Compare methods

	Valuation Studies Method	Actor-Network Theory Analysis
Field	Science Technology Studies	Science Technology Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2013	1984
Originator	Claes-Fredrik Helgesson, Fabian Muniesa, Michèle Lamont	Bruno Latour, Michel Callon, John Law
Type	Practice-oriented method for studying valuation	Material-semiotic theory and analytic method
Seminal source	Helgesson, C.-F., & Muniesa, F. (2013). For what it's worth: an introduction to valuation studies. Valuation Studies, 1(1), 1-10.	Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780199256051
Aliases	Sociology of valuation, Valography, Study of evaluation practices	ANT analysis, Sociology of translation, Actant-network mapping
Related	4	4
Summary	The valuation studies method treats valuation—the production, measurement, ordering, and contestation of worth—as a social practice to be studied empirically rather than a hidden mental act or a settled economic fact. Consolidated by Claes-Fredrik Helgesson and Fabian Muniesa and complemented by Michèle Lamont's comparative sociology of valuation and evaluation, it follows how rankings, metrics, prices, and evaluation procedures actually do their work, and asks how worth comes to be, by whom, with which devices, and to what effect.	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.