Compare methods

	Sociotechnical Systems Analysis	Actor-Network Theory Analysis
Field	Science Technology Studies	Science Technology Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1983	1984
Originator	Thomas P. Hughes	Bruno Latour, Michel Callon, John Law
Type	Historical-analytic method for large technological systems	Material-semiotic theory and analytic method
Seminal source	Hughes, T. P. (1983). Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN: 9780801828737	Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780199256051
Aliases	Large technical systems analysis, Hughesian systems approach, Technological systems analysis	ANT analysis, Sociology of translation, Actant-network mapping
Related	4	4
Summary	Sociotechnical systems analysis, developed by the historian of technology Thomas P. Hughes, studies large technological systems—electric power, telephony, transport—as a 'seamless web' in which physical artefacts, organisations, scientific knowledge, laws, and people are woven together. Drawing on his study of electrification in Networks of Power and his model of system evolution, the method locates the system's reverse salients, follows the work of system builders, and traces how a system acquires momentum and passes through characteristic phases of growth.	Actor-Network Theory analysis treats society and technology as a single woven fabric, mapping how heterogeneous human and non-human actors—engineers, scallops, documents, machines, regulators—are linked into networks through a process of translation. Rather than explaining technical outcomes by appeal to pre-given social categories, ANT follows the actors themselves and describes how durable arrangements are assembled, stabilised, and sometimes undone.