CONTENTS
SPECIAL
ISSUE: ACTOR NETWORK THEORY
Edited by Mike Lloyd
EDITORIAL
Terry
Austrin and John Farnsworth
Reworking Sociology: Bruno Latour's feeling for genre
Steven
Matthewman
Of Clouds and Crustaceans: Using Actor Network Theory
John
Holm and Gavin Kendall
September 11: Constructing political interests
Margaret
Denton
79 Days of Pakaitore Marae
Shona
Hill and Shilinka Smith
Connecting
Actor Network Theory and Policy Analysis
Bruce
Curtis
Actor Network Theory Let Loose: Ferality, colonialism and other material
relations
Mike
Lloyd
Postscript: Entanglement and granularity
GENERAL ARTICLES
Jocelyn
Handy
Sexual
Harassment in the Workplace: A qualitative study of three contrasting
organisations in a small New Zealand town
Samantha
Jefferies
Does Gender Really Matter? Criminal court decision making in New Zealand
REVIEWS
Pickering,
M.
Stereotyping: The politics of representation
Reviewed by Nick Perry
Baker,
M.
Families, Labour and Love: Family diversity in a changing world
Reviewed by Martin Tolich
Montgomerie,
D .
The Women's War. New Zealand Women 1939-45
Reviewed by Margaret Tennant
This article explores tensions in the study of innovation, the practice of fieldwork and the narratives these produce, particularly as represented in the work of Latour. It argues that Latour's ethnographic studies of science parody a variety of sociological and literary genres, particularly detective fiction, and that he uses this literary device as a way of pinpointing unexpected links between fictional and sociological modes of investigation. In Latour's hands parody illuminates important issues of fieldwork practice and becomes an innovatory method that problematises conventional sociological narratives and practice.
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Of Clouds
and Crustaceans: Using Actor Network Theory
Steven Matthewman
This paper critically examines the usefulness of actor network theory (ANT). The assessment takes place through a case study: the "science" of weather-modification. It is argued that while ANT is in need of certain amendments it is not without utility. ANT provides a useful framework for analysing scientific controversy. However, Fujimura's concept of "do-able" science is recommended as a counterpoint to ANT's agnosticism and voluntarism.
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September 11:
Constructing political interests
John Holm and Gavin Kendall
This paper analyses the way in which the USA developed alliances in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington Dc. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is used as a way of trying to understand how these alliances are put together. The emphasis is on two elements of ANT: first, we stress how vital the role played by non-human actors (especially planes and buildings) is in the development of politics; second, we stress that interests are dynamically constructed in networks, and that actors do not come into networks with pre-existing interests that they simply "play out." Further, we explore Michel Callon's notion of "entanglement" to explain how the USA's construction of its political interests requires a certain amount of disentangling of old relationships.
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79 Days of
Pakaitore Marae
Margaret Denton
In 1995 Pakaitore marae was re-established at Moutoa Gardens, renewing an association that had previously dissolved. Such associations and dissociations are beyond the scope of both New Social Movement Theory and Resource Mobilisation Theory, currently the most common sociological approaches to social movements. Such associations and dissociations are, however, central to Actor Network Theory, a perspective used here to consider the 79 days of Pakaitore marae.
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Connecting
Actor Network Theory and Policy Analysis
Shona Hill and Shilinka Smith
Actor Network Theory (ANT) challenges positivist assumptions about pre-existing reality and binaries that privilege certain social and material objects over others. In contrast, policy analysts construct policy solutions within the limitations of an accepted reality in which policy solutions are believed to exist. In this paper we explore how a perspective that challenges assumptions about policy solutions can be useful to the policy practitioner within the constraints of a policy/political environment. We use the extension of the Property (Relationships) Amendment Act 2001 to same sex couples as a case study, looking at the insights ANT can add to this policy debate.
Actor Network Theory Let Loose: Ferality, colonialism and other material relations
Bruce Curtis
This paper discusses Actor Network Theory (ANT) and notions of colonisation, ferality and decolonisation. Attention is paid to the colonisation of New Zealand and in particular the flora, fauna and farming systems which secured the colony. Three interrelated elements of ANT are used in the discussion of the materiality of European colonisation and settlement: heterogeneous networks; inscription and translation; and cold and hot situations. Notions of ferality are critiqued as part of an overstated conception of decolonisation. Attention is drawn to "Homestay New Zealand" as a likely future world state. ANT is presented as method rather than as theory.
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Postscript:
Entanglement and granularity
Mike Lloyd
You can't
go far these days without seeing some reference to Actor Network Theory
(ANT), or at least a pithy quote from its most wellknown progenitor, Bruno
Latour. Here, for example, is how Bauman begins one of his latest articles:
"Said Bruno Latour: "we might be leaving the time of time -
successions and revolutions - and entering a very different time/space:
that of coexistence" (2001, p. 137). Further down the paragraph,
Bauman continues (without giving the exact source): "There is still
an arrow of time," says Latour, "but it no longer goes from
slavery to freedom, it goes from entanglement to more entanglement"
(2001, p. 137).
Latour is indeed very quotable, but as the above articles illustrate many
others have now contributed to the large and significant body of ANT work,
which is itself "entangled" with other cognate approaches. Such
entanglement means that there is no possibility here of fully discussing
the spread and content of this literature. So, in the short space available
I will recap two key ANT arguments, and then briefly discuss some ongoing
questions and critical comments.
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Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A qualitative study of three
contrasting organisations in a small New Zealand town
Jocelyn Handy
This research utilised a qualitative case-study design to investigate the contrasting forms which sexual harassment took within three different organisations in the same New Zealand town. Women working at the local meat processing works, a retail store and the local bank were interviewed to determine how their experiences of sexual harassment were influenced by the organisational context in which they worked. The interviews revealed that the three organisations had very different organisational structures and cultures and widely disparate power relationships between male and female workers. These factors had a strong influence on not only the ways in which sexual harassment was perpetrated by male employees and customers but also on the various individual and collective coping strategies which women used to combat harassment.
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Does
Gender Really Matter? Criminal court decision making in New Zealand
Samantha Jefferies
Internationally, the matter of gender difference in criminal court decision making is a contentious one, but in New Zealand little substantive research or debate has occurred on this issue. This paper attempts to remedy this deficit by summarising research findings from a larger PhD project (Jeffries, 2001) which considered the question of gender and criminal justice decision making in New Zealand. Results from this project show that a) sentencing and remand outcomes often differ for adult men and women, with the former usually receiving "harsher" sanctions, b) different factors are often considered when determining men's and women's judicial outcomes and, c) certain "types" of men and women are more likely to be extended judicial leniency. In explanation, gendered ways of viewing, understanding and judging offenders indicated the manner in which judicial processing came to be differentiated by sex. Theoretically, these findings can be partially understood using chivalry, paternalism, social control and social cost arguments. However, by themselves, none of these theoretical perspectives are considered complete and a more integrated theory of gender and criminal justice processing is called for.
