Comment une organisation peut-elle agir ? Peut-elle être considérée comme un acteur en elle-même ou nécessite-t-elle que d’autres agissent pour elle ? Comment parler de son action sans présumer son existence ? Je voudrais proposer ici une approche proprement communicationnelle à la question de l’action organisationnelle. M’appuyant sur la narratologie de A. J. Greimas pour rendre apparentes certaines des idées centrales de la philosophie de l’individuation, je montre que l’organisation – et tout être social – agit en se faisant attribuer des actions. La philosophie de l’individuation est nécessaire ici pour dériver une théorie de l’action organisationnelle à partir de la manière même dont se constituent les organisations. Cela me permet notamment d’affirmer que l’organisation participe aussi elle-même à ces pratiques d’attribution, car en tant qu’elle existe déjà « plus ou moins et d’une certaine manière », elle appelle des actions particulières. À travers l’imbrication de mandats et de programmes d’actions, dans une logique d’appropriation/attribution, l’organisation peut effectivement agir tout en comptant toujours sur d’autres pour le faire. Nul besoin de s’en remettre à une ontologie essentialiste de l’organisation pour affirmer qu’elle agit elle-même, car il n’y a pas d’opposition entre affirmer que l’organisation agit et que d’autres agissent pour elle. En fait, loin de s’opposer, ces deux affirmations s’impliquent mutuellement. Les pratiques d’attribution sont nécessaires pour agir légitimement – il faut toujours agir pour autre que soi – mais aussi pour agir tout court, car la logique même de la propriété d’action, donc de pouvoir dire que ceci est mon action, suppose que l’action ne soit jamais tout à fait mienne. Les conséquences de cette proposition sur les questions de pouvoir et d’éthique sont brièvement abordées. En observant quatre terrains distincts, j’ancre cette proposition théorique dans l’empirique. Ces terrains sont une association de locataires, un projet de réforme d’un grand établissement d’enseignement français, quelques événements dans la vie d’un gestionnaire de gratte-ciel de New York et une réunion entre des représentants de Médecins sans frontières et des administrateurs de santé congolais. Compte tenu de la nature théorique de ma proposition, cette variété de terrains permet de montrer l’utilité de ces idées à l’étude d’une diversité de situations. / How can an organization act? Can it be considered as an actor in itself or does it need others to act on its behalf? How is it possible to address these questions without presupposing the organization? I would like to put forward a specifically communicational approach to the question of organizational action. Borrowing from A. J. Greimas’ narratology to make salient some of individuation philosophy’s most central ideas, I show that the organization – and any ‘social’ being – acts by being attributed actions. Individuation philosophy is necessary to derive a theory of organizational action from the very manner organizations are constituted. This allows me, among other things, to suggest that organizations themselves also play a part in attribution practices, for inasmuch as they exist “more or less and in a certain way”, they call for further actions. Through the imbrication of mandates and of programs of actions, in a logic of appropriation/attribution, the organization can act by always relying on others to do so. There is no need to invoke an essentialist ontology of organization to state that it acts by itself, for there is no opposition between stating that the organization acts and that others act for it. In fact, far from opposing, both statements imply each other. Practices of attribution are necessary for legitimate action – I must always act for someone other than myself – but also for acting at all. In other words, to be able to say that this is my action, I need this action not to be entirely my own. The consequences of this proposal on questions of power and ethics are also briefly considered. I provide my theoretical discussion with a firm empirical grounding through the study of four different fields. I analyse audio and video recordings from a tenants association, the reform project of a French higher education institution, events from the daily work of a New York skyscraper manager and a meeting between Doctors without border representatives and Congolese health administrators. Given the theoretical nature of my proposal, this variety of empirical data allows me to show the usefulness of those ideas to the study of a large array of situations. / Thèse réalisée en cotutelle entre le Département de communication de l'Université de Montréal (sous la direction de François Cooren)et le Centre de sociologie des organisation de Sciences Po Paris (Institut d'études politiques de Paris; sous la direction de Bruno Latour).

