(Mémoire original d'Habilitation à diriger des recherches) La construction sociale des mythes sociotechnologiques. Cas d'étude du mythe de l'immortalité numérique
Fanny Georges · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2023
To make culture, technology needs language, and it is through myth that technology becomes naturalized in culture. This thesis constitutes an original work on the process of social co-construction of sociotechnological myths in Information and Communication Sciences (SIC), in a sociosemiotic approach by anchored theorization of emerging phenomena. The objective is to contribute to the development of an analytical device to think about (1) the social construction of sociotechnological myths and (2) the academic ethics of the analytical models used to teach and train in digital technology. The situated approach in SIC operates through the qualitative analysis of the modeling of emergent phenomena (Paillé and Mucchielli, 2012, p. 250). The study of myths has mainly been developed from the study of social mediations in CIS. In this framework, the approach of sociotechnological myths is defined as the study of their process of social construction, leading to the naturalization of technologies and certain conceptual syntagms. Elements of conceptualization and method are proposed to organize the study of the process of mythification of technologies in society. Mythopoiesis, process of co-construction of the myth by recovery, reification, nebulization and mythopic assignment. During this process a mythical inversion occurs which marks naturalization and mythification. The first chapter presents the question of the ethical issues of the naturalization of technologies in social life in CIS (chapter 1). The state of research on myths as sociodiscursive mediations makes it possible to define the conceptual framework of the sociotechnological myth (chapter 2). A conceptual device for studying this process is proposed to analyze the production, recovery and transformation of the meaning (or mythopoiesis) of sociotechnological concepts into myths (chapter 3). The conceptual device is exemplified and implemented by studying the signifier "digital immortality" (chapter 4). Chapter 5 presents avenues for pursuing this study. The conclusion presents avenues for reflection on the place of myth in contemporary existence.