Cooperatives' contributions to a plural economy

General introduction to the bookCooperatives;plural economy

Data and its invisible work

International audienceIn this communication I question the contrast between the image of data as primary material that can seamlessly flow from one place to another and the work that such circulation takes behind-the-scenes, the frictions the data engender, their fragility, and their cost. Of course, following Leigh Star (1999) and Lucy Suchman (1995), one can discuss this paradox by surfacing invisible work. But, drawing on two ethnographic studies (in the back office of a bank, and a start-up that works with French administrations), I argue that such paradox also invites to adopt what Leonelli (2015) calls a "relational framework" regarding data, and then investigate the relationships between what counts as data and what counts as work

Le travail invisible de l'information

Les termes “information” et “communication”, associés qualificatif “immatériel”, sont devenus des allant de soi pour dépeindre notre monde où informatique et télécommunications ont profondément transformé la forme et le rythme des échanges. S'ils permettent de rendre compte des formes de valeur qui émergent du maillage toujours plus fins des réseaux sociotechniques, leur usage répété et non questionné risque toutefois de laisser de côté, voire de masquer, les conditions concrètes de fonctionnement de ce que l'on appelle communément la “société de l'information”

Poissonian tunneling through an extended impurity in the quantum Hall effect

We consider transport in the Poissonian regime between edge states in the quantum Hall effect. The backscattering potential is assumed to be arbitrary, as it allows for multiple tunneling paths. We show that the Schottky relation between the backscattering current and noise can be established in full generality: the Fano factor corresponds to the electron charge (the quasiparticle charge) in the integer (fractional) quantum Hall effect, as in the case of purely local tunneling. We derive an analytical expression for the backscattering current, which can be written as that of a local tunneling current, albeit with a renormalized tunneling amplitude which depends on the voltage bias. We apply our results to a separable tunneling amplitude which can represent an extended point contact in the integer or in the fractional quantum Hall effect. We show that the differential conductance of an extended quantum point contact is suppressed by the interference between tunneling paths, and it has an anomalous dependence with respect to the bias voltage

The dance of maintenance and the dynamics of urban assemblages

At the crossroads of human geography and actor-network theory, ample research has been centered around the notion of assemblage as a means to redefine some of the traditional themes of urban studies. This stream of research has called for a true study of the sociotechnical complexity of cities, from the largest infrastructures to the most everyday objects. Wayfinding systems are paradigmatic of urban assemblages. Intimately linked to urban fabric (architecture, streets, highways, and practices themselves), they play a crucial role in the production of cities as both material and informational environments. But to simply remain in place and thus truly contribute to the graphical ordering of urban settings, signs take work. In this text, we first foreground the importance of maintenance work in the daily existence of wayfinding systems – a work that remains largely overlooked in the studies of urban assemblages. Second, we investigate the day-to-day repair activities to show that they consist in reassembling and disassembling operations. Such an approach notably makes possible to apprehend urban assemblages in their daily dynamics and to investigate the ecology of visible and invisible in which their repair takes place

Material Ordering and the Care of Things

International audienceDrawing on an ethnographic study of the installation and maintenance of Paris subway wayfinding system, this article attempts to discuss and specify previous claims that highlight stability and immutability as crucial aspects of material ordering processes. Though in designers' productions (such as guidelines or graphic manuals), subway signs have been standardized and their consistency has been invested in to stabilize riders' environment, they appear as fragile and transforming entities in the hands of maintenance workers. These two situated accounts are neither opposite nor paradoxical: they enact different versions of subway signs, the stabilization of which goes through the acknowledgment of their vulnerability. Practices that deal with material fragility are at the center of what we propose, following Annemarie Mol and Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, to term a care of things. Foregrounding such a care of things is a way to surface a largely overlooked dimension of material ordering and to renew how maintainability issues are generally tackled. Keyword

Material Ordering and the Care of Things

http://www.csi.mines-paristech.fr/Items/WorkingPapers/Download/DLWP.php?wp=WP_CSI_034.pdfCSI WORKING PAPER 034Drawing on an ethnographic study of the installation and maintenance of Paris subway wayfinding system, this article attempts to discuss and specify previous claims that highlight stability and immutability as crucial aspects of material ordering processes. Though in designersʼ productions (guidelines, graphic manuals...), subway signs have been standardized and their consistency has been invested in to stabilize riders environment, they appear as fragile and transforming entities in the hands of maintenance workers. These two situated accounts are neither opposite nor paradoxical: they enact different versions of subway signs, the stabilization of which goes through the acknowledgment of their vulnerability. Practices that deal with material fragility are at the center of what authors propose, following Annemarie Mol and Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, to term a care of things. Foregrounding such a care of things is a way to surface a largely overlooked dimension of material ordering and to renew how maintainability issues are generally tackled

Maintenance work and the performativity of urban inscriptions: the case of Paris subway signs

International audienceUrban inscriptions are performative devices that play a crucial part in urban assemblages. They mark sites, give places a name, designate directions. This paper questions such performativity by investigating the design and maintenance of subway signs in Paris. Studying backstage activities rather than user tactics, it shows that the semiotic production of space is mainly played out in standardization processes that are both oriented towards signs immutability and fueled by a daily consideration for their vulnerability. Such a posture allows us to take full account of the ontological variations of signs (which can be, for example, stable or unstable, consistent or fragile, immutable or mutable). Maintenance work, through which the agency of urban inscriptions is partially shaped, ensures the articulation of such a multiplicity

Ficelles pour une ethnographie de l'écrit

Ce chapitre propose des ficelles pour étudier les écritures infra-ordinaires dans toute leur richesse. Il invite à les saisir en activité à travers trois thématiques - l'hétérogénéité matérielle de l'écrit, les relations que l'écrit entretient avec l'espace et les modes d'engagement des personnes dans et avec l'écrit. Ces trois axes d'enquêtes sont traduits en pistes concrètes pour apprendre à prêter attention aux écrits en action