Actor-Network Theory, espoused chiefly by Bruno Latour, is an attempt to tackle the problem of decentering the human subject (a problem for science studies because it implies the separation of society and nature, which some sociologists of science had used to advocate an extreme relativism) by dispersing agency across a network of human and nonhuman actors. This view assumes that material actors have a role in shaping human agency.
Last modified 18 December 2006