[p2p-research] critical theory - actors/agents

[Ryan Lanham]

In actor-networks, something can become an actor...like fire, or "The West"
or the holy trinity or "the search for meaning" if the substantiation of
those things by a context causes them to be taken as legitimate as a unified
participant.

For me, ANT is most significantly pointing out that concepts become real
players (actors) as much and conventional beings when they are taken to be
real and treated as such.  Thus, for a believer, a mythical god becomes a
real actor playing a role.  An institution can do the same..."the Fed"
becomes an actor--indivisible from its components.  In a network it builds
social relationships that strengthen and preserve the network.

There are eco-historians for whom fire is the central actor in an
actor-network--fire reshapes the land...revitalizes the forest.  It is fire
that underpins a network of actors each of which has a relationship and a
response to fire.  That network is reinforced and made sense of -- in
a social constructivist sense -- by the relationships to fire.

Latour at least and Latour and Law have been nebulous about what they mean
with ANT--it is definitely intriguing, but not very precise.  On the other
hand, agency theory is much less constructivist.  I'm not sure one gets
anywhere by comparing the two.

ANT is useful for a deep understanding of the players and motivations in a
network drama.  Agency is sort of emphasis on modes of decision processes
rather than understanding relationships in a network.

But there is nothing you include below that particular offends me or strikes
me as being outrageous.  My reading of Latour/Law was about 4-6 years ago,
so I doubt I am current.

Ryan

On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 4:57 AM, Tomas Rawlings <tom at fluffylogic.net> wrote:

> It seems this email list has people on it with a much better grasp of
> critical theory than me.... so am I on the right track here?
>
> Actor - Taking this from Actor-Network Theory, Latour remarks that it is
> not so much as a term referring to a source of action, but that which is
> enacted upon, thus playing a role – much like an actor on the stage. So
> actors are those entities that play a role within a network to help it
> become what it is.
>
> Agent - An entity that is capable of having a more independent role than an
> Actor, is something that can enact it's own decisions - it is said to have
> Agency; Agency is a concept used in philosophy and sociology to refer to the
> capacity of an agent to act in a world.
>
> http://blog.catbot.org/content/humantechnology-agents-and-actors
>
> --
> Tomas
>
> -----------------------
> Tomas Rawlings
> Development Director, FluffyLogic Development Ltd.
> web: www.fluffylogic.net
> tel: 0117 9442233 -
> Also see:
> blog on film & interweb: www.plugincinema.com
> blog on p2p, media ecology & evolution: blog.catbot.org
> tweet: www.twitter.com/arclightfire
>
>
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-- 
Ryan Lanham
rlanham1963 at gmail.com
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P.O. Box 633
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