John Law (sociologist)

John Law (born May 16, 1946 ) is a retired British professor of sociology who conducts research in the field of social analysis of science, technology and power. Law became known as one of the co-founders of the Actor Network Theory (ANT) alongside Bruno Latour and Michel Callon . In addition, with his further development and criticism of the actor-network theory, he initiated the “post-ANT” discourse.

John Law works mostly empirically within the domain of Science and Technology Studies (STS). His research is characterized by interdisciplinary cooperation.

academic career

After completing his bachelor's degree in economics at University College Cardiff , Law received his PhD from the Science Studies Unit of Edinburgh University with a thesis on Specialties in Science: A Sociological Study of X-ray Protein Crystallography . After his Ph.D. in Manchester he worked until 1998 as Senior Lecturer for Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Keele . Law then went to Lancaster University , where he was professor and co-head of the Sociological Faculty.

From 2000 to 2003, John Law was director of the Center for Science Studies in Lancaster, an interdisciplinary research center in sociology, women's studies, the environment, philosophy and politics, history and management. In 2003, he moved to the Open University's Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences as a professor , which is based on supported distance learning , a type of distance learning . Law took on the position of director at the Center for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC), a cooperation between the Open University and the University of Manchester . In addition to his work as a director, he was head of the CRESC's Social Life of Methods department.

In 2014 John Law retired from the Open University. Between August 2014 and February 2015 he was visiting professor in the research group Technologies in Practice at the IT University of Copenhagen . From 2015-2016 he was a fellow in the research group Arctic Domestication in the era of the Anthropocene at the Center for Advanced Study of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo.

Currently he is Law Visiting Professor at the Sámi University of Applied Sciences , a college of the indigenous Sami group in Kautokeino, Norway . He is also Honorary Professor of Sociology at the Center for Science Studies (CSS) and Center for the Study of Environmental Change (CSEC) at Lancaster University .

In 2015, John Law received the John Desmond Bernal Prize , awarded by the Society for Social Studies of Sciences for achievements in the field of Science and Technology Studies.

Positioning Laws in the Actor-Network Discourse

John Law became known as one of the representatives of the Actor Network Theory (ANT). John Law and Michel Callon first used the term “actor network” for their theories in the early 1980s. Today, your writings are traded as "classics" of actor-network theory. With his doctorate in Edinburgh and joint publications (with Barry Barnes in the anthology of HM Collins ), Law formed an interface to classic Anglo-Saxon STS approaches such as the Strong Program .

The ANT has established itself as an independent position within sociology between technical and social determinism , it has gained importance beyond the boundaries of sociological science research and is described as the most prominent theory within science and technology studies. but also received a lot of criticism. It is repeatedly questioned whether it is a theory or just a method. Also, the close relationship with the materialsemiotischen approaches of Gilles Deleuze and its rhizome -term and with concepts of Michel Foucault and Donna Haraway noted. The difficulty in understanding Law's statements is also criticized in part.

According to Law, the central finding of the actor-network theory is that “the social” only exists in the form of structured networks made up of heterogeneous materials. These networks include not only social actors, but also material things such as technical artifacts or discursive concepts, animals, texts or money. Each actor can be thought of as the product of other actors. A classic example of this is Latour's study on Louis Pasteur , some of which Law translated from French into English. In this study, Latour advocates, among other things, the thesis that Pasteur with its (tamed) microbes is the social actor who is celebrated for his historic achievement of the “invention of pasteurization”, but that he is to be understood as part of a network of actors . According to Latour, the production of his findings can only be understood through the connection between social and other actors.

According to Law, from an analytical perspective there is no essential difference between people and objects as heterogeneous participants in these networks. Just as with objects, what we consider a “person” is always an effect of networks that consist of interacting, heterogeneous materials. A participant in the network is therefore first made an actor by the network. For this purpose Law draws on the example that without his computer, his colleagues, his office, his books he would no longer be a sociologist who wrote articles, gave lectures, and produced “knowledge”, but would be a different person. The computer is also to be seen as an actor in the network, which through its specific contributions (visualization of content, connection with other computers in other networks, specific requirements for its interaction partners) participates in the creation of the “knowledge” producing sociologist just like John Law himself. If the computer were replaced by other actors (smartphones, typewriters), another person would emerge.

