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Limits of Critique|last=Felski|pages=185}}</ref>

=== {{anchor|Anthropology of Christianity}}Anthropology of religion===
In the study of Christianity by anthropologists, the ANT has been employed in a variety of ways of understanding how humans interact with nonhuman actors. Some have been critical of the field of [[Anthropology of religion|Anthropology of Religion]] in its tendency to presume that God is not a social actor. The ANT is used to problematize the role of God, as a nonhuman actor, and speak of how They affect religious practice.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bialecki|first=Jon|date=March 2014|title=Does God Exist in Methodological Atheism? On Tanya Lurhmann's When God Talks Back and Bruno Latour|journal=Anthropology of Consciousness|language=en|volume=25|issue=1|pages=32–52|doi=10.1111/anoc.12017|url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/18504835/Bialecki_Does_God_Exist_in_Methodological_Athiesm_postreview_1.pdf|hdl=20.500.11820/97e26446-0176-4a22-9348-e15014ed325a|s2cid=145771771 |hdl-access=free
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329003220/https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/18504835/Bialecki_Does_God_Exist_in_Methodological_Athiesm_postreview_1.pdf
|archive-date=29 March 2022}}</ref> Others have used the ANT to speak of the structures and placements of religious buildings, especially in cross-cultural contexts, which can see architecture as agents making God's presence tangible.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chambon|first=Michel|date=August 2017|title=The Action of Christian Buildings on their Chinese Environment|journal=Studies in World Christianity|language=en|volume=23|issue=2|pages=100–121|doi=10.3366/swc.2017.0179|issn=1354-9901}}</ref>