Understanding the Advantages of Mobile Solutions for Chronic Disease Management: The Role of ANT as a Rich Theoretical Lens

Actor-Network Theory (Ant)

Actor-network theory (ANT) provides a rich and dynamic lens of analysis for many socio-technical situations. Essentially, it embraces the idea of an organisational identity and assumes that organisations, much like humans, possess and exhibit specific traits (Brown, 1997). Although labelled a ‘theory’, ANT is more of a framework based upon the principle of generalised symmetry, which rules that human and non-human objects/subjects are treated with the same vocabulary. Both the human and non-human counterparts are integrated into the same conceptual framework.

ANT was developed by two French social sciences and technology scholars Bruno Latour and Michel Callon and British sociologist John Law (Latour, 1987, 2005; Law & Hassard, 1999; Law, 1992, 1987; Callon, 1986). It is an interdisciplinary approach that tries to facilitate an understanding of the role of technology in specific settings, including how technology might facilitate, mediate or even negatively impact organisational activities and tasks performed. Hence, ANT is a material-semiotic approach for describing the ordering of scientific, technological, social, and organisational processes or events.