Actant

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In sociology, AI and programming language theory, actants are the principal concern of the actor-network theory, the activity of which is described as "mediation" or "translation".

In sociology, the term "actant" is an approach neither to speak of "actors" (who act) nor of "systems" (which behave). It was coined by Bruno Latour.^[1]

“	[Linguistically,]Actants have a kind of phonemic rather than a phonetic role: they operate on the level of function, rather than content. That is, an actant may embody itself in a particular character (termed an acteur) or it may reside in the function of more than one character in respect of their common role in the story's underlying 'oppositional' structure. In short, the deep structure of the narrative generates and defines its actants at a level beyond that of the story's surface content.	”
	— Terence Hawkes, Structuralism and Semiotics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), p. 89

Due credit must be paid to Algirdas Julien Greimas (1917-1992), professor of Semiotics who is widely credited with producing the "actantial" model. The actantial model reveals the structural roles typically performed in story telling; such as "hero, villain (opponent of hero), object (of quest), helper (of hero) and sender (who initiates the quest)." Each of these roles fulfill an integral component of the story (or "narrative" if you prefer). Without the contribution of each actant, the story may be incomplete. Thus, an "actant" is not simply a character in a story, but an integral structural element upon which the narrative revolves.

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[edit] See also

• Actor model
• Science and technology studies
• Scientific Community Metaphor