S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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role of technology and non-human objects that support remote nurses to deliver mental healthcare. In so doing, this research is aligned to the aim proposed by Callon and Latour (1992) of using this principle as a means to develop a symmetric metalanguage to refer to humans and non-humans with an unbiased vocabulary, and to adopt it as an analytical stance, not as an ethical position (Law, 1992, p. 383). Hence for example email communication concerning the delivery of mental healthcare (e.g., advice from a psychiatrist in a regional hospital) results in inter alia remote nurse actions of logging on to a computer and typing on a keyboard while the same query though the technology of a phone results in different actions by the remote nurse of dialling a phone and speaking; the non-human actors—email and telephone—produce completely different actions in the human actors. This is described and noted along with the effect and influence on the actors without any reference to morality or politics. Another critique questions actor-network theory’s reflexive approach (Cordella & Shaikh, 2006; Murdoch, 2001; Whittle & Spicer, 2008). Critics (Murdoch, 2001; Whittle & Spicer, 2008) argue that actor-network researchers tend to adopt objectivity in their vocabulary which fails to reflect the descriptions and explanations of the study participants themselves. Whittle and Spicer (2008) suggested that actor-network theory as a theoretical lens is capable of (mis)leading researchers offering superior or expert views that implies study participants’ explanations as naïve or wrong. The researcher was aware of this criticism early in the study and made a deliberate and conscious decision to discipline himself against losing objectivity, particularly when confronted by a participant’s response which was counter to the researcher’s experience working in remote locations. Whittle and Spicer (2008) highlighted that researchers may unreflectively apply the four stage model of