terms of use

introduction Bruno Latour, a Professor at Sciences Po, has received a research grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for the purpose of exploring and proposing a new description of what is meant by the phrase to modernize. This new description is presented in the book Enquête sur les modes d'existence (An Inquiry into Modes of Existence) and on the digital platform that accompanies the printed publication. Many of the formulations proposed in the book would benefit from being critiqued, verified or reformulated in order to observe a) whether they correspond to shareable experience, and b) whether other, improved formulations of the proposals might be possible. Your participation in this project means that you agree to take part in this philosophical and diplomatic exercise and that you are prepared to share your experiences, your contributions and your criticisms with a view to these disagreements being published (in the form of booklets, websites and/or installations, depending on the progress of the investigation and decisions made by mediators). (For more information, see the Project Description page). Our site, AIME (property of the National Foundation of Political Science, referred to hereinafter as FNSP) intends to develop and maintain an online community willing to continue the investigation initiated by the printed book, and to give each visitor the opportunity, notably, to publish information, videos, pictures, sound clips and to recommend sites or web pages in the Proposition Environment space (and the forthcoming Reaction Environment). It is in this context that AIME welcomes you to the website, which has been designed as a space for the flow of information and the exchange of views. It is open to all those who have previously registered with our website.

You can contribute to our service, as defined below, by submitting comments, articles, videos, links, etc, with the proviso that you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use and on the condition that AIME reserves the right to update and modify contributions, if necessary. Any participation in the life of our community website assumes acceptance of these Terms of Use.

You can see the most recent version of these Terms of Use at any moment, on this page. In the case of modifications to the Terms of Use, the amended version will automatically apply eight (8) days after publication.Each of the expressions listed below will have the following meanings in these Terms of Use: « User » and/or « You » refers to the physical person who has subscribed to or uses the Service, and who thereby accepts these Terms.

- « AIME »: A project entitled An Inquiry Into Modes of Existence, created under the aegis of the FNSP as legal entity.

- « Site » refers to the AIME website accessible at http://www.modesofexistence.org and which, thereafter, might be made accessible at any other address and in any other format.

- « Contribution(s) » means all components (images, sounds, text, graphics, video, etc) produced, digitized and delivered by You for publication on the Site.

- « Commentaire(s) » means any comment posted on the Site by a user in response to content, including contributions.

- « Service(s) » means all of the features and tools enabling each user to upload, share and reference contributions and to make comments on them via his/her personal space.

purpose These Terms of Use are intended to define the conditions under which you may benefit from the Service and use the Site. Any subscriptions to the Service and use of the Service, are subject to compliance with these Terms. By signing up and/or using the Service, the User acknowledges having read these Terms of Use and having accepted them without restriction or reservation. The Terms of Use constitute a contract between the User and FNSP.

registration Any person can join and contribute to AIME, provided they are aged 13 years or older. If you are a minor aged 13 to 18 years, you acknowledge and confirm that you have permission from your legal representative (parent or other persons holding parental authority) to use the Service. As a result, the legal representative (i) agrees to guarantee compliance with all provisions of these Terms of Use, and (ii) acknowledges his/her responsibility, particularly with regard to the fact that the service is accessible to all, to remain vigilant and take all necessary measures to monitor the use made by the minor for whom he/she has responsibility and to provide appropriate advice when the minor uses our service. We recommend that all parents and/or guardians read the following guidelines for the protection of children on the Internet: http://www.microsoft.com/security/family-safety/childsafety-age.aspx

To be registered, users must provide up to date personal details and accurate information. Your personal account will be accessible via a personal ID and confidential password of your choice that you alone, at any time, have the right to modify. Accordingly, You agree not to use a pseudonym or email address that might infringe the rights of third parties (including use of surnames, pseudonyms, use of another's trade name, or works protected by copyright and/or related rights) in any capacity whatsoever, and regardless of the basis for such use. Entering the username and password of the user is proof of connection to the « Proposition Environment » space. Both ID and password are strictly personal and confidential. The User will be requested to provide them every time he/she connects to the « Proposition Environment » space.

They should not be disclosed or shared with third parties. The User guarantees also that his username and password will not be automatically saved by the browser. Failing that, the User confirms that he is solely responsible, in respect of AIME and/or any other person (physical or legal), for the use of his username and password by third parties or actions or statements made by intermediaries under his username.

