dispositif

English

Alternative forms

• (sociology): dispositive

Etymology

Borrowed from French dispositif.

Noun

dispositif (plural dispositifs)

1. (international law) A part of a document that communicates the decisions taken by some organization or nation on a particular issue.

   Thereafter the court ruled unanimously in paragraph 2c of its dispositif that threat or use of force by means of nuclear weapons is contrary to the UN charter and is unlawful.

2. (sociology) According to Michel Foucault, the aggregate of institutional, physical and administrative mechanisms and knowledge structures that enhance and maintain the exercise of power within society.

See also

• operative part, substance, purport, terms expressing the notion for court decisions under common law

French

Etymology

From Latin dispositum ‎ -if.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dis.po.zi.tif/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

dispositif m (plural dispositifs)

1. arrangement, lay-out
2. measures, expedient, means to an end
3. device, machine, system

   un dispositif informatique ― a computing device

   Un certain nombre de personnes m’ont dit qu’un dispositif est un ensemble d’appareils, mais selon des dictionnaires, c’est un ensemble de dispositifs qui constituent un appareil.

   A certain number of people have told me that a device is an assembly of mechanisms, but according to dictionaries, it's an assembly of devices which constitute a mechanism.

4. operation, plan
5. (law) dispositif
   • 2020 June 19, “Stopper la haine sur Internet”, in Le Monde‎^[1]:

     En censurant l’essentiel de la loi dite « Avia », jeudi 18 juin, le Conseil constitutionnel a mis à bas un dispositif adopté en mai, destiné à imposer aux géants du numérique de retirer les incitations à la haine, à la violence et au terrorisme, ainsi que les injures à caractère raciste ou sexiste et les images pornographiques représentant des mineurs.

     By censuring most of the so-called "Avia" law, on Thursday the 18th of June, the Constitutional Council scrapped a dispositif adopted in May, intended to require the digital giants to remove incitements to hatred, violence, and terrorism, as well as insults of a racist or sexist character, and pornographic images depicting minors.

Derived terms

• dispositif intra-utérin

Further reading

• “dispositif”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.