" l l l t U ~ ' ~ I 11, .

,r I 1 ,
'I , d L hq, d '1, dl' Ill. I ..11
jlll , .. III 11"1.... " 1111_11 I 1\1 0111/1 . 11 1, \
It I j 1I1.llt I t. 1, 1t. , 1" "1 101,.01 I I n, ,1 ".1,
1 '1. ' ,,111. .
'r ~ I
. l l lIIIlft llll .. 1 , ," ,1 "I 1,1 ,.rl.
258 Br/uta Lal()ur
humans (yes, you sociologists, there are also rel ations among things, and ,!flllI"
relations at that) .
24. For the study of user's manual, see Norman 1988 and Boullier, Akrich, alllll.r
Goaziou 1990.
25. Re-inscription is the same thing as inscription or translation or delegation, ItUI
seen in its movement. The ai m of sociotechnical st udy is Ihus to follow the (bill",''',
of re-inscription transforming a silent artifact into a polemical procc!;s. A III\"I 1\'
example of efforts at re-inscription of what was badLy pre-inscribed outsick of tilt
setting is provided by Orson Welles in C':ti;::,en Kane, where the hero not only IHHl J.41 11
a cheater for his singing wife to be applauded in) but also bought the tlr nl
were to do the reviews, bought off the art eritics themselves, and paid the andil1""
to show to no avai l, because the wife eventually quit. H umans and 111111
humans are very undisciplined no matter what you do and how many pretil"' 11II1
nations you are able to control inside the setting.
For a complete study of thi s dynamie on a large technical system, sce Law ( dlla
volume and in preparation) and Latour (forthcoming).
26. The stndy of scientific text is now a whole industry: see Callon, Law, i\uclltljl
1986 for a technical presentation and Latour 1987 for an introduction.
27. The linguistic meaning ofa paradigm is unrelated to the Kuhnian magC" qllh,
word. For a eomplete description of these diagrams, see Latour, Mauguiu, a!\CI '1' 1'11
(1992) ,
28. I am grateful to Berward J oerges for letting me interview his key aud hi Mkn
holder. It alone was worth the trip to Berlin.
29. Keys, locks, and codes arc of course a source ofmarvelous fieldwol' k {il l' ...
You may for instance replace the key (cxcorporation) by a memorized cod" (i ll! "'
poration). You may lose both, however , since memory is not 111111 '
durab1c than steel.
9
A Summary of a Convenient
Vocabulary for the Semiotics of
Human and Nonhuman Assemblies
Madeleine Akrich and Bruno Latour
The study of how meaning is built) but the word " mean
ill g" is taken in its original non textual and nonlinguistic interpreta
liou; how one privileged trajectory is buil t, out of an indefini te
IJllruher of possibili ties; in that sense, semiotics is the study of order
bllilding or path building and may be applied to settings, machines,
Ilotii es, and programming languages as well as texts; the word socio
'1l"lltiotics is a pleonasm once it is clear that semi otics is not limited to
"glls; the key aspect of the semiotics ofmachines is its abi lity to move
I" 1111 signs to thi ngs a nd back.
Setting: A machine can no more be studied than a human, be
, II ISC' wha t the a nalyst is faced wi th a re assemblies of humans and
IIClIlilllman actants where the competences and performances are
oI l, lrillll[cd; the object of analysis is called a setting or a setup (in
hnlrh a " dispositif" ).
