Why does ANT need Haraway for thinking about (gendered) bodies?

• This chapter suggests that some of the conceptual gifts Donna Haraway has given to social theory are particularly useful for ANT to consider when thinking about (gendered) bodies and technoscience. It discusses: Her concept of a god-trick and reworking of the enlightenment practice of witnessing; Haraway’s particular take on imploding binaries and the figure of the cyborg to trouble the relationship to bodies and technology (and binaries in general); and the material-semiotic, with its apparatus of bodily production. Throughout, allusions are made to affinities between ANT and Haraway’s work. The chapter focuses primarily on early Haraway and early ANT, as this may be where and when the conversations between the two were richest. It claims that Haraway is useful for thinking about (gendered) bodies in part because her work views the material-semiotic in a much wider, cultural arena than ANT, allowing consideration of power structures writ large, and in part because her theoretical imperative problematises both the concepts of gender and bodies in a way which fundamentally challenges early ANT understandings of science and its actants.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Actor network theory

Science and Technology Studies

Haraway

feminist

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)