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The Double Key

Article James Langdon
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This issue summarizes Bruno Latour's essay on the Berliner Doppelschlüssel, a real double-key used in 20th-century Berlin apartments that enforces a specific protocol: lock the door at night, leave it unlocked during the day. The double-key demonstrates how material objects can encode and delegate social rules, settling disputes between building owners and tenants through physical design rather than explicit agreement.

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