Drawing on Actor-network theory (ANT), this paper develops a ‘more-than-human’ conception of netnography to extend current thinking on the scope, focus and methods of netnographic research. The proposed approach seeks to account more clearly for the role of human and non-human actors in networked sociality and sets out to examine the interactions of people, technology and socio-material practices. The paper critiques reductive applications of netnography, bound by proceduralism, and advocates research that embraces the complex, multi-temporal, multi-spatial nature of internet and technology-mediated sociality. It challenges researchers to examine and account for the performative capacities of actors and their practices of enactment. By synthesising insights from ANT and emerging work in marketing and consumer research that adopts relational approaches, this paper outlines the challenges and opportunities in developing more-than-human netnographies as an approach to extend current netnography.
Lugosi, Peter Quinton, Sarah
Faculty of Business\Business SchoolFaculty of Business\Oxford School of Hospitality and Management
Year of publication: 2018Date of RADAR deposit: 2018-01-10