The Dispositif

5Data, Activity Traces and the Dispositive

In a society where the notion of access is replacing the notion of ownership (Rifkin, 2000), secondary information dispositives play a central role. Today, documentary dispositives are built and structured universes, which underlie an intellectual organization, a material arrangement, signage, divisions, namely implemented knowledge (Gardiès, 2012b, p. 120).

It is in this context that Viviane Couzinet developed the concept of secondary information dispositives. The library is a typical illustration of these dispositives that include primary and secondary documents. The former are documents containing an original content (such as a book, a journal, a blog, etc.). This primary document can generate derivative documents, especially the creation of an identification sheet, which will be integrated into a catalogue representing a collection of primary documents. For example, a series of books can result in the creation of a catalogue or a bibliography. The sheet, the catalogue and the bibliography are secondary documents, facilitating the identification of original documents. Libraries give access to primary documents and also provide catalogues which make it possible to identify and locate documents in the library space. Likewise, bookshops have catalogues of their products that indicate and highlight some products, especially novelties.

By secondary information dispositives, Viviane Couzinet refers to spaces which indicate the existence ...