1. médialab Sciences Po
  2. Productions
  3. Social theory and the study of computerized work sites

Social theory and the study of computerized work sites

Bruno Latour

This paper tries to understand what has changed in social theory, because of the development of information technology in work sites and because of the analysis of sociologists, specialists of labor relations, of organizations, of situated cognition, etc. It starts with a simple example of practice and tries to analyze it by following new concepts which seems to derive from the redistribution of humans and non-humans due to the pervasiveness of computerized work sites. It then tries to list the services rendered to social theory by those work sites and by the studies made by much more knowledgeable colleagues.