ABSTRACT

The paper mobilises the distinctive notion of ‘sites of qualification’ as a means of providing an expansive understanding of how innovative products are designed, produced and brought to consumer markets. We focus on the development of a new safety product for motorcyclists, the rider airbag, in which inflatable body protection is either incorporated into, or worn underneath, textile jackets and leather suits. The paper follows the airbag’s trajectory across a range of different sites, including lead firms and their territorial settings; MotoGP racetracks, mobile laboratories and professional riders; courts of law; and showroom and archive locations. The paper’s sites of qualification approach expands understandings of innovation by constructing a dialogue between two sets of literatures: actor-network approaches to the qualification of products; and narratives which understand economic innovation as emerging through clusters of agents and firms within industrial districts. The conclusion emphasises that sites of qualification are integral to the ways in which technical products such as the rider airbag are made social.

摘要

本文动员了“资格站点”这一独特概念，作为一种手段来提供对创新产品如何设计，生产和投放到消费者市场的广泛理解。我们专注于为摩托车手开发一种新的安全产品，即乘员安全气囊，该安全气囊将充气式车身保护装置集成在或穿在了纺织夹克和皮革西装内，或穿在其下方。该论文遵循了安全气囊在不同地点的轨迹，包括领头公司及其领土范围；MotoGP赛道，移动实验室和专业车手；法院 以及展示厅和存档位置。本文的资格认证方法的站点通过在两组文献之间建立对话来扩展对创新的理解：行为者网络方法进行产品认证；以及将经济创新理解为通过工业区中的代理商和公司集群出现的叙述。结论强调指出，资格认证网站是使诸如乘员安全气囊之类的技术产品成为社会化产品的必不可少的手段。