Architecture in action: Traveling with actor-network theory in the land of architectural research

Since its inception two decades ago in the sociology of science and technology, actor-network theory has been riding the wave of interdisciplinary studies, alternately engaging surfers and rocking or capsizing boats on its way over disciplinary oceans from gender studies to business management, from history to media studies. Now it seems to be making landfall at the shores of architectural research. This article investigates the potential of ANT, with its enticing but controversial approach to materiality, relationality and process—issues that are just as essential to studies of architecture as they are to studies of science and technology—to architectural research.