[pt] O presente estudo teve como objetivo compreender, à luz da ANTi-History, como ocorreram os processos de constituição de lugares de memória de resistência de dois espaços físicos usados pela polícia política durante a ditadura civil-militar brasileira: os prédios do DEOPS/SP e do DOPS/RJ. Ao investigar o como relacionado à trajetória de cada espaço e da rede inter-organizacional constituída a partir da análise conjunto dos dois processos, foi possível trazer à tona toda a complexidade de disputas, negociações e movimentações, antes subjacentes, tornando transparentes as relações sociopolíticas dos diversos atores envolvidos, bem como a performatividade do contexto. A investigação dos processos de transformação dos espaços de violência, cuja ordenação dos vestígios encontrados permitiu a elaboração de narrativas históricas, evidenciou a característica dinâmica e contingente de um sociopast formado por atores-rede. Por seu caráter relacional e perfil crítico-emancipatório, a teórico-metodologia ANTi-History tornou possível identificar as conexões de forma posicionada e localizada, dissonante da hegemonia positivista e das histórias universais, permitindo que as movimentações sociopolíticas dos atores se tornassem visíveis ao remover o aparente véu de simplicidade de um status quo binário. Os lugares de memória servem ao propósito orientacionista do dever de memória ao submeter o passado a uma consciência reflexiva. São medidas concretas, instrumentos de suporte de memória que ao se tornarem visíveis sob a forma de organizações, como centros de memória ou memoriais, reivindicam o reconhecimento dos acontecimentos do passado e das vivências dos sobreviventes, criando referências para as gerações futuras com a necessária autocrítica com os erros do passado. / [en] This study aimed to understand, in the light of ANTi-History, how the constitution processes of sites of memory of resistance occurred in two physical spaces used by the political police during the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship: the buildings of DEOPS/SP and DOPS/RJ. By investigating the how related to the trajectory of each space and the inter-organizational network constituted from the joint analysis of the two processes, it was possible to bring to light all the complexity of disputes, negotiations, and movements previously underlying, making transparent the sociopolitical relations of the various actors involved, as well as the performativity of the context. The investigation of the transformation processes of the spaces of violence, performed by ordering the traces found, allowed the elaboration of alternatives historical narratives and evidenced the dynamic and contingent characteristic of a sociopast formed by network-actors. By its relational and critical-emancipatory facets, the ANTi-History approach made it possible to identify the connections in a positioned way, dissonant from the positivist mainstream hegemony and universal histories, allowing the actors sociopolitical movements to become visible by removing the apparent veil of simplicity of a binary status quo. Sites of memory serve the orientationist purpose of the duty of memory by subjecting the past to a reflexive consciousness. They are concrete measures, instruments of memory support that by becoming visible in the form of organizations, such as memory centers or memorials, claim recognition of the events of the past and the experiences of survivors, creating references for future generations with the necessary self-critique with the mistakes of the past.

This master thesis has examined a user’s capabilities to utilize the Swedish national web archive Kulturarw³ for research purposes. The aim was also to identify any potential areas of improvement in the user’s capabilities working with Kulturarw³. The research questions are: 1. How does Kulturarw³ operate? 2. What are the main factors which affect Kulturarw³ structure and function? 3. What capabilities exist for researchers and students to utilize Kulturarw³ for their research? Are there any potential areas of improvement to the web archives user capabilities? The author has analyzed the web archive altogether using institutional theory in organization studies. The analysis has been loosely structured after Staffan Furusten’s model of the outside world in using institutional theory in organization studies. The purpose of this is to explain why the web archive looks the way it does today. An understanding of the web archive will better illuminate why any potential areas of improvement identified may or may not be possible for KW3 to implement. The author has conducted email interviews, in-person interviews as well as digital interviews with the staff responsible for working with Kulturarw³ at the Swedish National Library, Kungliga biblioteket. A draft of guidelines concerning Kulturarw³ from Kungliga biblioteket and a video-interview at Internetmuseum with one of the the founders of the web archive has also been used as source-material for this master thesis. The author concluded that Kulturarw³ is a national web archive with a long history. Its functions and limitations are complex. Kulturarw³s operation has changed greatly throughout its lifetime because of the surrounding environment. Several main factors which affect Kulturarw³ were identified. Several Swedish laws, international charters and initiatives, collaborations between and relations to other web archives, use of open-source software and digitalization’s impact on Kulturarw³ is discussed in detail. Kulturarw³'s long history of archiving the Swedish web makes it a valuable and plentiful source for research. Its collections and functions should be sufficient for anyone to conduct qualitative research. Yet at the current moment, the web archive is too inaccessible to live up to user’s expectations. That makes it an unviable option for research purposes. Unfortunately, there is not a lot Kulturarw³ can currently change to make it more assessable. The lack of information readily available also hinders users from using the web archive at max efficiency. There is a lot of opportunities for KB to better inform its users of its value and capabilities. An increased collaboration with Swedish research institutions would also benefit both researchers and the web archive in the long run.