In order to ensure the site's security and to protect AIME's information system, and to avoid fraudulent use by unauthorized persons, Users' passwords must be composed of at least six characters (including special characters, symbols, etc). The user will be prompted to change passwords regularly.

After accessing his account, the User must disconnect from it by clicking the « Logout » button in order to prevent unauthorized use of it. In this respect, AIME requires the User to be vigilant, especially when connecting to his account from public computers (in cafes, libraries, universities, etc).

AIME reserves the right to refuse registration if it finds, or is informed of, a clear violation of third party rights to this effect or that inaccurate information has been provided in any capacity whatsoever and regardless of the particular field in the registration form to which the violation pertains.

Access and use The User confirms that he has the necessary competence and resources to access and use the Site. You confirm that you have verified that the computer configuration used to access the site does not contain any computer viruses or malicious programs and that it is in perfect working order. Each user is required to take all appropriate measures to protect his own data and software from contamination by viruses or malicious programs. AIME makes every effort to provide users with functional and verified information and tools. However, AIME cannot be held liable for errors, unavailable information or the presence of computer viruses on the Site. The Site's built-in functions and data are not guaranteed against interruption or operating errors. The user shall bear the costs should there be a need to engage services, repairs or corrections as a result of using the Site.

While the user will be given access to the Service free of charge, it must be noted that the entire cost of connecting and communicating on the Internet necessary to access and use the Service remain the responsibility of the user, as well as all costs related to contributions made on the site.

Contributor content, comments and behavior When you submit your contribution and/or comment, you expressly acknowledge and agree to the following conditions:

a) You are the owner or the copyright owner and/or have the necessary copyright-related approvals or other intellectual and/or industrial property rights related to your contribution and/or comment and any audiovisual, musical, or other works of art included by you in your Contribution and/or Comment. You authorize AIME to use the Contribution and/or comment and to include it in the Service based on the terms set out in these Terms of Use.

b) You have the prior written permission of each identifiable person in Your Contribution and/or Comment to use their names and/or images and/or voices, for the purpose of posting to the Service with a view to the contributions being used according to the terms set out in these Terms of Use. Generally speaking, you confirm that you have the necessary authority and approvals, of whatever type, regarding the Contribution and/or Comment.

c) You must not transmit Contributions and/or Comments that contain any illegal components, including but not restricted to racist, anti-Semitic, offensive and/or abusive content which might amount to harassment or defamation and you agree, in general terms, to abide by public order and third party rights. AIME reserves the right to suspend at any time the publication of any Submissions and/or Comments should the above obligations not be respected. In the absence of conclusive demonstration of the User's compliance with these Terms, and in accordance with « AIME's Responsibilities », AIME reserves the right to remove any Contribution or Comment without notice or other formal procedure.

AIME reserves the right to suspend at any time the publication of any Submissions and/or Comments should the above obligations not be respected. In the absence of conclusive demonstration of the User's compliance with these Terms, and in accordance with « AIME's Responsibilities », AIME reserves the right to remove any Contribution or Comment without notice or other formal procedure.

Submission of contributions to AIME You may publish a Contribution on the Site, on any issue, by submitting your contribution to the AIME team.

All content submitted by you will be subject to validation or screening by us in order to verify that the contribution complies with these Terms of Use and the Site's Code of Ethics.

Publication of your contributions and comments It is understood that You provide your Contributions and/or Comments free of charge and that their publication online does not entitle you to any remuneration; You expressly agree to this. Contributions and/or Comments submitted to AIME remain your property, solely and entirely. Without prejudice to the previous statements, and in order that your Contribution and/or Comments be posted on the Site, you grant the necessary permissions to AIME with regard to the following uses: - Reproduction and use of your Contribution and/or Comment in whole or in part, its inclusion and availability to the public via the Site, with or without other texts and/or content, as well as its public availability in all formats or communication media known or as yet unknown. - Adaptation and translation rights for the purposes of the project, and in accordance with rights referred to above. - the right to grant sub-licenses to third parties with regard to your Contribution and/or Comment, be that free of charge or in return for payment;

This waiver is provided freely, worldwide, and for the duration of legal protections, dating from the online publication of content on the site.

Contributions and/or Comments may be published by AIME, on any page of the Site.

