Abstract
Based on an ethnographic study in an international petroleum company, this paper shows how a research scientist behind the discovery of groundbreaking new techniques distinguishes himself through his creative skills in formulating working instruments, organizational structures and human relations. The author argues that the more this actor is linked up with his institution, his objects of research, his co-workers, and so on, the more inventive he becomes; and the more inventive he becomes, the more he seemingly distinguishes himself by his singularity as an inventor – a genius who exists beyond social, material and cultural constraints. The author calls this actor the ‘distributed-centred subject’.
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