The active role of instruments in articulating knowing and knowledge: the case of animal qualification practices in breeding organisations

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of instruments defined as artefacts, rules, models or norms, in the articulation between knowing-in-practice an knowledge, in learning processes. The paper focuses on a particuar activity: qualification of ewes in the breeding sector. It is based on observation and practice-based studies. The study of instruments used in daily practices allows us to go beyond the dichotomy between opposite types of knowledge, i.e. scientific knowledge seen as a stock and sensible knowledge seen as purely tacit and equated to non-instrumental practices. The paper complements more classical practice-based approaches by proposing a new perspective of instruments in learning processes, which is to particular relevance where power is diffuse.