Quand un artefact present-absent conduit au conflit identitaire

This paper focuses on the role of artifacts in the identity construction process. The influence of materiality on identity has been relatively little studied. Research has focused primarily on the symbolic dimension of artifacts and rarely considers the issue of artifact absence. However, according to Lefebvre (1980), presence and absence are never absolute. An extension of his work leads to an interest in artifact absences that produce organizational effects also referred to as present-absent artifacts. In order to contribute to the materiality of absence and better understand identity formation, we propose to investigate the case of an organization in the process of creation. Following an ethnographic approach, our analyses reveal the effects of a present-absent artifact, a physical platform present in many documents but which does not physically exist during the period studied. Our analysis shows how presence-absence first leads to the emergence of an activity that imposes itself over time as a new identity through reinforcing effects. It creates tensions with regard to the identity desired by the founders embodied in the present artifact absent until the conflict.