Contribution of the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to study the construction of geographical knowledge: a reading of the introduction of the New Geography in Brazil through the Sociology of Associations

Author(s)

Jônatas Lima Candido

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Presidente Prudente. 2016-03-29.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia. Presidente Prudente
• Defense date: 2016-03-04
• Advisor: Eliseu Savério Sposito

Abstract

Actor-Network Theory (ANT), also called the Sociology of Associations, is an alternative social theory in sociology that was created in the second half of the 1980s, from the Sociology of Science. According to ANT, there is a set that affects social networks woven by the associations established between human and nonhuman actors, who are also considered stakeholders. The agency of non-human (objects) and therefore its recognition as actors, is due to the realization that social actors are defined to the extent that they transform, translate, distort and alter the meaning or the elements they provide. That is, when they act as mediators. It is the influence of these objects that allows associations to expand in time and space. ANT extends this understanding to all institutions, including the science of sociology. Thus, understanding geographical knowledge in this way, the "renewal" of the Geography 1950 presents itself as a planned network process that emcompases this knowledge, in which established associations involved mediators beyond the disciplinary field, and even the science of sociology. What enabled the extent of associations, that resulted in the quantitative aspect of geography beyond the AngloSaxon "world", was the mobilization of "non-social media" (not human actors). In the case of the Brazilian "New Geography" it was \represented by written texts and the electronic computers. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/05373-0 - The Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a possibility of understanding of story of thought geographic
• Grantee: Jônatas Lima Candido
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master