Actant: Whatever acts or shifts actions, action itself being defined
I.y., lisl of performances through trials; from these performances are
01. 01 "c'('(l a sCl ofcompetences with which the actant is endowed; the
ilIMI"" pOillt of a metal is a trial through which the strength of an
.011,, \, is ddilled; the bankruptcy of a company is a trial through
1\ I"d, I h.. faithfulness of an all y ma y be defined; an actor is a n acta nt
lIoI"wl'fl with a character (usually a nthropomorphic) ,
"""ri,It, description, inscription, or transcription: The aim
,,1 till .w:ulc'mic writlt:n a nalysis ora setting is to put on paper the text
III \\' 11.11 1111" actors in the settings are doing to one another;
1111 "f 1,11l' iplio1l, l,slIally hy tlw analyst) is the opposite movement of
11 .. III 'u' l'il'linlJ Ily tht iJlVCllt"OI\ o r designer
( ". foi l I ti, l' , Ill' '1(11'ipIC'l' 10 wa' IU'oiogislll); li)J' the
Il,." \' ,c' \" "r 1,,011'1, .11" c1,, ,, 'cil ...c1 I,y Ii ... li,lI"will" !c'xl DU NOT
1I1Iu; I;.'I' 'I'Cl III<1N(: Till'. KEYS iI:\i:K '1'0 ' 1'111'. FIHIN'I'
Ill ,I . Ih, III '!I Ilpllhll hllll k l InL\NMLt\ TI': III 11 11""" I "'.C ,dlllvl'
hI II P .\\V WI.It:tI'I 's 1\'I1:\tllll.11 I'Cl KE\, S 'I'll HlIU:E
260 Akrich and ET/wO La/our
CLIENTS T O BE REMINDED TO BRI NG BACK THE KEYS
TO THE FRONT DESK. The de-scription is possible onl y if some
extraordinary event-a crisis-modifies the direct ion of the transla
tion from things back to words and allows the analyst to trace the
movement from words to things. These events are usuall y the follow
ing: the exotic or the pedagogic position (we are faced wit h a new or
foreign setup); the breakdown si tuation (t here is a failure that reveals
the inner working of the setup); the hist orical situation (either recon
structed by the analyst through archives, observed in real time by the
sociologis t, or imagined through a thought experiment by the philos
opher); and finally the deliberate experimental breaching (either at
the individual or the collective level ). No description of a setting is
possible or even thinkable without the mediation of a trial; without
a trial and a crisis we cannot even decide if there is a se tting or not
and still less how many parts it contains.
Shifting out, shifting in: Any displacement to anot her frame of
reference that allows an actant to leave the ego. hic. nunc- shifting
out- or to come back to the departure point - shifting in. For narra
tives there are three shiftings: actorial (from " I to another ac tor and
back), spatial (from here to there and back), temporal (from now to
then and back); in the study of settings one has to add a fourth type
of shifting, the material shifting through which the matter of the
expression is modified (from a sign FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT,
for instance, to an alarm), or from an alarm to an electric link
between the buckle and the engine switch, or, conversely, from an
electric current to a routinized habit of well- behaved drivers; the first
direction is call ed shifting down (from signs to things) and the other
shifting up (from things to signs).
Progra1'n of actions: This term is a generaliza tion of the narra
ti ve program used to describe texts, but with this crucial difference
that any part of the action may be shifted to different matters; if I
write in a text that Marguerite tells Faust, "Go to hell ," I am shifting
to another frame of reference inside the narrati ve world itselfwithout
ever leaving it; if I tell the reader, "go to page 768," I am shifting
already away fro m the narration, laterally so to speak, since I now
wait for the reader-in-the-flesh to do the action; if I then write the
instr uction, "go to line 768," not to a reader but to my computer, I
am shifting the matter of the expression still mori' (machine lan
guage, series of 0 and I, then voltages throl\ gh chips); I do Iwt COIlIlI
on humans at all to fl_dfl ll till' lIctioll, Tllf' iLilll 01'1111' d('sf'l'iptioll ora
s(,tt iug 10 wril(' down till' PI'U", i! 11I1 1, 1 at ' llowl :lIld 1111'
A Convenient VocabuLmy for the Semiotics of Humall and }/ollhuman Assemblies 261
of substitutions it entails and not only the narrative program that
would transform a machine in a t ext.
Antiprogra1'ns; All the programs of actions of acta nts that are in
conAi ct with the programs chosen as the point of departure of the
analysis; what is a program and what is an antiprogram is relati ve
to the chosen observer.
Prescription; proscription; affordances
J
allowances: What
a device allows or forbids from the actors- humans and nonhuman
- that it anticipates; it is the morality of a setting both negative
(what it prescribes) and positive (what it permits) .
Subscription or the opposite, de-inscription: The reaction of
the anticipated actants- human and nonhumans-to what is pre
scribed or proscribed to them; according to their own anti programs
they either underwrite it or tr y to extract themselves out of it or
adjust their behavior or the setting through some negotiations. The
gap between the prescriptions and the subscripti ons defines the pres
ence or absence of a crisis all owing the setting to be described ; if
everything runs smoothl y, even t he very distinction bet ween pre
scripti on and what the actor subscribes to is invisible because there
is no gap, hence no crisis and no possible description.
Pre-inscription: The competences that can be expected from ac
tors before arriving at the setting that are necessary for the resoluti on
of the crisis between prescription and subscription.
Circu1'nscription; The limi ts that the setting inscribes in itsrW
between what it can cope with- the arena of the setting- and wlt"t
it gives up, leaving it to the preinscription. The glass walls or" i",1'
circumscribe the setting; the word "end" at the cnd of' a 1111\'1'1
circumscribes the text; the rigid photovoltaic cell kit c: iI'C.I.IIlI KI' 1
itself and keeps away "idiots" wit h whom it cannot cOPC' .
