• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.366-386
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• 2013

This paper analyzes the drought and restriction on water supply in Taebaek City during the winter season in 2008 using Actor-Network Theory. Actor-Network Theory emphasizes and brings into view the role and act of non-human actors as well as human actors in various environmental issues. The fact that only Taebaek experienced restriction on water supply for 88 days although the winter season drought in 2008 affected the whole nation, requires a synthetic analysis of both human and non-human actors and their relationships and networks embedded in Taebaek City at that time. This paper shows that both human and non-human actors including Taebaek City Hall, Korea Water Resource Corporation, Taebaek citizen, the water supply facilities, Gwangdongdam, obsolete water pipes, the topography of Taebaek, soil, the change of industry, and population interact one another transforming the geography of water in Taebaek. This study helps to understand the complex processes related to drought disasters at a specific local scale and to provide appropriate measures to drought.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.177-189
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• 2020

To newly discover the placeness of Xita Koreatown in Shenyang, this study establishes the conceptual structure of urban inclusivity based on the actor-network theory and the main discourse of inclusive cities. It then applies a framework to the relevant space for analysis. We conduct the case study by first identifying a historical timeline by dividing the age from the founding of New China to the present into sprouting and developing stages of Xita Koreatown, extracting major actors out of time, and finally creating a network graph for each of the six periods representing changes in the region. Throughout this process, we not only analyze the aspect of transition in the urban inclusivity of Xita Koreatown but also prospect the feasibility of an inclusive city for the area. The results of this study are as follows. First, the number and type of actors constituting Xita Koreatown have constantly increased significantly since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea. The related actor-networks have also continued to expand in all indicators of urban inclusivity. Secondly, the agency of human actors such as Korean-Chinese, locals, and both South and North Koreans, representing the specificity of Xita Koreatown, has continuously improved. Lastly, due to the increase of cultural exchanges and related policy actors, the actor-network in this region has achieved an unprecedented leap forward. In conclusion, the urban inclusivity of Xita Koreatown in Shenyang shows significant growth in quality, with expectations of further improvement.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.461-477
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• 2010

Recent environmental issues such as genetically modified organisms, the loss of biodiversity, climate change, and nuclear waste cannot be reduced to a matter of science or society and explained through nature-society dualist approaches because of their complexity and heterogeneity. This paper examines how nature-society dualism has been embedded in science studies and geography and how this dualism can be overcome. Actor-Network Theory as an attempt to overcome this nature-society dualism is appropriate in analysing "strange imbriglio" of biology, politics, technoscience, market, value, ethics and facts that constitute our society by focusing on heterogeneous association, and can contribute to providing a useful framework to solve environmental problems.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.276-296
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• 2003

This study is to analyze the adoption of environmentally friendly fanning(EFF) by Actor-Network Theory(ANT). ANT declares that the world is full of hybrid entities containing both human and non-human elements and maintains that adoption of an innovation comes as a consequence of the action of everyone in the chain of actors who has anything to do with it. In this study, adoption of EFF will be analysed through the role of actors and networks. And this paper try to identify the intermediaries and obligatory passage point(OPP) in each networks. In study area, 5 actors, -nature, governmental institute, food processors, consumers and farmers-, have each roles in their networks, But only 18 farmers adopted EFF. This study revealed that three OPPs were not overcome in each network. The one is nature, such as water and soil pollution. Another is shortage of reliability between farmers and governmental institute. The other is shortage of information about agricultural commodity trade. And through this application of ANT to the EFF, we contend that ANT can be useful for studies of diffusion of EFF and sustainability of rural systems in situations where interactions of the social, technological and political are regarded as particularly important.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-40
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• 2019

Built upon ethnographic method such as participant observation and in-depth interview, this study analyzes the material culture of electronic flower auctions at Yangjae Flower Market. From the viewpoint of Actor-Network Theory(ANT), this research examines how human actors like dealers and auctioneers interact with nonhuman actors such as market devices and these interactions form networks called "agencement." This research is focused on three main objectives: first, to study how the performance of auctions - i.e. the interactions between auctioneers and dealers - change in the wake of new market devices in the auctions; secondly, to look into what changes artifacts bring to the social relationships between auctioneers and dealers; lastly, to analyze the influence of new market devices on auction price in the market. The results of this research are as follows. First, the appearance of new market devices generates changes in the performance of auctions, which means the change of 'agencement' of flower auctions. Direct interactions between auctioneers and dealers turned into indirect interactions through new market devices. Moreover, the changes in the agencement brought changes to the identity of auctioneers and dealers. Secondly, the new agencement caused by the inflow of new market devices formed the trust between the devices and human actors, which gave rise to the trust in electronic auction and in counterpart actors as well. In addition, new market devices lowered direct interactions between auctioneers and dealers and thus made more equal relationships between the two than before. Lastly, market devices like trading screen reduced the leverage of auctioneers by providing dealers with bidding information previously possessed by auctioneers much openly and dealers were able to decide auction prices in more reasonable and dispassionate manner. Economic agency, power, trust, price, and information in the market is material and sensory.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.45-78
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• 2012

