Our intention in writing this book was to introduce objects – management tools – into the analysis of social, organisational and economic phenomena. Their lack of visibility up until now and their apparent banality seemed to ignore any substantial problems tools might pose. Readers will have understood that we are not interested in management tools in the way technicians or managers would be; our idea is to view tools, which are omnipresent in our society, as an analyser of the specific situations that mark our time and so deserve to be studied.