In search of a unit of analysis for designing instruments

Pascal Beguin (1, 2)

1 SADAPT - Sciences pour l'Action et le Développement : Activités, Produits, Territoires
2 CRTD - Centre de recherche sur le travail et le développement

A welcome topic of the new journal Artifact is to promote as a distinct academic field the transdisciiplinary approaches centered on design research. One of the conditions for such a transdisciplinary approach is that the differents actors recognize the specificity of the contribution of other ac tors and the complementary nature of their respective productions. In this essay, i will argue that the different contributions of experts in design must be completed by users' constructive activity. More particularly, my focus is to search for a unit analysis that help to build shared references between users asnd designers. I will proceed in two steps. In the first , i will suggest that an instrument cannot be confused with artifact, and that it is the user or the worker who gives to an artifact the status of and instrument. In a second step i will describe the design process as a dialogical process in the Bakhtinien sense. I will conclude with comments on "what is an artifact ?"

Mots clés: DIALOGISM; INSTRUMENTAL GENISIS; INSTRUMENT

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Pascal Beguin. In search of a unit of analysis for designing instruments. Artifact, 2007, vol. 1 (n° 1), pp. 12-16. ⟨10.1080/17493460600610830⟩. ⟨hal-01197761⟩