The Institutionalization of Knowledge in an Automotive Factory: Templates, Inscriptions, and the Problem of Durability
基于对一家新建汽车厂的质性研究，运用铭刻—委托模型分析技术知识如何通过模板的书写、执行和再生产逐步制度化，并探讨这一过程中出现的脆弱性与持久性问题。
This paper focuses on the process of institutionalization of technical and organizational knowledge in the work setting. Drawing on a rich qualitative study, we apply an inscription—delegation model to the analysis of knowledge dynamics in a greenfield automotive plant. In particular, we depict knowledge institutionalization as a recursive process that involves the progressive writing, enactment and reproduction of a generative template or code within a stable medium. We first reconstruct the chain of transformations by which agency and knowledge are embedded into a variety of technical and organizational artifacts, leading to the creation of a cognitive and institutional order. We then focus on the frictions and tensions that can emerge in the transformations, and we discuss problems of vulnerability and durability that may arise in the maintenance and reproduction of such order.