The article revisits the original publication by Susan L. Star and James R. Griesemer (1989) which founded the notion of the boundary object to rethink the actor-network theory (ANT) from an ecological perspective of collective action and distributed knowledge, considering artefacts. It then looks at the academic career of the concept and what has been used (“interpretative flexibility”) vs. underplayed and forgotten (the incorporation of an invisible infrastructure) of its original conceptualisation. The article proposes to reinvestigate the concept by being careful to maintain the articulation of these two dimensions.
L’article revient sur la publication originale de Susan L. Star et James R. Griesemer (1989) qui fondait la notion d’objet-frontière (boundary object) afin de repenser la théorie de l’acteur-réseau (ANT) dans une perspective écologique de l’action collective et de la connaissance distribuée, prenant en compte les artefacts. Il se penche ensuite sur la carrière académique du concept et ce qui a été utilisé (« la flexibilité interprétative ») vs minoré et oublié (l’incorporation d’une infrastructure invisible) de sa conceptualisation d’origine. L’article propose de réinvestir le concept en étant attentif à maintenir l’articulation ces deux dimensions.
The problematic of how supply and demand meet on a particular market is at the core of the economic sociology project, which for several years has produced detailed analyses of how judgments of the quality of products and service providers are constructed prior to the exchange relation. Observation of how funeral business services come to be purchased and analysis of competition dynamics on local funeral service markets bring to light certain alternative ways of organizing the marketplace encounter. The article describes the devices used to capture this market, particularly the socio-technical arrangements for channeling customers toward a single service provider. It shows the degree to which provider activity, relations among competitors, and the market regulation game in this sector are structured by the production of an economy of customer capture.
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