Towards an Ecology of Time: Revisiting Simondon’s Genetic Method

This article explores the methodological dimension of Gilbert Simondon’s technical thought, focusing on the ‘genetic method’ he introduced to analyse the evolution of technical objects. While holding significant promise, this approach has been largely underutilized, a fact that can be attributed to its perceived tensions with dominant social constructivist perspectives and even with his own theory of individuation. To address these tensions, this article situates Simondon’s method within a broader intellectual context and weaves together his theory of evolution and invention with insights from George Kubler and Alfred Gell on the succession of artifacts, thereby developing an ‘ecology of time’. This framework, characterized by both its operational viability for empirical inquiry and its fidelity to Simondon’s original project, holds the potential to render his profound insights more accessible to a wider scholarly audience and to catalyse new reverberations between his technical thought and our contemporary technical realities.