On the Consequences of Post-ANT

extracts from
Gad, C., & Bruun Jensen, C. (2005). On the consequences of post-ANT. Centre for STS Studies, Department of Information and Media Studies. Århus: University of Århus.


To Mol, a conception of reality as multiple calls for metaphors other than perspectives and points of view. Reality is manipulated in many ways and does not lie around waiting to be glanced at. It does not have ‘‘aspects,’’ ‘‘qualities,’’ or ‘‘essences,’’ which are shed light upon by a certain theoretical perspective. However, when doing ontological work, different versions of objects appear. These, in turn, may relate and shape partially linked versions of reality. Concepts such as ‘‘intervention,’’ ‘‘performance,’’ and ‘‘enactment’’ highlight the attempt to approach reality as ‘‘done’’ rather than ‘‘observed.’

The idea that reality exists in multiple related versions lends itself to the notion that one can ‘‘choose’’ freely between them. However, if one tries to locate the outside position from where one is supposed to evaluate and make such choices, one finds that such a place simply does not exist. Mol points out, that one consequence of this situation is that possibilities seem to exist everywhere. Important normative moments and decisions therefore often appear as originating elsewhere and feel as if out of reach. However, Mol’s analysis also shows why it is in fact impossible to identify, evaluate, and compare discrete perspectives. For as her analysis of the versions of arteriosclerosis indicates different enactments do not necessarily exclude each other but may be in various ways entwined: ‘‘What is other is also within’’ (Mol 1999, 85). This is why objects such as arteriosclerosis are characterized by fractality. They are ‘‘more than one but less than many’’ (Mol 2002a, 82).

It was also sustained by the belief that more perspectives would allow social science to move closer to a ‘‘completion’’ of its knowledge. Yet, this belief in progression is challenged as perspectivism becomes explicit: it facilitates a critical questioning of whether we really learn more about the world by exploring it from different angles.

‘‘Methods’’ simply provide different kinds of access to the nooks and corners of reality, explored with any given theoretical perspective. So, while knowledge appears to be constructed through the production of more perspectives, it is also produced as each perspective elucidates different ‘‘subject matters’’ or ‘‘parts of the world’’ through the application of a variety of methods. Yet, as pluralism and perspectivism are challenged, the idea that methods provide clear and coherent guidelines must also be questioned.