The Pivotal Function of Non-human Actors in the Acceptability of the Body Technology, Actibelt®: a Reconstruction Based on Actor-Network-Theory

Abstract

This paper explores the question of how non-human actors contribute to the acceptability of technologies. Acceptance and acceptability of technologies were examined as network formation and not, as in conventional technology acceptance models, as adoption by individual human actors. Using the approach of translation sociology, the acceptance work necessary for network formation was examined. As a result, the (technical) actibelt®-Actor-Network and five modes of acceptance work by non-human actors and their effects on patients were identified. The different modes of acceptance work show that non-human actors, such as events, meetings, graphs, and socio-technical discourses, are not passive actors in the development of technology, but can enable, hinder, or condition acceptability. Therefore, non-human actors play a central and constitutive role in the translation process by performing acceptance work and contributing to the stabilisation and acceptability of the actibelt®-Actor-Network.