ABSTRACT
Actor-network theory (ANT) argues that the application and cultural legitimisation of innovative technologies in contemporary Western society depends upon aligning and translating a diverse range of human and non-human actors into stable socio-technical networks (Callon 1987). Various social theorists claim that these networks emerge through new social practices and forms of state regulation whereby ‘heterogeneous engineers’, as network builders, form alliances and mobilise different social, technical and economic resources (Callon 1986;Callon et al.1986;Latour 1993;Law 1991;Law and Hassard 1999).
