Our communication focuses on the profound transformations linked to social digitalization
especially in the cultural and the cultural critics fields. We adopt the point of view of a “support
theory” in the digitalization of social practices. The concept of participation allows us to analyze
the dynamics of the inclusion of publics in cultural objects mediation as it happens in the digital
context of cultural recommendation platforms. We focus on tasks and roles re-distribution and
on the dynamics that make this redistribution possible. We analyze two international platforms, Goodreads, using a semiotics and ethnographic method. We study the ways in which
participatory process are textualized and instrumentalized and the dynamics between this
digitalized forms and power relations. Our work focus on the form of list. It is conceived not
only as a form of knowledge organization (as it is traditionally in “SIC”) but also as the principal
form of participatory organization.
Notre proposition interroge les profondes transformations liées à la numérisation des sociétés dans les domaines de la culture et, notamment, de la critique culturelle du point de vue d'une théorie du support d'inscription des pratiques sociales. Le prisme de la participation nous permet de questionner les dynamiques d'intégration des publics à la médiation des biens culturels dans une optique de redistribution des rôles et des pouvoirs ainsi que les processus qui les rendent possibles. Nous appuyant sur une analyse sémiologique et ethnographique d'un corpus de deux plateformes de critique culturelle, Goodreads, nous étudions les diverses modalités de mise en texte et d'instrumentation des processus participatifs et les relations qui se jouent, en contexte numérique, entre formes inscrites et rapports de pouvoir. L'analyse se concentre notamment sur la forme de la liste, étudiée dans son devenir, non plus seulement comme une forme de l'organisation des connaissances, mais surtout comme la forme principale de l'organisation de la participation.
Our communication focuses on the profound transformations linked to social digitalization especially in the cultural and the cultural critics fields. We adopt the point of view of a "support theory" in the digitalization of social practices. The concept of participation allows us to analyze the dynamics of the inclusion of publics in cultural objects mediation as it happens in the digital context of cultural recommendation platforms. We focus on tasks and roles re-distribution and on the dynamics that make this redistribution possible. We analyze two international platforms, Goodreads, using a semiotics and ethnographic method. We study the ways in which participatory process are textualized and instrumentalized and the dynamics between this digitalized forms and power relations. Our work focus on the form of list. It is conceived not only as a form of knowledge organization (as it is traditionally in "SIC") but also as the principal form of participatory organization.