Actor–network theory | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 2018-12-25

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93network_theory


00:02:19 1 Background and context
00:05:22 2 A material-semiotic method
00:07:04 3 The actor-network
00:10:35 4 Human and non-human actors
00:11:06 4.1 Intermediaries and mediators
00:12:50 5 Other central concepts
00:12:59 5.1 Translation
00:13:58 5.2 Tokens, or quasi-objects
00:14:43 6 Actor network theory and specific disciplines
00:15:21 6.1 ANT and international relations
00:16:10 6.2 ANT and design
00:16:48 7 Criticism
00:21:02 8 See also



Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.

Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain

Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.

Listen on Google Assistant through Extra Audio:
https://assistant.google.com/services/invoke/uid/0000001a130b3f91
Other Wikipedia audio articles at:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wikipedia+tts
Upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
https://github.com/nodef/wikipedia-tts



"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance."
- Socrates



SUMMARY
=======
Actor–network theory (ANT) is a theoretical and methodological approach to social theory where everything in the social and natural worlds exists in constantly shifting networks of relationship. It posits that nothing exists outside those relationships. All the factors involved in a social situation are on the same level, and thus there are no external social forces beyond what and how the network participants interact at present. Thus, objects, ideas, processes, and any other relevant factors are seen as just as important in creating social situations as humans. ANT holds that social forces do not exist in themselves, and therefore cannot be used to explain social phenomena.  Instead, strictly empirical analysis should be undertaken to "describe" rather than "explain" social activity.  Only after this can one introduce the concept of social forces, and only as an abstract theoretical concept, not something which genuinely exists in the world.  The fundamental aim of ANT is to explore how networks are built or assembled and maintained to achieve a specific objective. Although it is best known for its controversial insistence on the capacity of nonhumans to act or participate in systems or networks or both, ANT is also associated with forceful critiques of conventional and critical sociology. Developed by science and technology studies (STS) scholars Michel Callon and Bruno Latour, the sociologist John Law, and others, it can more technically be described as a "material-semiotic" method. This means that it maps relations that are simultaneously material (between things) and semiotic (between concepts). It assumes that many relations are both material and semiotic.
Broadly speaking, ANT is a constructivist approach in that it avoids essentialist explanations of events or innovations (i.e. ANT explains a successful theory by understanding the combinations and interactions of elements that make it successful, rather than saying it is true and the others are false). Likewise, it is not a cohesive theory in itself. Rather, ANT functions as a strategy that assists people in being sensitive to terms and the often unexplored assumptions underlying them. It is distinguished from many other STS and sociological network theories for its distinct material-semiotic approach.