When technology derails: Train drivers put to the test of an unpredictable material agency
Résumé
In this paper, we make use of the trial notion to conceptualize how actors react when they face technologies that constrain their actions and prevent them to reach their goals. We offer an empirical illustration of several reactions of train drivers confronted to a non-flexible technology, a beacon speed control device aimed at regulating their behaviour. Based on these illustrations, we show that the use of the trial notion can help us extend Leonardi’s imbrication framework by explaining how sociomaterial imbrications evolve when altering the contraining technology is not possible.