It is specified that should there be any doubt about your authorization to publish your Contribution and/or Comment, AIME may ask you for supporting evidence and suspend publication of the Contribution and/or Comment pending your reply. Similarly, AIME will delete from the Site, at its discretion, and at any time, all content likely to lead to the Site being in breach of its compliance with these Terms and in order to assure the proper functioning of the Site.

AIME may reference all or part of your Contribution and/or Comment in order to facilitate storage management and access. Moreover, given the interactive nature of the Internet, you are informed that your Contribution and/or Comments may be presented in different contexts associated with other works, or used in part; You declare that you accept these terms.

You are informed that the storage of Contributions and/or Comments necessitates automatic compression and encoding of all or part of the elements of your Contribution and/or Comment, and that storage of certain elements of your content (eg videos) can sometimes lead to an intrinsic degradation of quality. Consequently, you accept and assume full responsibility for this, with reference also to third parties. AIME will nevertheless make all efforts to ensure distribution of your Contributions and/or Comments in optimal quality.

AIME reserves the right to republish your Contribution and/or Comment on any other service or format operated by AIME, whether in print or digitally. It is understood that this new publication does not give rise to any right to remuneration and You expressly agree to this.

Online publication of your comments You are solely responsible for the posting of comments. AIME does not provide any prior moderation or control of any kind, provided that you comply strictly with the provisions of these Terms.

For the record, in the absence of such compliance, AIME reserves the right to suspend and/or delete comments found to be in violation of these Terms, according to the conditions described above.

Personal data In accordance with the provisions of French Law No. 78-17, 6 January 1978, relating to data, files and rights, the automated processing of personal data obtained via the site is the subject of a declaration made to the National Commission for Information Technology and Rights (CNIL), number 1479813.



Automatic processing of personal data obtained via the website is carried out in accordance with the requirements of law No. 78-17, 6 January 1978, relating to computers, files and rights.



Information likely to be collected, based on the strict requirements of the AIME project, may be personal or sensitive in nature (Article 8 of Law No. 78-17, 6 January 1978).



Processing of personal data is carried out for scientific, technical and management purposes in accordance with legal and safety requirements. The purpose of this processing is to gain from the User, via the Site, critical content and enhancements to the book on which the AIME project is based..



By accepting these Terms, you are deemed to have read and therefore to consent expressly to the processing of sensitive personal data that you will have provided to the National Foundation of Political Science via your participation in AIME.



The user is informed that, in accordance with Article 32 of Law No. 78-17, 6 January 1978 relating to computers, files and rights, information communicated through forms present on the site are for the use of the National Foundation of Political Sciences, as controller, as well as its partners and service-providers, for administrative and academic purposes (such as the dissemination of results and grades, career- and donation-tracking, grant awards, student disabilities, enrollment with library services, newsletter services), and for the purposes of research and statistical analysis and IT support.



The User is informed that he has a right to access, query and modify information provided, allowing, if needs be, for the rectification, completion, updating, blocking or deleting of personal data that are inaccurate, incomplete, ambiguous, outdated or whose collection, use, disclosure or storage is prohibited.



Users also have the right to oppose the processing of their data for legitimate reasons as well as the right to object to these data being used for marketing purposes.



A full statement of rights can be obtained, by post, from the National Foundation of Political Sciences (on presentation of a photocopy of a signed identity document). Requests should be made to the following address:



Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques

27, rue Saint Guillaume 75337 Paris Cedex 07

+33 1 45 49 85 96



Or via the following email address:



contact [at] modesofexistence [dot] org



The personal data collected on this site by the National Foundation of Political Sciences are subject to processing in France.

Users of this website must comply with legal provisions relating to data, files and rights, the violation of which is punishable by law.

They must refrain, notably, from collecting or misusing any personal information accessed and, generally speaking, refrain from committing any acts likely to constitute an infringement of the privacy or reputation of individuals.



The User is informed that during visits to the site, a cookie may be automatically installed on their browser. A cookie is a data block that does not identify the user, however, the cookie stores information about your browsing on the Site (pages you consult, date and time of consultation, etc). The National Foundation of Political Sciences will be able to read this information during your next visit.



- Browser settings allow the User to be informed of the presence of cookies and to decide whether to accept them or not (see instructions below).

- The cookie indirectly collects personal information concerning the User. The User has the right to consult, withdraw and modify information collected.



