Study of technical condition through the notions of “functioning relationship” and “appropriation” of technical elements

Abstract

[EN] In this work we propose a study of technical condition, understood as the instrumental subsidiary capacity of the human being to alter their world environment, from themselves and for themselves, by introducing the notions of “functioning relationship” and “appropriation” of technical elements within this relationship. The functioning relationship expresses the intertwining between the body and the environment through the network of functionings that are realisable in this environment. Realisation of functionings can be influenced by the presence of barriers or facilitators. Appropriation of technical elements takes into consideration this influence and expresses the significant presence of such elements in the functioning relationship through the effectiveness of their technical action on effective realisation of the functionings. We will pay attention to a broad notion of prosthesis and its restricted expression in the difference between the processes known as “incorporation” and “extension”, linked to the use of external tools. We will show the possibility of considering these two processes jointly in the notion of appropriation, referring to each technical element, prosthesis, and tool within the structure of the functioning relationship. As an implicit process in this relationship we consider, based on appropriation of technical elements, the process of transference of their technical action to the environment and modification of this environment upon integrating these elements and their actions into it as transformations of its material culture.