Hi Tamara, I found ANT useful when looking at user interface design, social software use, and disasters. I starting thinking about the concepts of technology and human agency, and tried out a new way of diagramming experience to help our designers re-think their interfaces. It worked well out in industry, and now I'm at a university researching these ideas further. ANT was a prominent player in my dissertation, which you can dig up: "Building an Interdisciplinary Framework for Experience Design: The Use of Social Software in the Aftermath of the London Bombings." I've also published two papers that focus on actor networks, social software, design, and disasters: Potts, L. (2009). "Designing for Disaster: Social Software Use in Times of Crisis." International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development. Potts, L. (2009). "Using Actor Network Theory to Trace and Improve Multimodal Communication Design." Technical Communication Quarterly. In this proceedings paper I look at diagramming and ANT: Potts, L. (2008). "Designing with Actor Network Theory: A New Method for Modeling Holistic Experience." Proceedings of the International Professional Communication Conference. Montreal: IEEE. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=4610231 Hopefully, that can aid to your cause, along with all of the other great posts we've had on the topic. Feel free to contact me, as I'd love to discuss this further. Take care, Liza ______________________________ Liza Potts, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Professional Writing Old Dominion University English Department BAL 5020 Norfolk, VA 23529 757.683.3997 AIM: LizaPotts Skype: lkpotts On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 10:14 AM, Tamara Paradis <tsparadis@gmail.com>wrote:
Hi all
I'm working on a graduate project that explores the controversies and understandings of MMO gaming as valid leisure. I'm curious what is it about MMO gaming that results in it being viewed as geeky, strange, "luser-ish", etc. I've been struck by the ways in which MMO gamers themselves, as well as everday non-gaming folks and mass media reportage (outside of financial reports!) seem to accept that MMO gaming is somehow a type of strange and suspect pursuit.
I've long been intrigued with the work of Bruno Latour and others from SST and material culture studies who use an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) approach to studying the world and its phenomenon. I am drawn to the ethos of ANT which flattens the divide between researcher and the researched, and which advocates jettisoning old notions of society and "the social", and the old (artificial?) divides between micro/macro, structure/individual, power/domination etc. in the interests of letting the actions tell the story of the results. I'm equlally drawn but intimidated by the methods built into ANT -- the mapping of actors and connections and associations.
I'm trying to convince a reluctant adviser that an ANT approach is a valid way of studying my research question. Given the digital focus and the desire to use ANT as ethos and method, as well as the ways in which ANT approaches study and fieldwork, I'm having a rough go of it. I'm wondering if any of you are using ANT or have used it in the past for qualitiative research purposes (e.g. virtual ethnography; findings reporting; etc.). If you have done so in the past, are in the midst of doing so now or are at least intrigued by the possibilities, I'd be interested in talking with you off-list.
Thanks.
Tamara Paradis tparadis@connect.carleton.ca tsparadis@gmail.com Carleton University - Sociology & Anthropology Ottawa, ON, Canada _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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