Capital social et enjeux de pouvoir : une perspective socio-politique de l'appropriation d'une technologie de réseaux sociaux au sein d'une collectivité territoriale

Emergent tools 2.0 like social networks technologies or Social Networks Systems (SNS) allow the development of a social capital and facilitate collaboration and innovation through organizations. In an economic and managerial environment where social capital is considered as a prerequisite for the collective action in organization, the introduction of these technologies of Social Networks Systems can be also an opportunity for actors to redistribute the power and the influence between them in the organization. This research study aims to understand how the stakes in power related to the development of the social capital can impact the adoption of SNS tool by actors. Through an Action- Research within a City and based on Bourdieu's theory on the social positions and on Crozier and Friedberg's strategic actor's theory, we identify that the appropriation of social networks technology is primarily a socio-political appropriation in two phases: in the first phase actors discover social capital as a new symbolic capital and in a second phase they use the technology to influence the development of the organizational social capital in order it can serve their own interests. This work highlights also the role played by information systems and particularly social network systems in the development and maintaining of actors' social positions within the organization.