Assemblage-in-the-making: developing the e-services for the justice of the peace office in Italy

This chapter tells the story of an ICT project that was set up within the context of the Italian judiciary and of the dynamics involved in the implementation of the project. As the description demonstrates, viable solutions adopted during the running of the project could not be determined ex-ante. They had to be constructed through the interaction of a multiplicity of actors attempting to shape, assemble and tune technological, normative and organisational elements. The focus is on technological development 'in action' in order to emphasise the fact that technology design, or rather the activity of assembling technological and institutional components, can be better understood through its practice and not as an abstract, disembodied phenomenon. The concept of assemblage-in-the-making allows to capture, in a distinctive manner, the dynamics observed in this case. It stresses the idea of 'becoming' while pointing to the controversial, ephemeral, and experimental character of both cognitive and practical activities underlying the creation of the assemblage.