Hacer sociología a través de la teoría del actor-red: de la cartografía impresionista a la suciedad de las mediaciones

Daniel Muriel

doi:10.5565/rev/athenead/v11n1.820

Performing Sociology Through Actor-Network Theory: From Impressionist Cartography to the Dirtiness of Mediations

Authors

Daniel Muriel Centro de Estudios sobre la Identidad Colectiva - Departamento de Sociología 2 (UPV/EHU)

PDF (ES)

Abstract

In this paper I try to outline the existence of certain problems I have found during my research work, within sociology discipline, when it comes to follow some of the main threads of the complex fabric that constitutes the Actor-Network Theory (ANT). In the same way, I suggest some possible subterfuges to go around those problems. Two are the problems and two are the subterfuges as well destined to tackle them. On the one hand, I face the problem of the magnitude and fidelity that ANT's descriptions demand, thoroughly detailed and local, which clashes with the requirements of sociological theory that seeks abstractions and regularities. The subterfuge I propose is the one called "impressionist cartography". On the other hand, I bump into the difficulty of the irreversibility of mediations and the sanitized representations carried out, sometimes, by ANT. In order to fight this, I use the subterfuge oriented to adopt the premise of the "inevitable dirtiness of mediations".

Keywords

Actor-network theory, ANT, Sociology, Cultural Heritage, Impressionist Cartography, Mediations

Author Biography

Daniel Muriel, Centro de Estudios sobre la Identidad Colectiva - Departamento de Sociología 2 (UPV/EHU)

Graduated in Sociology from the University of the Basque Country and Master of Science in Sociology from Complutense University of Madrid, member of the Collective Identity Research Centre (CEIC) since 2003. He is working on his PhD thesis that is related to the way in which identities are built in new social contexts. The core of his research lies in how the expert fabric that traverses contemporary societies helps to produce, modify and manage collective identities through the construction of their cultural heritage. His research is developed in the Basque region, within the Spanish State area. In this way, he considers heritage as a part of a complex dispositif for the production and management of identities within a context characterized by the predominance of scientific knowledge, the proliferation of expert networks and a postmodern governmentality (based on neo-liberal political rationalities). Therefore, his main research interests are concerned with fields related to identity, social construction of science, sociological theory, governmentality and heritage studies.