The material of the social includes not only the human, but also all these other materials. According to Law, there would be no “society” without the heterogeneity of social networks. According to Law, the task of sociology consists on the one hand of characterizing these networks and their heterogeneity. On the other hand, sociology should research the way in which these networks are structured in such a way that they not only create effects such as people, but also, for example, knowledge, organizations, inequality or power.

criticism

The lack of willingness or ability of the ANT to distinguish between meaningful parasocial and non-social actions, e.g. B. between activities on a corpse that serve to care for the dead and an autopsy .

"Post-ANT"

From the beginning, the ANT was a heterogeneous, dynamically developing research approach, which was constantly being further developed by its representatives. The fact that the ANT had achieved a certain theoretical and empirical coherence in the early 1990s and had developed into one of the dominant science and technology studies approaches also triggered a critical examination of its central basic assumptions. Against the background of these debates, the outlines of a new approach emerged around the turn of the millennium:

With his anthology Actor Network Theory and after , which Law published together with John Hassard in 1999 , a “post-ANT” discussion was ushered in, which is also referred to as the third phase of the actor-network theory. The representatives of the Post-ANT, of which Law Annemarie Mol is one of the most important , strive for a realignment of the ANT in the direction of radically empirical, performance-oriented research while preserving its central assumptions.

The central assumptions of the Post-ANT can be outlined by the terms performance , multiplicity and fluidity : The Post-ANT representatives firstly assume that realities (for example, networks or bodies or diseases) are created in practices (performance ). Reality is not accessible through observation, but is made, performed, performed .

Second, it is shown that different versions of networks can exist at the same time, i.e. that there are multiple realities (multiplicity). Annemarie Mol explains these post-ANT assumptions using the example of the processing of an object that is cut up with a scalpel in one laboratory , then bombarded with ultrasound in another, and placed on the scales at another location. As part of these different network activities, the perception of the object in question varies in the respective setting: in one case it is a carnal object, in the other an object that is thick and opaque, in the third case it is particularly heavy. The representatives of the Post-ANT assume that carnality, opacity or weight are not different attributes of an object with a hidden “true” essence. Nor is it about using different measuring instruments to reveal different aspects of a single reality. Instead, if they were different versions , different realities of the object through the use of various measuring elements produced are.

Third, networks are just as fluid as the manufacturing processes in which they are made. The view of the “traditional” ANT is too focused on the state after stabilization has already taken place. According to the Post-ANT representatives, the focus of the researchers should be shifted from networks that have already been stabilized to the process of creating networks. In this way, the view is to be broadened to the volatile areas beyond the already stabilized networks (fluidity). The representatives of the Post-ANT accuse the classic ANT of adopting singular and stable orders and networks, which, in the opinion of the Post-ANT representatives, are more the exception than the rule.

In addition, Law advocates expanding the conventional methods of qualitative and quantitative social research and participates in their further development. Latour, on the other hand, devoted himself more to modernization theory and the tendency to dissolve the difference between nature and society, Callon concentrated on the application of the ANT to studies of economic sociology.

Further research interests

Law sees himself as an interdisciplinary thinker and empirical researcher. He worked on projects with researchers from anthropology , sociology , philosophy , engineering , geography and practicing medicine. In addition to his research on complex social and technical structures, he also devotes his attention to fluid entities such as agape , passion , aesthetics , spirituality , fractals , invisibilities and asymmetries that do not fit into common ideas of networks, calculability, reason and rationality.

Calculability, reason and rationality, which are to be regarded as the dominant form of knowledge in Western ideas, are put up for discussion in Law's work. For example, he tries to irritate the dominant, rational way of looking at the world as it is in demand in the academic world by confronting it with thought patterns from the Baroque period.

