ABSTRACT
Without being the object of any specifi c interest in the universe of engineering design, engineering trades have long been thought of in negative terms, contrary to projects, that attract attention both because of their novelty and because of the hopes for rationalization placed in them (Giard and Midler, 1993). In engineering departments, trades are traditionally considered as a reservoir of technical resources that are used more effectively in projects for purposes of optimization (Garel 2003). Up until now, the engineering trades have thus not received a great deal of attention from either decision makers in organizations or management science scholars for at least two reasons. Either they have been seen as the pendant of projects, a resource to be effectively exploited in projects without asking what the production and maintenance dynamic of the resource is (Charue-Duboc and Midler 1998b, 2001); or they have been viewed differently because approaches focusing on innovation have opened up the fi eld by posing questions about the development by companies of the fi elds of knowledge necessary for innovation, whether or not these fi elds of knowledge have anything to do with existing trades. However, during this process of questioning, little interest has been shown in the conditions of production and maintenance of the expertise contained in engineering trades in development phases (Le Masson, Weil, and Hatchuel 2006).
