The Dispositif

PART 1Epistemological Foundations

Introduction to Part 1

As indicated in the general introduction, this first part helps us to understand the concept of the dispositive from its different aspects. Chapter 1 deals with technique, its relationship with humans, science and the notion of efficiency. Chapter 2 highlights the importance of the roles carried out by human actors and of the coordination activities to ensure a collective action within the dispositive. This action can also result from partnership-based configurations. Finally, Chapter 3 is dedicated to the place of discourse in the dispositive. Discourses and teleological documents circulating within operational devices are discussed. This last chapter also makes it possible to present dispositives whose purpose is to produce discourses made available to a public and those who facilitate the realization of collective representations, in particular those of power. Finally, the last dispositives studied move away from realization and have a heuristic aim. They make it possible to produce society models or better understand some social and psychoanalytic mechanisms.