The significations of machines

Jannis Kallinikos

Scandinavian Journal of Management, 1992, vol. 8, issue 2, 113-132

Abstract: The article discusses the trade-off between standardization and choice as a central issue that permeates the entire range of questions relating to the instrumental ability of contemporary organizations and institutions. Within this broad context the machine is seen as the main instrument and embodiment of standardization, and the notion of organization as largely consubstantial with the forms assumed by man-machine interaction. An attempt is thus made to open up and deconstruct the physical device known as the machine and to "read" the recurrent means-ends sequences and significations embedded in it. The transition from the tool to the industrial machine, and thence to the automaton and the digital machine is seen as providing the overall trajectory along which the restructuring of man-machine interaction takes place. Given the central position occupied by the digital machine, and the mystification that seems to surround it, much of the article is concerned with the understanding and assessment of this artefact.

Keywords: Signification; semantics; standardization; choice; metonymy; metaphor; disjointedness; unambiguity; finite; differentiation; recursiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1992
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