On Time, Space, and Action Nets

Abstract

Laboratory studies, especially those by Latour and Woolgar (1979/1986) and Knorr Cetina (1981) have proved to be an invaluable source of inspiration for students of organizing. Laboratories, however, are primarily reminiscent of simple factories, an organization form that is no longer central in today’s world of work organizations. Two aspects of factory-like organizing are problematized in this paper: the dominance of chronological time and the existence of centers of calculation. Complementing these aspects with kairotic time and dispersed calculation will bring the two types of studies even closer. Such a rapprochement will allow for the adjustment of methodological approaches in studies of organization in a way similar to that dominant in SST (studies of science and technology) research. Two such changes are suggested: the study of action nets rather than organizations as study objects, which require the reversal of the time perspective; and the use of mobile ethnologies, facilitating study of the life and work of people who move around a great deal.