ABSTRACT
Actor-network theory (ANT) has introduced a number of innovative concepts that challenge certain basic assumptions relating to knowledge, subjectivity and society that underpin more traditional sociological theories. By emphasising anti-foundationalism, socio-materiality and relationality, it directs attention to the often mundane practices through which ideas come to be taken for granted, practices become standardised and routine, and policies come to be assembled or disassembled. In this chapter, we elaborate the key underpinnings of ANT and explain the conceptual purchase and the methodological and analytical innovations it affords. Arguing that ANT offers much to contemporary education policy researchers in a world saturated with non-human actors such as digital technologies, COVID and climate change, we provide examples of how ANT has been deployed in this field, using examples from our own research.