You can choose not to accept cookies by configuring your browser as follows:



Mozilla Firefox:- Choose the ‘Tools‘ menu then ‘Options‘- Click ‘Privacy‘- Find the ‘Cookies‘ menu and select your preferred option



Microsoft Internet Explorer:- Choose the ‘Tools‘ menu then ‘Internet Options‘.- Click the ‘Confidentiality‘ tab- Select the desired level using the cursor



Google Chrome:- Click on the Google Chrome menu in the browser's toolbar.- Select ‘Settings‘.- Click ‘Show Advanced Settings‘.- In the ‘Privacy‘ section, click the Content Settings button.- In the ‘Cookies‘ section, select your preferred options







The shelf life of information stored on your computer is 6 months.



The use of cookies is optional but recommended. You can still object to their presence and reject and delete them. To this end, consult the help files of your browser.





Intellectual property rights The Site is protected by current legislation on intellectual property rights and international conventions.

Databases contained on the AIME website, produced by the National Foundation of Political Science, are protected by the provisions of the Act of 1 July 1998 transposing into the Intellectual Property Code the European Directive of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases.

The logos of the National Foundation of Political Sciences and its partners, and logos appearing on the Site, are trademarks.

Any use or reproduction, total or partial, of the site, its components and/or information contained therein by any means whatsoever, is strictly prohibited and constitutes an infringement punishable under the Intellectual Property Code, except in the case of prior written consent having been obtained from the National Foundation of Political Sciences.

If the user wishes to use the AIME logo on a site, or to integrate AIME content into the navigation of his site, in particular through the use of frames, the express permission of AIME must be requested by writing to: contact [at] modesofexistence [dot] org.

Site content, including quotes, data and other information, is intended for the User's personal use. By connecting to the Site, the User accesses content protected by law, notably the provisions of the Intellectual Property Code. The User may download and print extracts of content from the website for personal and non-commercial use only. He has the the right to private, non-collective and non-exclusive use only of content on the Site. Subject to this, the reproduction, publishing, sale, distribution or commercial exploitation of the Site's content without the prior consent of AIME's directors is prohibited.



By participating in the AIME project, the User becomes a co-author of the final work, based on a Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA-3.0. Throughout the project, you retain the copyright to contributions produced by You. None of the documents imported into or linked to our database, however, should violate the copyright of their authors; AIME can not be held liable for infringements relative to any documents imported or linked to. If you decide to withdraw from the project, all your previous contributions can be anonymized should you so wish. At the end of the project, you will receive a letter from AIME asking you to authorize the waiver of certain rights under a Creative Commons license cc by-nc-sa 3.0..



The Site may contain links to other websites.

AIME cannot however be held liable for any third party sites to which the user has access via the Site and which may contain illegal or inaccurate content. AIME has no way of controlling the content of third party sites. Decisions regarding the activation of these links are therefore the User's alone.

Similarly, AIME cannot be held responsible for the unavailability or malfunction of any third party sites.

AIME agrees to remove links to other websites immediately at the request of companies to whom those sites belong.

AIME must give written permission prior to the establishment of a hypertext link to the Site and reserves the right to request removal of the link at any time.

AIME guarantees the User's intellectual property rights in relation to the Website and the Service or his right to hold IP rights if he has been accorded them by the author.

AIME's Responsibilities In its capacity as publisher of the Site, AIME is responsible for posted content as well as Contributions published online.

With regard to Comments, given that the Site provides the possibility for any user to file comments on posted content, AIME is able to moderate objectionable Comments that fall foul of the rules of good behavior described in these Terms. Any instances of objectionable Comments should be brought to the attention of AIME according to the procedures described in Article 6 of Law No. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004 on Confidence in the Digital Economy. With respect to the publication of Comments, and given that AIME assumes no a priori control, AIME adopts the status of technical intermediary as defined by the aforementioned Law.

AIME may discontinue all or partial access to services, in particular for maintenance work and upgrades. Access may also be interrupted for other reasons, technical or legal, for example. AIME is in no way responsible for these interruptions and consequences that may arise for users or any third parties. In this regard, AIME can not under any circumstances be held liable for loss of data and content.

You recognize the constraints and limitations of the Internet, particularly in terms of data transmission via networks and data breaches. As a result, AIME cannot be held responsible for technical issues beyond the terms of its service, such as communication problems due to the user's ISP (slow or interrupted connection). AIME does not make commitments therefore in terms of performance or changes to the service that may occur notably as a result of the internet network and/or technical configurations.