Conscription: It is never clear where the " real " lilllit s "I' ..
are even though it has inscribed precise walls to itsrlr
does not end with the word "end " no more than a ha l 11 11
glass wall ; conscription is the series of actors that bave ' III Ill ' tI
for a setting to be kept in existence or that Imv(' ICI 1)1' cl I"
prevent others from invading the !ictting aIld iutl'l'l'lIpllll"" 11 I I
tenec; it is what makes the pre-i wH:l'ipti on III 01'(' 1:" 'tJl,dd. Ill, I
settillg; il is IIll" 11 ('lw(') l'k orallY sellill g, iL" II ' wll'lIl, 10 I'ltllal,.
al(' (t ill' h n llk III'1"d .. , liill':ll'i;'IIIS, pllhiislu' l's, ;111 .1 11I1J " I, lIulll "
har \'l,Ihi dl.r' V 111 ,111111;11'1111' 1'1' ,";, "' IH',tl "I" 11 ' " 1.1.
illll blldll ,,''' '.-t< I
I,d","/I,,'/I 0' ,.,., I 1'111 1I1 , IIIV II I tW' !1 11 1"1 111'11.111, ,11
1 II I II I11 111'I11111, ltllll luh, 1 Ill illolI 1111' 11 1II , lln" !v 111111111 1'\' I,h' M h,
262 Madelaille Akrich arI d Bnmo Latour
" decompression chambers," or more generally interfaces; when a
setti ng is largely made of material ized interfaces, it looks like a
network in the technological meaning of the word : electri cit y, tele
phones, water distribution
1
and sewage sys tems a re peculiar settings
that have a network shape.
Re-inscription: The same thing as inscri ption but seen as a move
ment, as a feedbac k mechanism; it is the redistribution of all the
other variables in order for a setting to cope with the cont radictory
demands of many antiprograms; it usuall y means a compli cation
a fold ing- or a sophistication of the setti ng; or else it means that
the complication, the sophistication is shi fted away into the pre
inscription; the choices made for the re-inscripti on defi nes the drama,
the suspense, the emplotment of a setting.
Redistributing competences and performances of actors
in a selling: The new point of departure for observati on instead of
the divide between humans and nonhumans; the direc tions of this
redistri bution are many: extrasomati c, intrasomatic; soft-wire, hard
wi re; figurative, nonfi gurati ve; linguistic, pragmati c; the designer
may shift the competence I S AUTHORIZED TO OPEN THE
DO OR either inside a key (excorpcration) or inside a memorized
code (incorporation); the code itself may be soft-wired Or hard-wired
(tied to a nursery rhyme, for instance); the task of opening the dool'
may be either shifted to humans or to nonhumans (through the
fi gurati ve a ttribution of electronic eyes); the basic competence {hI'
opening the door may eit her be wri tten down through instructi ons,
(li nguisti c level ) as for airplanes, or shifted to the pragmatic Icv.. 1
(emergency one-way exit doors that open when pressed upon hy a
panicked crowd).
A setting is thus a chain of H (umans) and N (on humans), "al'l,
endowed with a new competence or delegating its competcnn' 1<>
another: in the chain one may recognize aggregates that look li,,'
those of traditional social th eo), : social groups, machines, illt e rii H' t' ,
impact.
Ascription: The attri bution process through whi ch tIle" Cll'iXill III
the activity of the setting is fi nally decided in th,; setting' il"'II ; " 10
not a primary mechanism like all the othcrfol h\1I a :-< l:t:olldaI' Y nlll" , 1111
instance, the movemenl of the setting may Iw :\ :-< (,l' ilwlll( 11111"
mous thrust of a. machine, to lhc St.akhallllvi.'11 l ' I)\ll'a ,_(C' Ill' W11ll.. r' l lII! 1.1
lhe c1evcr r: alt:lllal jnn:-o of' (' llgiJlI ' l ' r s, 10 I'h YNil H, 10 :11'1, 10 C . Ipil ll llllllll ,
to cnrpol':t1c' hodic' s, 10 dl:IIIC'I ' , 1'11
'
,
Scrib,. "o.",.ip,,,r , ."".p'''''' ,1". iX",.,., fi r ."It"r,' Wl iu tll
lilt ti n/HIII ' I 01 " " IIIIIH I" ,Ill ' I nUl l I III :1 1"111 f'_' III .1 \1 Il plh..,
A Conuenienl Vocabula.ry for the Semiotic.r of Human and NouhumQIL As.remb/i".f 26:1/
non-humeR Interface: impact of sOcietlJ
'haped by fiuman, ,: 1iI1'I machine human 'biped
.!',.. ....._,...,..",.,i..:-.I.,.li ," .. ...-.'............. ....--.'.. ........,.. "r'..........'''''''' t.1J nc
\ H- H-H H- NH - H II --NI
:,;::;;r .....'."', ..... , 1"'_ '; \'::::::1' _'- .,' ',i. ,__ ,.\::1 11,. ,_.)
