Table 1 A comparison of the epistemology... | Emerald Publishing

Table 1

A comparison of the epistemology of ANT and that of the normal science tradition

Epistemological dimensions	Epistemology of “classic ANT”^a	Normal science epistemology
Over-riding view of the role of theory in research	Theory, other than ANT itself, is not expected to play a role as an input to, or output of, research	Theory plays a notable role in research both as an input and as an output. This may include an intention for cumulative theory development
Expected modes of reasoning	Open-ended, descriptive mode of reasoning that is not guided by any theoretical assumptions about which actors matter or ambitions to advance theoretically informed explanations	Theoretically informed modes of reasoning following the logics of deduction, induction or abduction
Strategies for developing research questions	Empirically derived issues that constitute “matters of concern” in specific contexts	Theoretically informed gap-spotting or problematization based on either deductively derived tensions and paradoxes or empirically derived construction of mysteries
Nature of research contributions	Application of ANT to specific empirical context without any attempts to generalize beyond this context or to make conceptual or theoretical contributions to extant research	Developing new theory or illustrating, testing or extending/refining existing theory

Epistemological dimensions	Epistemology of “classic ANT”^a	Normal science epistemology
Over-riding view of the role of theory in research	Theory, other than ANT itself, is not expected to play a role as an input to, or output of, research	Theory plays a notable role in research both as an input and as an output. This may include an intention for cumulative theory development
Expected modes of reasoning	Open-ended, descriptive mode of reasoning that is not guided by any theoretical assumptions about which actors matter or ambitions to advance theoretically informed explanations	Theoretically informed modes of reasoning following the logics of deduction, induction or abduction
Strategies for developing research questions	Empirically derived issues that constitute “matters of concern” in specific contexts	Theoretically informed gap-spotting or problematization based on either deductively derived tensions and paradoxes or empirically derived construction of mysteries
Nature of research contributions	Application of ANT to specific empirical context without any attempts to generalize beyond this context or to make conceptual or theoretical contributions to extant research	Developing new theory or illustrating, testing or extending/refining existing theory

Source(s): ^aBased particularly on Latour (1987, 1990, 2005a) and Callon (1986, 1999)