Critical management studies and Actor Network Theory: Towards a political ontology of organising

Abstract

In recent years the approach to social theory known as Actor-Network Theory (ANT) has been adopted within a range of social science fields. In organisation studies, ANT has been part of a movement away from a functional emphasis on organisation as a discrete structural entity and towards the study of processes and practices of socio-technical organising. Despite its popularity, ANT is considered a controversial approach, not only for its insistence on the agency of non-humans, but also for promoting a sociological approach that appears to lack substantive political critique. Focusing on the study of organisation(s), we suggest that while 'early' ANT studies were problematic in this latter respect, ANT's 'further development' - under what has become known as the 'ANT and After' literature - sees an approach capable of offering insights relevant to the development of a critical perspective on organization(s), notably through its advocacy of a 'political ontology' of organising.