[Air-l] Latour, ANT, and Internet Research

[Stefan Görling]

I probably should add to this discussion that I had the pleasure to 
attend a course held by Latour himself in Gothenburg this summer, where 
we had long disucssions regarding his new fascination for Tardé and the 
Internet.

His take on it was that the Internet is increddible for ANT-like 
researche because of its traceability, the fact that you could trace 
every single step of what is happening. So his take was that to study 
the social on the Internet, ANT is a great tool.

(Or rather, the Tardian approach and thoughts as he's now fully occupied 
with Tarde, my personal take on that is that he is trying to convert ANT 
from a method to a theory by associating it with a filosopher, but 
that's not a common agreement.)

One Ph.D student held a long demonstration of World of Worldcraft which 
impressed him a lot, that you actually constructed your own world, and 
were able to follow each and every thing that went on in it.

So if you're up to it. Tardes thoughts about Leibnitz Monard and the way 
it replicates and creates an imaginative array could be worth thinking a 
bit about. Perhaps by reading the newest book by Latour 
'Recontextualizing the Social' or phsycologie de economie

Me myself, still being much confused about it all though..

/Stefan

>My department is full of people who think about ANT and IS.
>
>Here is a good reference to start with:
>
>McMaster, T., R. T. Vidgen, et al. (1997). Technology transfer: 
>diffusion or translation. Facilitating Technology Transfer through 
>Partnership: Learning from practice and research.  IFIP TC8 WG8.6 
>International Working Conference on Diffusion, Adoption and 
>Implementation of Information Technology 25th-27th June, Ambleside, 
>Cumbria, UK. T. McMaster, E. Mumford, E. B. Swanson, B. Warboys and D. 
>G. Wastell. London, Chapman & Hall.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Dominique
>
>
>Dominique M. Lazanski
>PhD Candidate
>Dept. of Management, Information Systems Group
>London School of Economics
>Houghton Street
>London WC2A 2AE UK
>
>d.m.lazanski at lse.ac.uk
>Mobile: +44 (0)7783 431 555
>Fax: +44 (0)20 7955 7385
>
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