Dear all
I only had a chance to read this thread recently and apologies for a
late intervention. I agree with Jeremy that ANT is not for everyone
and is not something that is useful as an analytical tool for some
research and not for others. It's more of an orientation (or cult?).
So it may not offer anything of value to design researchers who
conceive of design research as a kind of science. Scholars working in
ANT and Science and Technology Studies have invested a great deal in
studying what goes on in science, through close empirical study of
the production of scientific knowledge and questioning some of the
claims that are made for science. One of the important contributions
it has made to social science is paying attention to objects/
artefacts/the material - not something that most sociologists notice,
although those trained in anthropology/ethnography do. Since
designers and artists already attend to objects, this move is not so
radical for them.
One thing that may be of interest - apologies if all are familiar
with this - is that Bruno Latour did a talk last year for the Design
History Conference, in which he discussed design - not something I
was aware of him talking about before - drawing on Sloterdijk and
Heidegger (on things/gatherings). The paper is at http://www.bruno-
latour.fr/articles/article/112-DESIGN-CORNWALL.pdf.
And for those who are interested in following further the STS/ANT
discussion relating to ontologies and objects, there was a workshop
here in Oxford on just this subject last July which is documented at
http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/events/ontology/.
lk
On 27 Apr 2009, at 02:10, jeremy hunsinger wrote:
> Actually I'm awaiting the prior mentioned paper, because other than
> general social research including objects, i don't know that ANT
> has any necessary relevance to design research. It really is more
> of a researcher's choice to be ANT oriented, than a disciplinary or
> interdisciplinary issue.
>
Lucy Kimbell
Clark Fellow in Design Leadership
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
Park End Street
Oxford OX1 1HP
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