'I love you...Me neither!': From marginalization to the integration of the adult entertainment film industry in the Blu-Ray network

Abstract

Based on Actor-Network Theory (ANT), this article explores the way that actors faced to the closure of a network supporting an innovation succeed to open up it. To do that, we study the case of the adult entertainment film industry that is initially excluded from the Blu-Ray network during the high-definition DVD standard war. Our findings lead us to introduce a new concept, the ‘marginalized’ actant that is defined as an actant rejected on the periphery of a network against its will. Our results also show that ‘marginalized’ actants adopt specific logic of resistance to open up the network, notably by changing their identity. Eventually, the analysis of the relations between the ‘marginalized’ actant and actants at the centre of the network leads to some insights into the way the power struggle between them is structured and evolves over time.