Social relation, Automati:sm .. Machine Impact of machine
on society
Figure 9.1
The usual categories t ha t sharply di vide humans and nonhumans correspond to
an artifi cial cutting poi or along associati on chains. When those are drawn, it is
still possible to recognize the former categories as so many res tricted chains. Ifwe
replace H and NH by the name of specific aCfanfs, we obtain a syntagm. If we
sll bsitute a specific name for another, we obtain the shifting- paradigms.
AND
(I) 1 pro;ramr-L' I
(2) 1
T tftfUHUftftfUttUftU
(3)1
e T UtfHHUftftfUtlUftU
) plu..st
(0) 1 L Irt.Ouk e
..,
ORI
."iKure 9.2
'1' 111' Ilotd manager successively adds keys, oral notices, written notices, and fi nall y
1111'1 11 1 wt:il-{ hts; time he thus modifi ed the attitude of some part of (he " hotel
A" I'OUp while he extends the syntagmatic assemblage of elements.
264 Madeleine Aknch and Bruno !AlOftr
or att ri bution; but this origin may be inscribed under many guises
in the set ting itself-trademarks, signatures, legal requirements,
proofS that standards are fulfilled, or more generally what the indus
try call s "traceability"; the blackest of black boxes are illuminated
with such inscriptions.
AND (syntag...atic, association, alliances); OR (paradig
...atic, substitution, translation): T he two fundamental dimen
sions for following the reinscription of a setting, hence its dynamic or
history; the oral or writt en message BRING YOUR KEY BACK
TO THE FRONT DESK is not necessarily obeyed-antiprogram;
the shift from keys to weights ties the clients to the front desk because
they have a heavy load in their pockets; other antiprograms will
appear that will have to be defeated; the front line between programs
and antiprograms maps out the plot of a script and keeps track of its
history.
10
Technology, Testing, Text:
Clinical Budgeting in the
U.K. National Health Service
T reuor Pinch, Mal colm. Ashmore, and Michael Mulkay
Defining Technology
Technology, unlike science, is everywhere. We use it - to obtain
crisp fi ve-pound notes from the automated bank teller; we talk about
it-praising the quality of our latest compact disc recording; we
wri te about it-in an a tt empt to build our careers in the sociology
of technology; we construct fantasies around it-such as when one
of the editors of this collection drops us a t the station in his 1938
Citroen and surprised Dutch peopl e look up to see which movie stars
have arrived in town; we may live by it-the dialysis machine; and,
we may die by it-the ballistic nuclear missile. As Langdon Winner
( 1977) remarks, "technology is a word whose time has come. "
Providing a definition of something that is so much a part 0('
Ihe fabric of our everyday lives is to offer a hostage to fortune.
TI,,; editors of The Social Construction of Technological Systems (Bijker,
IllIglles, and Pinch 1987, 3-4) deftly dealt with this problem by
rciilSing to offer an expli ci t definition. Instead they gave us a seri es of
I,aradigmatic cases intuitively taken to be technologies. Certainly
Ill!' anif;,cts described in that volume- such as bi cycles, nuclear
IlIi t'silc:-l, and cooking stoves- woul d figure on most people's lists as
" \l lllll'ieS 0(' But we should be careful. Technology like
IdllllitCT tennf.; is illdexical- it takes its meaning from its use. Items
, Ill ' c'la.'isc:d as techllologies for particular purposes. A pertinent ex
,lI d l'k l'tHIWS f'rmf] work on and technology. Ethnographic
11111 1"... I'/' II 'dIIH) I( )I{Y ill tlw llOmc show t.hat if women are asked to
I jl'II("! II}, which ill 'IIIS thc:y cOll sid(T W be technologies, t.he home cOrn
1'111" will ('I'rlaillly 1)(' illclucin\ where'as flu' ('(jokillg stove
,illlii'lI '('llallll y will 11111.1 Wll at , 'u\lIIIS:l X a I,dll loloy,y ,'all 11.,;("lrlu'
I I III rI I
1111 ;lPI l ul III !IIIIIII IIIII wodlN I VI ' II 1f1lfto wc1I 1111 1111" I l ilji l l I Ilr
11 11 11 \"11111 III hlt4 I h lll'l' I 1111111 III IIIUI J\1 1111., 'nit ""