Other current research projects in Law revolve around the question of the interplay of knowledge and power. He deals with the effects of colonial power relations on knowledge and works on post-colonial ways of acquiring knowledge. He is looking for less “Western” ways of thinking within Science and Technology Studies. In an article with Wen-yuan Lin he asks the question "Where is East Asia in STS?"

He is also interested in determining the relationship between nature and culture in an era that he describes as anti-fundamentalist. To this end, he is researching, for example, the situation on the Norwegian Deatnu River , whose dwindling salmon population is very different for the researchers there than for the indigenous Sami group who fish there .

Law believes that the way such research is done - that is, the methods that are used for research - help make our perception of "reality." He is therefore also dedicated to the further development of methods of empirical research in the social sciences as well as the natural sciences.

Central plants

Works translated into German

In the volume ANThology: an introductory manual on the actor-network theory by Andréa Bellinger and David Krieger, "the most important articles in terms of impact history" (Bellinger, Krieger 2006) by the best-known representatives of the actor-network theory are translated into German:

• John Law: Technology and Heterogeneous Engineering: The Case of Portuguese Expansion . Original: John Law (1987): Technology and Heterogeneous Engineering: the Case of the Portuguese Expansion , In: Wiebe Bijker, Thomas Hughes and Trevor Pinch (eds.): The Social Construction of Technological Systems . MIT Press, Cambridge 1987: p. 111-134.
• John Law and Michel Callon: The Life and Death of an Airplane: A Network Analysis of Technical Change . Original: Michel Callon and John Law: Engineering and Sociology in a Military Aircraft Project: A Network Analysis of Technical Change , In: Social Problems, Volume 1988, No. 35: pp. 284-297.
• John Law: Monsters, Machines, and Socio-Technical Relationships . Original: John Law: Introduction: Monsters, Machines and Sociotechnical Relations , In: Helga Nowotny and Taschwer (eds): The Sociology of Science . Edward Elgar, London 1995.
• John Law: Notes on Actor Network Theory: Order, Strategy, Heterogeneity . Original: John Law: Notes on the Theory of the Actor-network: Ordering, Strategy and Heterogeneity , In: Warwick Organizational Behavior Staff: Organizational Studies: Critical Perspectives, Vol 2: Objectivity and Its Other Routledge, London 2000.

Monographs

• John Law and Peter Lodge: Science for Social Scientists . Macmillan, London 1984.
• John Law: Organizing Modernity . Blackwell, Oxford / Cambridge 1994.
• John Law: Aircraft Stories: Decentering the Object in Technoscience . Duke University Press, Durham 2002.
• John Law: After Method: Mess in Social Science Research. Routledge, London 2004.

Editorships

• John Law, Michel Callon and Arie Rip: Mapping the Dynamics of Science and Technology, Sociology of Science in the Real World . Macmillan, London 1986.
• John Law: Power, Action and Belief: a New Sociology of Knowledge? Sociological Review Monograph No. 32, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1986.
• John Law and Gordon Fyfe: Picturing Power: Visual Depiction and Social Relations . Sociological Review Monograph No. 35, Routledge, London 1988.
• John Law: A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination. Sociological Review Monograph No. 38, Routledge, London 1991.
• John Law and Wiebe Bijker: Shaping Technology - Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change . MIT Press, Cambridge 1992.
• John Law and John Hassard: Actor Network Theory and After. Sociological Review and Blackwell, Oxford 1999.
• John Law and Annemarie Mol: Complexities: Social Studies of Knowledge Practices. Durham, Duke University Press, Durham 2002.
• John Law and Evelyn Ruppert: Modes of Knowing: Resources from the Baroque. Mattering Press, Manchester 2016.

A link to John Law's complete list of publications can be found in the web links.

