Le déploiement de la low-tech : une nouvelle forme de diffusion par expansion de l'exploration

The french low-tech movement is looking for a way to scale up through a profusion of initiatives. The importance of technical artefacts suggests that the diffusion of low-tech objects should be studied as a way of scaling up the movement. The literature on the diffusion of innovations points to certain incompatibilities between low-tech and the usual frameworks, opening the door to original forms of diffusion. The literature on low-tech and similar innovations outlines various forms of scaling up, in particular by questioning the interactions between the object and its environment during its diffusion. Through a qualitative case study of the diffusion of a solar oven, we will show that diffusion by replication of objects is relatively low in the cases studied. A second form of scaling up, a priori appropriate to the values of low-tech, is also studied: diffusion by replication of small production capacities with design margins. This second form also suffers from limitations. We will be highlighting a third form of scaling up, which encourages the expansion of the exploration of the unknowns associated with the object and its environment.