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From Relational to Regressive Place-Making: Developing an ANT Theory of Place with Housebuilding

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Societies under Construction

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Abstract

Sage and Vitry’s chapter engage with actor-network theory (ANT) and housing development to contribute to theories of place, especially those concerning relational place-making. They develop their conceptual argument for an ANT theory of place through empirical analysis of the early stages of the Garendon Park housebuilding construction project located in Loughborough in the English East Midlands. They argue the exigency for a uniquely ANT theory of place with reference to a wider variety of ANT studies, including Michel Callon’s founding use of the term ‘actor-network’, and the relative lack of consideration of organizational techniques for place-making in recent work in human geography on the relationality and eventfulness of place-making. They conclude by proposing how an ANT-based theory of place can contribute by addressing how concepts of infinite regression, futures and affect can be mobilized together to better understand how places are made and unmade.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term ‘black box’, while used by Callon (1986a), is developed more in Latour (1987, p. 2). A ‘black box’ describes the outcome of a stabilized actor-network; that is an actor, such as technology or scientific fact, whose relational complexity has been stabilized so that the actor exists in terms of a predictable set of inputs and outputs. The process of constructing a closed ‘black box’ thus corresponds with the end process of ‘punctualization’ in network building described by Callon (1991) or ‘mobilization’ in Callon (1986b). Importantly, for Latour (1987, pp. 78–80), ‘black boxes’ can also be opened up and disputed, although this process is resource intensive and requires the recruitment of more ‘black boxes’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Daniel J. Sage

  2. School of Business, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Chloé Vitry

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  1. Daniel J. Sage
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  2. Chloé Vitry
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Correspondence to Daniel J. Sage .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom

    Daniel J. Sage

  2. School of Business, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

    Chloé Vitry

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Sage, D.J., Vitry, C. (2018). From Relational to Regressive Place-Making: Developing an ANT Theory of Place with Housebuilding. In: Sage, D., Vitry, C. (eds) Societies under Construction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73996-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73996-0_7

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