Web links

• Download complete list of publications by John Laws
• John Laws personal website

literature

• Andréa Belliger and David Krieger (2006): ANThology: An Introductory Guide to Actor Network Theory. transcript: Bielefeld.
• Birgit Peuker (2010): Actor Network Theory. In: Christian Stegbauer and Roger Häußling (eds.): Handbuch Netzwerkforschung. Springer VS: Wiesbaden.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Society for Social Studies of Science: Bernal Prize 2015: John Law. Retrieved January 27, 2018 . 
2. ^ John Law: Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1986.
3. ↑ Andréa Bellinger: ANThology: an introductory manual for actor network theory . transcript, Bielefeld 2006, p. 578 .
4. ^ Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Open University: Professor John Law. Retrieved January 27, 2018 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} HeterogeneitiesDOTnet: Research Projects. Retrieved November 22, 2017 . 
6. ^ Tea in TiP: Interview with Visiting Professor John Law. Retrieved January 27, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Center for Advanced Study (CAS Oslo) at The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters: John Law. Retrieved January 27, 2018 . 
8. ^ John Law: HeterogeneitiesDOTnet: contact and cv. Retrieved January 27, 2018 . 
9. ^ University of Lancaster, Department of Sociology: Professor John Law. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 17, 2018 ; accessed on January 27, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ^ ^{A b c} Andréa Bellinger, David Krieger: Foreword . In: Andréa Bellinger, David Krieger (Ed.): ANThology . transcript, Bielefeld 2006, p. 9-13 .
11. ↑ Barry Barnes and John Law: Whatever Should be Done with Indexical Expression . In: HM Collins (Ed.): Sociology of Scientific Knowledge . Bath University Press, Bath, S. 59-73 .
12. ↑ ^{a b c d} Christoph Kehl: Between mind and brain - memory as an object of the life sciences . transcript, Bielefeld 2012.
13. ↑ Christopher Gad, Casper Bruun Jensen: On the Consequences of Post-ANT. In: Science, Technology, & Human Values , Vol. 35, No. 1 (January 2010), pp. 55-80.
14. ^ ^{A b c d} John Law: Notes on the Actor Network Theory: Order, Strategy and Heterogeneity . In: Andréa Bellinger and David J. Krieger (eds.): ANThology: An introductory manual on actor-network theory . transcript, Bielefeld 2006, p. 431 .
15. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Birgit Peuker: Actor Network Theory (ANT) . In: Christian Stegbauer, Roger Häußling (Hrsg.): Handbuch Netzwerkforschung . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2010, p. 325-335 .
16. ^ The Pasteurization of France. In: Harvard University Press. Retrieved October 11, 2018 . 
17. ^ Bruno Latour: The Pasteurization of France . Harvard University Press, 1993.
18. ↑ Carsten Dürr: Parasocial Dynamics. In: Thorsten Benkel, Metthias Meitzler (Eds.): Between life and death: social scientific border crossings. Springer Verlag 2019, p. 145 ff., Here: p. 154.
19. ^ ^{A b} Annemarie Mol: Ontological politics. A word and some questions . In: John Law and John Hassard (Eds.): Actor Network Theory and after . Blackwell Publishers, Oxford 1999, ISBN 0-631-21194-2 , pp. 83 .
20. ^ Daniel Martinez, Shruti Shah, Praveen Shekhar and Vina Zerlina: John Law. In: Humans and Technology - Project homepage of the Master’s program in Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. Retrieved March 12, 2018 . 
21. ^ Andréa Bellinger, David Krieger: Authors . In: Andréa Bellinger, David Krieger (eds.): ANThology: an introductory manual for actor-network theory . transcript, Bielefeld 2006.
22. ^ John Law and Evelyn Sharon Ruppert: Modes of knowing -resources from the baroque . Mattering Press, Manchester 2016, ISBN 978-0-9931449-8-1 .
23. ↑ Wen-yuan Lin and John Law: Where is East Asia in STS? In: East Asian Science, Technology and Society . 2018 (www.heterogeneities.net/publications/LinLaw2017WhereIsEastAsiaInSTS).
24. ↑ Solveig funniest jokes and John Law: Sámi Salmin, State Salmon: LEK, Techno Science and Care . 2016 ( sagepub.com ).