Paper long abstract:

The paper discusses the problem of safe working of large technical systems (LTS) and questions what are the principles of "operating and living together" of heterogeneous communities. It argues that personal interactions between humans, nature, and technology are ultimate for the sustainable working of socio-technical systems.

The paper presents some results from an ethnographic case study carried out in one of the biggest hydro-energy systems in Bulgaria, that of "Kardzhali dam". In order to make clear how an 'intersubjective' (or inter-actantial) space between humans and non-humans is being formed and how it could bring a sustainable functioning of the dam, the paper explores the micro layer of actors' interactions, i.e. the co-existence in everyday life. Particularly, it is focused on the experience of the dam's chief Ivan Delchev who has spent in diligent work over 40 years (most of his life and the whole life of the dam), living with the technology. Such long lasting dwelling in common space and time brings to the forming of specific "heterogeneous coupling" (Tchalakov 2004), in which caring of Other (non-human) could not be explain just as "trials of strengths" (Latour 1988).

Searching for pathways for possible dialog between Actor-Network Theory, phenomenology (Schutz, Levinas), and contemporary french philosophy (Serres, Nancy), the analysis reveals in what way "growing together" with technology and "feeling its own rhythm and its own breathing", in the words of the dam's chief, have a crucial contribution to the safe operation of the whole hydroelectric system.