“If STS investigates technology by keeping the focus squarely on social and cultural systems, Actor-Network Theory (ANT) proposes a simultaneous analysis of the material (i.e., of things) as well as the social. It can be seen as a ‘material-semiotic’ approach that looks at the relationship between things and concepts, examining networks and processes. Bruno Latour formulated some of the central principles of ANT as a way of avoiding dualisms which tended to privilege either nature (scientific realism) or culture (some variations of STS). The larger intent of ANT is to understand humans and nonhumans as equal actors situated within networks that are formed and sustained in order to achieve particular goals . . . [ANT] clearly relates to several approaches in poststructural theory, including the work of French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault . . . STS and ANT are often framed as competing paradigms, but they converge in their critique of notions of scientific realism or objectivity.” (4)

-Tara McPherson, Digital Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected