Reassembling Colgate University’s “Wireless Network”: Toward A Sociological Understanding of Wireless Networks

The current project is a senior thesis examining Colgate University's "wireless network" from social science perspective. This project critically draws Actor-Network Theory as presented by Bruno Latour in order to explore and analyze the university's "wireless network" as such, beyond its technical structure. In doing so, it adds to the theory by introducing the original notions of appropriation and blind spots, fill the gap in the existing Actor-Network Theory literature that largely focus on the production of an association by addressing what happens after it. This project offers an elaborate example of studying wireless networks from Actor-Network Theory standpoint, and defends the merit of Actor-Network Theory as a viable framework for examining the contemporary world with the increasing prominence of cyborg, hybrid associations. Its main method of data collection is ethnography, which involves interviews, field works, and accumulation of other relevant materials (photography, documents, diagrams, etc.).本项目为一篇本科毕业论文，从社会科学视角对科尔盖特大学（Colgate University）的“无线网络”展开研究。本项目批判性地借鉴布鲁诺·拉图尔（Bruno Latour）提出的行动者网络理论（Actor-Network Theory），以此为分析框架对该校无线网络进行探究与剖析，突破了仅关注其技术架构的研究局限。在此过程中，本项目引入“占用”与“盲区”两项原创性概念以丰富行动者网络理论体系，填补了现有相关研究的空白：现有行动者网络理论文献多聚焦于关联的生成过程，却鲜有探讨关联生成后的发展态势。本项目为从行动者网络理论视角开展无线网络研究提供了一则详实的示范案例，同时论证了行动者网络理论作为可行分析框架的应用价值，以适应当代社会中赛博格（cyborg）与混合性关联愈发凸显的研究语境。本项目的核心数据采集方法为民族志（ethnography）研究法，具体涵盖访谈、田野调查以及各类相关资料的搜集整理（如摄影作品、文档、示意图等）。