Reimagining Healthcare Through Actor-Network Theory: A Latourian Critique of Modern Medical Hierarchies
Julian Ungar-Sargon
Abstract
This paper
explores the application of Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a
conceptual framework for critiquing contemporary healthcare delivery systems.
By examining the complex networks of human and non-human actors that constitute
medical practice, we challenge the traditional hierarchical structures that
dominate modern healthcare. Through ANT's lens, medical authority emerges not
from institutional positions but through dynamic associations between diverse
actors physicians, patients, technologies, protocols, and physical spaces. We
argue that recognizing the distributed agency within healthcare networks
reveals fundamental limitations in current biomedical models that prioritize
vertical authority structures and technical interventions over holistic healing
relationships. By reconceptualizing healthcare as heterogeneous networks where healing
emerges through translations between actors rather than top-down impositions of
medical authority, this paper proposes alternative approaches to care that
respect the complex, relational nature of healing processes. These insights
suggest practical reforms for healthcare education, institutional design, and
policy development that could foster more effective, equitable, and humanistic
healing environments.