Organization, Information, Maintenance

Information, documents and texts have been regularly studied for their role in organizing, notably as material artifacts and 'immutable mobiles' (Latour). Yet, stability and immutability can not be considered as intrinsic properties for information. As for interactions (Goffman), objects and infrastructures (Graham & Thrift), information is repaired and maintained. We will investigate two domains of information maintenance: the repair practices of juridical documents in bailiffs offices and the maintenance of data in information security departments of several organizations. Each case highlights a specific logic of maintenance: a repair work from backstage and a distributed awareness of material fragilities. In the first logic, the sociomaterial order is regularly rebuilt through specific cure operations. It rests on a boundary between professionals and ordinary people, experts and laypersons. In the second logic, the sociomaterial order is never performed completely. Information is fragile in essence and everyone has to permanently take care of it

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Source Annual Conference of the International Communication Association
Author Denis, Jérôme, Pontille, David
Maintainer CCSD
Last Updated May 22, 2026, 19:12 (UTC)
Created May 22, 2026, 19:12 (UTC)
Identifier halshs-00685026
Language en
Rights https://about.hal.science/hal-authorisation-v1/
contributor Laboratoire Traitement et Communication de l'Information (LTCI) ; Télécom ParisTech-Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] (IMT)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
coverage Boston, United States
creator Denis, Jérôme
date 2011-05-26T00:00:00
harvest_object_id 430476fc-0f24-4049-9c41-d61b5c19b351
harvest_source_id 3374d638-d20b-4672-ba96-a23232d55657
harvest_source_title test moissonnage SELUNE
metadata_modified 2026-01-19T00:00:00
set_spec type:COMM