On the Analysis of Large Technical Systems

In this article, large technical systems (LTSs) are analyaed from three perspectives. First, the global characteristics of LTSs are emphasized, Second, LTSs are identified as those technical systems that are able to structure social perception of space and time. Finally, LTSs are defined as systems constituted at the interface of several subsystems. These claims are illustrated with several examples. More attention should be devoted to the interaction mechanisms between the various factors that shape the development patterns of LTSs. An approach based on composition of factors is therefore stressed. We were the first to say that in order to represent the new and the future we need totally new words and totally new relations among those words.-Alexei Kruchenykh (1913)i Large technical systems (LTSs) have always been closely interrelated with the type of social organization in which they evolve. These systems, whether they be transport systems such as railways or energy distribution systems such as electricity networks, have exerted and exert a powerful and lasting influence on all levels of organization of modern societies. These systems themselves are also social constructions. They are modeled by existing social forms that shape both their technical structure and their social applications. That is why analyzing the interactions between social forms and technolog-ical systems is a difficult task for which neither the deterministic approach nor the voluntarist approach is wholly satisfactory. In this article, I first propose and discuss a very restricted definition of LTSs. In the second and third parts, by capitalizing on models introduced by Hugh Aitken, I propose to draw more attention to the interaction mechanisms among the various factors that shape the development patterns of LTSs. I