This preface discusses Actor-Network Theory (ANT), and in particular Innovation Translation – its
approach to innovation adoption and its value as an analytical framework for theorising technological
innovation. It begins by noting the controversy with the name: actor-network theory (ANT), and whether
this should be changed to something like “actant-rhyzome ontology” of “the sociology of translation.”
It then makes use of a number of early classic papers by Latour, Callon, and Law to show why ANT
provides a useful framework for handling socio-technical situations without privileging the social over
the technical or vice-versa. A process of technological innovation making use of an approach involving
the four moments of Innovation Translation is illustrated and an argument made for its value in other
socio-technical situations involving technological innovation.