Object ontologies and the contrasted in/visibilities of maintenance work

Jérôme Denis (1) , David Pontille (1)

1 CSI i3 - Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation i3

Paraphrasing Donna Haraway, one could say that no object comes without its maintenance. But how exactly does maintenance take place in the life of each object? How, and when, are maintenance work and workers taken into account? This communication addresses these questions looking at objects themselves and drawing on the growing literature on repair and maintenance studies. The authors show that, even though maintenance work is generally likely to be condemned to invisibility, in numerous repair and maintenance cases, objects ascribe very diverse positions to maintenance work and workers.

Mots clés: repair; work; maintenance; invisibility; ontology

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Sociologie

Jérôme Denis, David Pontille. Object ontologies and the contrasted in/visibilities of maintenance work. Maintainers II, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken Apr 2017, Hoboken (New Jersey), United States. ⟨hal-01509631⟩