What is a disaster? And what can science and technology studies tell us about it? There might be numerous definitions about disaster. In this article, we will posit that disaster is an incident when sociotechnical system actor-network broke down against the other force in their "trial of strength". This is a process that punctualized actor-network is depunctualized, and a status that readiness-to-hand of Being recedes while pesentness-at-hand of tool-being comes forward. Using the concept of disaster as a case study, we will consider how Latourian ontology overlaps with Heideggerian philosophy of technology. This STS approach which hasn't been previously studied might provide us with new theoretical framework that enables us to construe the assemblage of technoscience and nature-society in the field of PUS or NPSS.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.81-111
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• 2017

In this paper, I focus on the performativity thesis introduced and developed by Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholars such as Callon, MacKenzie, etc. since the mid 1990s. The performativity thesis was discussed in economic sociology by STS scholars has been pervaded to other research areas including general economics, accounting, finance and so on. The main idea of the thesis is that economic theories perform, shape, and format economy rather than just describe economy. I show that the thesis is based on the traditional STS ideas such as performativity derived from Merton's self-fulfilling prophecy and the actor-network theory. Although the thesis has been criticised by various researchers from both inside and outside STS, it has provided meaningful implications for understanding economic phenomenon from a viewpoint of STS. Furthermore, reflexive researches for performativity of STS theories can be discussed in the next stage.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.21-42
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• 2015

This paper shows the case of the evolution of Korean e-Government services in the theoretical lens of Actor-Network Theory and Structuration Theory. It presents how human actors (i.e. presidents and the central administrations) and non-human actors (i.e. law, standards, and relay systems) have established as the one network together, and how this network affects the evolution of Korean e-Government services. This case demonstrates in public sector can adopt not only Actor-Network Theory, but also Structuration Theory to explain both micro and macro contexts. The practical implications are given especially for the developing countries in pursuing the rapid development process of e-Government services.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.613-632
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• 2016

The recent diagnosis of the Anthropocene challenges public understanding of nature as a pure and singular entity removed from society, as the diagnosis confirms the earth-changing force of humans. In geography, the nature-society divide has been critically interrogated long before the diagnosis of the Anthropocene, developing several ways of theorizing nature-society relations. This paper introduces a new frontier for such theoretical endeavors: more-than-human geography. Inspired by the material and performative turn in geography and the social sciences around the 2000s, more-than-human geographers have sought to re-engage with the livingness of the world in the study of nature-society relations. Drawing on actor-network theory, non-representational theory (NRT) and vitalism, they have developed innovative ways of thinking about and relating to nature through the key concepts of 'nonhuman agency' and 'affect'. While more-than-human geography has been extensively debated and developed in recent Euro-American scholarship on cultural and economic geography, it has so far received limited attention in Korean geographical studies on nature. This paper aims to address this gap by discussing the key concepts and seminal work of more-than-human geography. I first outline four theoretical strands through which nature-society relations are perceived in geography. I then offer an overview of more-than-human geography, discussing its theoretical foundations and considering ontologies, epistemologies, politics and ethics associated with nature-society relations. Then, I compare more-than-human geography with political ecology, which is the mainstream critical approach in contemporary environmental social sciences. I would argue that more-than-human geography further challenges and develops political ecology through its heightened attention to the affective capacity of nonhumans and the methodological ethos of doing a careful political ecology. I conclude by reflecting on the implications of more-than-human geography for Korean studies on nature-society relations.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.71-110
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• 2013

As a patient has recently been recognized as not a passive object but a subject of medical services, various attempts are being made to strengthen the status of a patient. Medical communication which has been led by a doctor so far is being made with a focus on a patient due to sovereignty of a consumer and activation of medical information. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process to strengthen the status of a patient as a consumer of health care service through a patient association and consumer movement as medical information becomes public. As the patient centered medical service is creating a variety of health care service market using IT technologies, it has contributed to the improvement on asymmetry of medical information. As the expansion of IT fusion health care market is bringing the fundamental change into the traditional relationship between a doctor and a patient, the medical service market is being re-organized. A patient centered medical service such as expansion of mobile health care model led by a patient is being accelerated.