Installation Theory

Saadi Lahlou is Chair in Social Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, in the department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, of which he was formerly Head. Trained initially as a statistician and economist, then a student of Serge Moscovici, he developed methods in large surveys, text mining, participative design and digital ethnography. Lahlou directed the Consumer Research department of the Centre for Lifestyles and Social Policies (Crédoc, Paris), the Laboratory of Design for Cognition at EDF R&D (a whole building instrumented as a living lab), and was a member of the board of the Commissariat Général du Plan (French Prime Minister's office). He has written over 150 papers, books and published reports.

• 1. Installation: a synthetic theory to explain how humans construct systems that support and format individual behaviour; 2. The problem of human action and the problem of social regulation: two sides of the same coin; 3. Theoretical frameworks grounding installation theory; 4. The structure of installations; 5. Endurance of installations: the reconstructive cycle of practice; 6. Selection mechanisms in societal evolution: two cases, science and industry; 7. The evolution of installations; 8. Redesigning installations to change behaviour; 9. Conclusion; 10. References cited.

'Installation Theory: an impressive, powerful synthesis and a bold, wide-encompassing theory that any social scientist will need to consider.' Claude Fischler, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris