Introduction

What should one think of things? This question is a pressing one, now that Technology Studies has discovered artifacts as the objects of inquiry par excellence. Societies are not only held together by social relations and institutions, as sociologists and anthropologists claim, but by things as well. Technology should be analysed not only in terms of the social processes in which it is constructed, but also in terms of the role it plays in social processes itself.

Within Technology Studies, the predominant vocabulary for understanding the role of artifacts in society is offered by actor-network theory. Bruno Latour, one of its major representatives, maintains that the social sciences’ exclusive focus on humans should be abandoned. The so-called “principle of symmetry” is the most notable feature of Latour's approach, entailing that humans and nonhuman entities should be studied symmetrically. No a priori distinctions should be made between them if we are to understand what is actually happening in society. Not only humans, but also “nonhumans”, or conjunctions of humans and nonhumans, should be understood as actors.

An important concept of actor-network theory for analysing these “thingly actions” is “script”(Akrich 1992). This concept indicates that things-in-use can “prescribe” specific forms of action, much like the script of a theatre play, which orchestrates what happens on stage. A plastic coffee cup, for instance, has the script “throw me away after use”; the cameras along many roads in the Netherlands have the script “don't drive faster than 50 km/h”. Artifacts are not passive and inert entities. They actively co-shape what actors do.

The actor-network vocabulary for understanding this active role of artifacts in society has proven to be very fertile. Yet, it could benefit from several additions. This becomes clear when it is translated into the context of industrial design. Within that discipline, a discussion is currently waging on ecodesign, which aims at finding criteria for designing sustainable products. In this discussion, the Dutch industrial designers association “Eternally Yours” takes an unorthodox stance.

In contrast to the common strategy of trying to reduce pollution in the production, consumption, and waste stages of a product's life cycle, Eternally Yours is looking for ways to enhance product longevity.