FCJ-127 Concrete Software: Simondon’s mechanology and the techno-social

This paper proposes to build on Gilbert Simondon’s theory of the concretizationof technological objects and apply the developed theory to the emerging area ofsoftware studies. Simondon’s theory of concretization describes the process of development of technical objects by applying his theory of individuation to the technical sphere. It accounts for their development as a process of the progressive convergenceof separate functional structural units so that this convergence draws them into asingle unit of operation which enhances their overall operation. Although Simondon’s concretization is a powerful tool to account for technical development its concentration on purely technical matters “independent of social demand and the pressure it exerts upon the distribution and modifications of such objects” (Dumouchel 1995) makes it unbalanced. The argument in this paper is that it is not just technical developments which are involved in the concretization process but that we can discern other processes/forces involved, such as cultural, economic, social and material which also become concretized in any technical development. Examples are discussed in relation to financial markets and the Twitter APIs.