Qualitative Research on Transformations in Water Management
Case-network analysis as a combination of case reconstruction and actor-network theory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21241/Keywords:
objective hermeneutics, actor-network theory, method combination, socio-ecological transformation, infrastructureAbstract
In this paper, we introduce a method combination of Actor–Network Theory (ANT) and Objective Hermeneutics (OH) using an empirical research project on socio-ecological transformations of water infrastructures as an example. We employ ANT primarily as a data collection strategy (“follow the actors”) to identify relevant actor networks but also apply an ANT analysis model on processes of networking. OH enables reconstructing the meaning structures of the cases involved. These provide answers to how the cases interpret transformation processes, whereas ANT makes possible changes in the interplay of actors visible. From this combination, which we conceptualize and model as case-network analysis, new insights emerge. This approach can show how meaning structures and networks mutually stabilize each other, in our empirical example through a technically-oriented problem perspective within a technically-oriented actor network.
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