Field research involves engaging with a diverse array of people, practices, objects, and ideas that together shape the dynamics of a site. Recognizing how these different actors—human and non-human—contribute to the making of a field is crucial for understanding how knowledge, power, and meaning circulate within it. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) draws attention to this complexity by encouraging researchers to consider the agency of all entities involved in field formation, including technologies, documents, infrastructures, and environments. Rather than treating the field as a preexisting backdrop, ANT highlights how it is actively assembled through networks of relations among these heterogeneous actors.
The interactive network mindmap tool provides a way to visualize and engage with this relational complexity. Designed for ethnographers and other field researchers, it allows users to map, categorize, and connect the various entities that constitute their fieldsite—people, policies, technologies, environments, and more. By making these relationships visible, the tool helps identify overlooked connections and dependencies, supporting a more reflexive understanding of how the field operates as a networked system. Through its visual and interactive interface, it translates the principles of ANT into a practical method for exploring how research contexts are co-constructed by diverse human and non-human participants