AIME and its partners disclaim any warranty, express or implied, with relation notably to the quality and consistency of services and to specific use of the service. AIME will nevertheless make every effort to ensure that services remain operational. AIME makes no guarantees of non-intrusion.

AIME makes every effort to offer users information and/or tools that have been verified and that will be available for use. Despite all reasonable efforts being made, information is provided without guarantees of any kind.

Information provided is non-contractual, may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors and is subject to change without notice. AIME cannot be held liable for errors, lack of availability of information, inaccuracies, updates, incompleteness and/or the presence of viruses on its site.

AIME invites the Site's users to bring any omissions, errors or corrections to its notice by sending an email to: contact[at]modesofexistence[dot]org. When AIME is to be held responsible, reparation will apply only to direct, proven, personal cases, and will exclude indirect and/or immaterial damages and/or prejudices, for example - but not limited to - financial or commercial losses or losses of data.

In using this Site, the User acknowledges having been given the opportunity to read this warning.



Users' responsibilities The User asserts that he has or has at his disposal any authorizations required under intellectual property rights (including copyright, related rights, trademark rights) and, in general terms, all rights relating to his personal account and his Contributions which allow these Contributions to be used on all electronic communication networks, including the Internet, worldwide. In no cases are these systems and provisions to be used to provide files that do not respect intellectual property rights.

The User is solely responsible for the use made of the Service. AIME, therefore, cannot be held responsible for any claims and/or proceedings made against the User.



The site provides users with opportunities (“expression spaces”) to publish personal opinions relating to the Site's content, as well as the ability to reference other sites or forums. Data contained therein is not to be collected or used for any other purpose.

All posts made to these spaces are the expression of the ideas of their respective authors. That said, given that the Site is responsible for the content of these spaces, moderators may move to a more appropriate page, delete or simply decide not to publish at all submissions that are deemed unrelated to the site's editorial line, or publications which might be objectionable, illegal or inconsistent with these Terms of Use, and agree to do so as quickly as possible.



On this Website, transmission of the content listed below is strictly prohibited.



Users agree not to transmit the following content:

- Advertisements or other material intended to convey advertisements;

- False or erroneous material;

- Material that may constitute a violation of property rights in literary, artistic, and industrial trademarks or other rights belonging to third parties, such as image rights and the right to privacy;

- Abusive, libelous, defamatory, racist, xenophobic, revisionist or defamatory content. Material likely to incite discrimination or hatred of a person or group of persons as a result of their ethnicity or membership or non-membership of an ethnic group, nation, race or religion;

- Material which contains threats to a person or group of persons;

Material which is likely to undermine public order, be subject to civil or criminal prosecution, or material that is libelous; unconstitutional, or which emanates from extremist groups banned by law; material containing incitement to commit crimes, suicide and acts of terrorism or material praising crimes, acts of terrorism, war crimes or crimes against humanity are also strictly prohibited, as is pornographic or indecent material or material that is detrimental to human dignity;

- Material which might allow third parties to directly or indirectly obtain pirated software, serial numbers, or software enabling acts of piracy and intrusion into computer and telecommunications systems, and, more generally, any software or tool likely to lead to an infringement of the rights of others and the security of persons and property;

- Material containing viruses or any other applications that might be harmful to software, hardware and computers belonging to the Site or its users;



The User undertakes to respect the image and reputation of the site and not to make statements and/or actions that might bring the Site into disrepute.

In the case of infringement of applicable laws, moral considerations, the present conditions of use or for any other applicable reason, the Site reserves the right to close the expression spaces for a limited time or permanently and to delete information and referrals to such information.

The Site reserves the discretionary right to publish or not publish your opinion or links to websites on the expression spaces and to modify, adapt or translate them into any language, any form and any media, to preserve them online or to delete them at any time without prior notification.

Miscellaneous If any part of the Terms should be found to be unlawful, invalid or unenforceable for any reason whatsoever, the term or terms in question will be declared non-existent and the remaining terms shall remain in full force and effect and continue to be applicable. The term or terms declared nonexistent will be replaced by one (or more) terms most closely related to the content of the void clause.

Applicable laws and jurisdiction These Terms of Use are subject to French law. Any disagreement or dispute that cannot be settled amicably shall be brought before the relevant French court.

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