Reassembling Actor-Network Theory: Integrating network analysis with empirical philosophy in the study of GMO research practices in New Zealand

Abstract

Since its development in the late 1980s, Actor-Network Theory (ANT) has provided social scientists with the tools to re-imagine “the social” as a heterogeneous network of human and non-human actors. In recent years, however, prominent ANT scholars have moved away from network studies, opting instead to focus on discussions of ontological complexity, thus casting ANT as a form of empirical philosophy. This can be problematic for researchers in fields such as environmental management, where studies are usually driven by a need to formulate recommendations on practical concerns, and matters of philosophical enquiry are rarely an end in themselves. While ANT in its earlier, network-focused, form is evident in the environmental management literature, applications of recent ANT research are less common. We will examine how ANT can be applied to the study of a present-day environmental controversy: the containment of GMO research in New Zealand. In doing so we will consider how to bridge the divide that has emerged in the ANT literature, showing how network studies with a pragmatic edge can be integrated with ANT’s more esoteric forms of analysis.