Requalifier pour défaire
This article examines the process of withdrawal of a technological innovation policy through the analysis of the flexible qualifications of the objects of innovation. Opposing widely-held views on the shutdown of Superphénix, it provides a new understanding of the trajectory of the fast neutron nucl...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | fra |
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Société d'Anthropologie des Connaissances
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/rac/32675 |
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| Summary: | This article examines the process of withdrawal of a technological innovation policy through the analysis of the flexible qualifications of the objects of innovation. Opposing widely-held views on the shutdown of Superphénix, it provides a new understanding of the trajectory of the fast neutron nuclear reactor in France from the 1950s to the 1990s. The reactors designed in the 1960s and 1970s, in the delicate balance between science and industrialization, were flexibly qualified as demonstrators or prototypes. In 1992, the Superphénix “prototype” was requalified as a “knowledge acquisition facility”. This entailed open evaluations considering the very purpose of the facility, which contributed to the process of withdrawal. It is argued that requalification as an open epistemic object is a decisive step in bringing a major technological programme to a halt. |
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| ISSN: | 1760-5393 |