Information Technology and Socio-Legal Services in France and Belgium: A Paradoxical Architecture?

In 1999, socio-legal services were affected by a broad organizational reform in both France and Belgium. This article explores the meaning and impact of software that became widely used in the wake of these organizational changes. Describing the context of its deployment and its specifications, as well as the visions it generates, we show that this software constitutes a “paradoxical architecture.” While the process of institutionalization and computerization of these administrative units is uncertain and the intrinsic properties of the software remains equivocal, the most important impact of the new software may actually lie in the prospects and potentialities it opens up, and even the illusions it can foster, around which professional identities are restructured.