A Critique of Operativity: Notes on a Technological Imperative

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Author(s): Dieter Mersch (Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland)
Copyright: 2017
Pages: 15
Source title: Applying the Actor-Network Theory in Media Studies
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Markus Spöhrer (University of Konstanz, Germany)and Beate Ochsner (University of Konstanz, Germany)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0616-4.ch014

Keywords: Digital Communications / Digital Media / Information Science Reference / Media & Communications

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Abstract

The concepts of “operation” and “operational sequences” are central for Actor-Network Theory. They have also become key-terms for cultural and media studies and in specific the so-called German Media Theory. However—this is the thesis of the article—whoever starts with the assumption of operativity or privileges operational sequences in the context of cultural practices is already treading on the ground of the technical and thus has accepted what they set out to prove: the interpretation of culture solely on the basis of technical approaches and the prerequisite of an a priori of technique. Instead the article insists on the difference between operation and practice which serve as a criterion for a cultural analysis beyond any universalization of technology.

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