Madeleine Akrich
Madeleine Akrich
Madeleine Akrich is director of the Centre for the Sociology of Innovation at MINES ParisTech. She has devoted most of her work to the sociology of technology, with a specific focus on users. She has sought to further understanding of how innovators, designers and promoters of technical devices construct representations of targeted users and, by inscribing those representations in the technical and organizational choices that they make, produce 'scenarios' which frame possible relations between users and devices. She has also studied the way in which users appropriate technologies and in which those technologies redefine their relations with their environment. In the past few years her work has primarily concerned medicine. In collaboration with Bernike Pasveer she compared obstetrical practices in France and the Netherlands. She is currently working with Cécile Méadel on research on Internet discussion groups in the health field (patient groups, professional groups). She also coordinates with Vololona Rabeharisoa a European project, EPOKS, on patient's organizations and governance of knowledge. Her recent books include the co-authored book 'The dynamics of patient organizations in Europe' (Presses de l'Ecole des Mines, 2008) and 'Sociologie de la traduction. Textes fondateurs' (with M. Callon and B. Latour, Presses des Mines de Paris, 2006).
Centre de sociologie de l'innovation
MINES ParisTech
UMR CNRS 7185
60 bd saint Michel
75006 Paris
France
