•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Actor-Network Theory (ANT) has been implemented to study various topics in Indonesian contexts such as microcredit, coral reef, contestation within the sustainable energy project, and civil-military relations. However, ANT is seldom used to examine laboratories as working assemblages in Indonesia, despite its crucial role in producing technological knowledge. In order to fill that research gap, this article intends to illustrate ANT implementation in studying the work of a laboratory, specifically at the Materials and Structure Lab and Civil Engineering Testing Lab of Universitas Indonesia using the concept or process of translation. This study found that a laboratory consists not only of human actors, such as authoritative experts, but alsoof non-human actors—e.g. buildings and equipment or machines. During its performance, the laboratory establishes an association, which is not only by creating, but also cutting off or choosing relations in accordance with the needs of the network, without all the actors being fully aware of it. This shows ANT’s limit in investigating elements outside the actions of actors in creating a network. The qualitative methodological approach is utilized with the consideration of better meeting the principles of ANT in following or tracing actors.

References

Akrich, Madelaine and Bruno Latour. 2010. “A Summary of a Convenient Vocabulary for the Semiotics of Human and Nonhuman Assemblies.” Pp. 259-308 in Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change, Inside technology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Alcadipani, Rafael and John Hassard. 2010. “Actor-Network Theory, Organizations and Critique: Towards a Politics of Organizing.” Organization 17(4):419-435. Bauchspies, Wenda K., Jennifer Croissant, and Sal P. Restivo. 2006. Science, Technology, and Society: A Sociological Approach. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. Bryant, Levi R. 2011. The Democracy of Objects. 1st ed. Ann Arbor, Mich: Open Humanities Press. Callon, Michel. 1984. “Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay.” The Sociological Review 32(1_suppl):196-233. Callon, Michel. 1990. “Techno-Economic Networks and Irreversibility.” The Sociological Review 38(1_suppl):132-161. Callon, Michel, Arie Rip, and John Law. 1986. Mapping the Dynamics of Science and Technology Sociology of Science in the Real World. London: Palgrave Macmillan Limited. Crawford, Cassandra S. 2005. “Actor-Network Theory.” in Encyclopedia of Social Theory. California, United States: SAGE Publications, Inc. Crossley, Nick. 2011. Towards Relational Sociology. New York, NY: Routledge. Fatimah, Yuti Ariani and Sonny Yuliar. 2009. “Opening the Indonesian Bio-Fuel Box: How Scientists Modulate the Social.” International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation 1(2):1- 12. Feisel, Lyle D. and Albert J. Rosa. 2005. “The Role of the Laboratory in Undergraduate Engineering Education.” Journal of Engineering Education 94(1):121-130. Fenwick, Tara J., and Richard Edwards. 2010. Actor-Network Theory in Education. 1st ed. New York: Routledge. Harman, Graham. 2009. Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics. Melbourne: re.press. Latour, Bruno. 1983. “Give Me a Laboratory and I Will Move the World.” Pp. 141-170 in Science Observed. SAGE. _____. 1993. The Pasteurization of France. 1st Harvard University Press paperback ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press. _____. 1996. “On Actor-Network Theory. A Few Clarifications, Plus More Than a Few Complications.” Soziale Welt Journal 47(1):369- 381. _____. 2004. “On Using ANT for Studying Information Systems: A (Somewhat) Socratic Dialogue.” Pp. 62-76 in The Social Study of Information and Communication Technology: Innovation, Actors, and Contexts. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress. _____. 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-NetworkTheory. New York: Oxford University Press. _____. 2010. “Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts.” Pp. 151-180 in Shaping Technology/ Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change, Inside technology. Cambridge: MIT Press. _____. 2013. An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology of the Moderns. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. _____ and Steve Woolgar. 1986. Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Law, John, ed. 1991. A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology, and Domination. London New York: Routledge. _____. 1992. “Notes on the Theory of the Actor-Network: Ordering, Strategy, and Heterogeneity.” Systems Practice 5(4):379-393. _____. 2009. “Actor-Network Theory and Material Semiotics.” Pp. 141–58 in The New Blackwell Companion to Social Theory. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. _____ and Michel Callon. 1988. “Engineering and Sociology in a Military Aircraft Project: A Network Analysis of Technological Change.” Social Problems 35(3):284-297. Lenoir, Timothy. 1994. “Was the Last Turn The Right Turn? The Semiotic Turn and A. J. Greimas.” Configurations 2(1):119-136. Mialet, Hélène. 2012. “Where Would STS Be Without Latour? What Would Be Missing?”Social Studies of Science 42(3):456-461. Middleveld, Senna. 2012. “Coral Reefs in Wakatobi National Park Indonesia: Insights from Actor-Network Theory.” Wageningen University. Ponti, Marisa. 2011. “Uncovering Causality in Narratives of Collaboration: Actor-Network Theory and Event Structure Analysis.” Forum Qualitative Sozial forschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research 13(1): Participatory Qualitative Research. Priyatma, Johannes Eka. 2013. “A Critical Review of the Ontological Assumptions of Actor-Network Theory for Representing e-Government Initiatives:” International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation 5(3):12–24. Restivo, Sal. 2011. “Bruno Latour.” Pp. 520–40 in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Ruming, Kristian. 2009. “Following the Actors: Mobilising an ActorNetwork Theory Methodology in Geography.” Australian Geographer 40(4):451-469. Sarosa, Samiaji. 2012. “Adoption of Social Media Networks by Indonesian SME: A Case Study.” Procedia Economics and Finance 4:244–54 Sayes, Edwin. 2014. “Actor-Network Theory and Methodology: Just What Does It Mean to Say That Nonhumans Have Agency?” Social Studies of Science 44(1):134-149. Soesilo, Arie. 2014. “Jaringan Purnawirawan Tentara Nasional Indonesia dalam Politik Relasi Sipil-Militer Pasca Reformasi TNI.” Masyarakat Jurnal Sosiologi 19(2):195-229 DOI: 10.7454/mjs.v19i2.4706. Tresch, John. 2013. “Another Turn after ANT: An Interview with Bruno Latour.” Social Studies of Science 43(2):302-313.

Download

Share

COinS