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ANT, multiplicity and policy

In this article, we explore the potential of actor network theory and feminist material semiotics as a set of tools for critical policy analysis. We describe their focus on material heterogeneity, ontological multiplicity and performativity, and consider how this both generates political and policy possibilities and impossibilities and also creates the potential for change. We explore this by considering the British policy response to the 2001 foot and mouth disease epidemic, which we treat as a case of ontological multiplicity, and ask what might have happened if policy makers had recognized and responded to this multiplicity.