Actor Network Theory is a kaleidoscope

ANT is a kaleidoscope (Mol, 2010, p.261).  If we pick it up and look at something, lets say for the sake of argument a High Speed Two railway project, how does that work?

kaleidoscope HS2 1Maybe from the parliamentary perspective each time there’s a debate or a hearing its like the base of the kaleidoscope being turned.  kaleidoscope HS2 2

All the actors and objects, the little bits of plastic in the base, are reconfigured into new positions and reform into new groups. kaleidoscope HS2 3

The details need to be recorded somehow,kaleidoscope HS2 4

and this is made more interesting by the various angles from which they might be viewed.

 

kaleidoscope HS2 5

(helpfully facilitated by those carefully angled mirrors in the tube).

kaleidoscope HS2 6

Mol, A., 2010. Actor-Network Theory: sensitive terms and enduring tensions. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 50, pp.253–269. Available at: http://dare.uva.nl/record/1/330874 [Accessed November 16, 2014].