Can methods for analysing large numbers organize a productive dialogue with the actors they study?

Abstract

The creation of categories based on an analysis of large numbers of heterogeneous entities does not preclude the establishment of productive interactions with the entities studied. The nature of these interactions and the types of objectification they allow depend on the characteristics of the tools used. This article aims at characterizing the different methods in terms of the competencies they recognize in actors. Three types of methods are described: multidimensional analysis, social network analysis, and what is called ‘composition of egocentric heterogeneous networks’. The paper suggests that from one method to the next, the actors' competencies are enhanced. Consequently, the sociologist's ability to perceive the emergence of new categories increases; in endowing human and non‐human actors with larger and richer competencies, he upgrades his own competencies as an analyst. In addition, productive interactions between him and the actors he studies are made easier.

Ambiguous spaces for troubled youth: home, therapeutic institution or school?

“…We followed the details in the everyday work of the HVBs with the support of ANT, as suggested by Law (2004). An ANT analysis demands an open analyst and an iterative analytical process in which actants are identified along with their associations with other actants, forming heterogeneous networks that include both humans and non-human actants (Callon 2006). This encouraged us to interpret actants in a wide sense and include such different components as spaces, artefacts, utterances, discourses and people's bodies in the data collected in the HVBs.…”

“…All the elements, including space, were examined in the networks as actants (Latour 2005) and the qualities constructed were seen as temporary and preliminary when the homes were performed. This analytical strategy revealed the dynamics of these processes, in other words, how networks were re-categorised in never-ending new compositions (Callon 2006). Associations between actants were analysed over long and short time spans in order to identify changes and new constellations.…”

Architectural Space in Respite and Intermediate Care: An Actor-Network Theory Analysis

“…Interview material and field notes were subjected to an analysis guided by actor-network theory (ANT), which provides tools to analyze links and relationships between humans and artifacts (Callon, 2006). The formation of networks takes place by enrollment, the actors' incorporation of components in a network (Callon, 1986).…”

Natural Interactions in Artificial Situations: Focus Groups as an Active Social Experiment

“…Ethnomethodology finds ways to intervene in daily life (Garfinkel, 2002) in order to produce these breaches. However, the key strategy of the focus group is not to intervene into the common practices, but to produce an artificial or experimental-like situation that can establish productive interactions with the studied (Callon, 2006). I will discuss a case well known in Science and Technology studies to open up the discussion on how focus groups as experiments can become active in producing data on the entities studied.…”

“…Whereas ethnomethodology is a way of making a phenomenon visible in the natural setting of everyday life, conducting focus groups is rather a matter of taking the phenomenon out of its embeddedness in everyday life. What I suggest is to try to actively establish interactions with the studied that enable it to speak up (Callon, 2006Latour, 2004Stengers, 2000). The social experiment can be usedas already argued -as a form of enacting of reality and thus to pinpoint that it is not naturally occurring.…”