diverse spaces labelled as ‘local’ or ‘global’ could be drawn
into the action nets that ensue. Like William Thackeray’s
Vanity Fair, the cast is literally many and action is dispersed
both temporally and spatially. Thus, the analysis has to follow
many. In this study, we followed the movements and
shifts in the corporation’s global network very closely over
1 1/2 years (with visits 3–5 days a week), and more loosely
over another 2 1/2 years. We paid particular attention to
the acts of persuasion, negotiation and enrolment and
the changing of forms from one to another (Callon, 1986;
Callon & Latour, 1981). Tracing the footsteps of so many actors
was not easy. To provide research focus our data collection
centred on the interaction between corporate
actors (in America), regional actors (in Asia–Pacific
(APAC)), and local actors (in Australia). The corporate
headquarters oversees the global operations and sets the
worldwide strategies. The APAC office manages the
subsidiaries in the Australasian region, focusing on sales,
operations and finance. Most of our time was spent with
Australian managers, who are charged with selling the corporation’s
products. We carried out 54 semi-structured
interviews with employees, managers, consultants and
others, lasting between 40 and 90 min.