Reassembling Actor-Network Theory as a theoretically multiple tool for empirical enquiry

Abstract

Since its emergence in the 1980s, Actor-Network Theory has been adopted as a mode of enquiry across the social sciences, including cultural geography. Over time, two apparently separate strands have developed in the ANT literature: research that uses the tools of “early” network analysis; and “post” ANT forms of empirical philosophy. Rather than approach this division between “early” and “post” ANT as a binary choice to be made at the outset of research, I will argue that it is a settlement to be disrupted. Drawing on a study of the development of Genetically Modified Organisms in New Zealand, I will outline the trajectory of my research and consider how it evolved through a series of theoretical and empirical interactions. In doing so, I will demonstrate the benefits of embracing hybrid forms of ANT, thereby positioning it as a theoretically multiple tool for empirical enquiry.