Abstract

This thesis examines the weaving practices of the Cercle de Fermières, a century-old community of older women, in light of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Akrich, 1987; Latour, 2006) and feminist theories of technologies (Haraway, 2004; Wajcman, 2007). Who and what is included in this “Cercle?” How do the affordances of technologies and materials contribute to the creation of necessities and forms of interaction within the organization? What happens when both humans (weavers) and non-humans (looms, thread, buildings) actors “age together?” I examine how the dynamic assemblage pertaining to the practice of weaving influences the organizational structure of the Cercle and contributes to the creation of associations and entanglements. Five vignettes describe life at the weaving Cercle and the roles of actors and ageing in this organization. A relational understanding of age and ageing, essential components of this analysis, allows to notice their uneven effects across the assemblage. While ageing has a profound impact on what it means to be a weaver, a centenarian organization or an ageing technology, ANT provides few theoretical tools to comprehend these entangled issues. This is addressed in the discussion section of this thesis. The empirical data comes from interviews and participant observation of two Cercles de Fermières : one in Montreal and one in Baie Saint-Paul. Interviews were conducted with five Fermières, aged 80 years old or more.