ANTH 303 Anthropological Theory Fall 2017
Nov. 9: Actor Network Theory. READ: Latour, Bruno (2010) “Networks, societies, spheres: Reflections of an actor-network theorist.” International Seminar On Network Theory: Network Multidimensionality In The Digital Age, Feb 2010, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Los Angeles, United States.

    Additional: Latour, B. (2014) “Another way to compose the modern world.” Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4 (1): 301–307. Available from http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau.

    Nov. 14: Tracing forebears in Latour’s theory. READ: Watson, Matthew (2017) “Imitation and society: How Boasian anthropology reassembled the social.” Anthropological Theory 17(2): 135-158.

How can this theory be seen as a product of the historical period in which it was created?
What questions does this theory ask?
What information does this theory see as important?
What are other relevant assumptions made by the theory?
How does the theory analyse this information to answer the questions it sees as important?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach?

- Actor network theory
    - actor, actant
    - network
    - theory? Or method? Or ontology?
- translation; imitation
- collection (rather than society)
- science and technology studies
- refusal of subject-object binary in favour of interconnectedness and mutuality of constitution

How would Latour analyse the video?
- how does this video rely on connections, among people, among non-human actants?
- does it “go viral”? How is that process accomplished?
- what are the translations apparent in the video or among other actants as a result of their connection to the video?
https://www.youtube.com/user/TOP10VV
https://medium.com/this-happened-to-me/10-ways-to-make-your-video-go-viral-d19d9b9465de


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