Abstract
This chapter explores a possibility of an activity-based view of sociomateriality. It argues that the treatment of sociomaterial practices and the corresponding debates have tended to prioritize epistemology over ontology and scarce emphasis has been paid to metaphysical assumptions; and that sociomaterial studies have tended not to recognize the differences in metaphysical assumptions between the practice theories of actions and theories of arrangements. In extending Schatzki’s practice theory to the study of techno-organizational phenomena, the specific objectives here are to examine the ontological status of practice in sociomateriality research and to offer an activity-based conceptualization of sociomaterial practice. The key argument advanced is that a theory of actions may address sociomaterial ‘doing’ and account more fully for the role of technology in organizing.
References
Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 28(3), 801–831.
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum Physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1990). The logic of practice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Burrell, G., & Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organizational analysis. London: Heinemann.
Callon, M. (1991). Techno-economic networks and irreversibility. In J. Law (Ed.), A sociology of monsters: Essays on power, technology and domination (pp. 132–161). London: Routledge.
Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. (2016). From substantialist to process metaphysics—Exploring shifts in IS research. In L. Introna, D. Kavanagh, S. Kelly, W. Orlikowski, & S. Scott (Eds.), Beyond interpretivism? New encounters with technology and organization. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., Galliers, R. D., Henfridsson, O., Newell, S., & Vidgen, R. (2014). The sociomateriality of information systems: Current status, future directions. MIS Quarterly, 38(3), 809–830.
Faulkner, P., & Runde, J. (2009). On the identity of technological objects and user innovations in function. Academy of Management Review, 34(3), 442–462.
Faulkner, P., & Runde, J. (2012). On sociomateriality. In P. M. Leonardi, B. A. Nardi, & J. Kallinikos (Eds.), Materiality and organizing: Social interaction in a technological world (pp. 49–66). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Fayard, A.-L., & Weeks, J. (2014). Affordances for practice. Information and Organization, 24(4), 236–249.
Feldman, M., & Orlikowski, W. (2011). Theorizing practice and practicing theory. Organization Science, 22(5), 1240–1253.
Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Giddens, A. (1979). Central problems in social theory: Action, structure and contradiction in social analysis. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Hutchby, I. (2001). Technologies, texts and affordances. Sociology, 35(2), 441–456.
Jones, M. (2014). A matter of life and death: Exploring conceptualizations of sociomateriality in the context of critical care. MIS Quarterly, 38(3), 895–925.
Jung, Y., & Lyytinen, K. (2013). Towards an ecological account of media choice: A case study on pluralistic reasoning while choosing email. Information Systems Journal, 24(3), 271–293.
Kautz, K., & Jensen, T. B. (2012). Sociomateriality: New vocabulary or reformulation of existing theories? In Proceedings of the 2nd organizations, artifacts and practices (OAP) workshop materiality and space in management and organization studies, Paris, France, May 10–12, 2012.
Kautz, K., & Jensen, T. B. (2013). Sociomateriality at the royal court of IS: A Jester’s monologue. Information and Organization, 23(1), 15–27.
Knorr-Cetina, K. (1997). Sociality with objects: Social relations in postsocial knowledge societies. Theory, Culture and Society, 14(4), 1–30.
Latour, B. (1992). Where are the missing masses? The sociology of a few mundane artifacts. In W. E. Bijker & J. Law (Eds.), Shaping technology/building society: Studies in sociotechnical change (pp. 225–258). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor network theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Leonardi, P. M. (2011). When flexible routines meet flexible technologies: Affordance, constraint, and the imbrication of human and material agencies. MIS Quarterly, 35(1), 147–167.
Leonardi, P. M. (2012). Materiality, sociomateriality, and socio-technical systems: What do these terms mean? How are they different? In P. M. Leonardi, B. A. Nardi, & J. Kallinikos (Eds.), Materiality and organizing: Social interaction in a technological world (pp. 25–48). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Leonardi, P. M. (2013). Theoretical foundations for the study of sociomateriality. Information and Organization, 23, 59–76.
Mazmanian, M., Cohn, M., & Dourish, P. (2014). Dynamic reconfiguration in planetary exploration: A sociomaterial ethnography. MIS Quarterly, 38(3), 831–848.
Mutch, A. (2013). Sociomateriality—Taking the wrong turning. Information and Organization, 23, 28–40.
Orlikowski, W. J. (2007). Sociomaterial practices: Exploring technology at work. Organization Studies, 28(9), 1435–1448.
Orlikowski, W. J. (2009). The sociomateriality of organizational life: Considering technology in management research. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 10, 1–17.
Orlikowski, W. J., & Scott, S. V. (2008). Sociomateriality: Challenging the separation of technology, work and organization. The Academy of Management Annals, 2(1), 433–474.
Orlikowski, W. J., & Scott, S. V. (2014). What happens when evaluation goes online? Exploring apparatuses of valuation in the travel sector. Organization Science, 25(3), 868–891.
Orlikowski, W. J., & Scott, S. V. (2015). Exploring material-discursive practices. Journal of Management Studies, 52, 697–705.
Østerlie, T., Almklov, P. G., & Hepsø, V. (2012). Dual materiality and knowing in petroleum production. Information and Organization, 22, 85–105.
Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a theory of social practices. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243–263.
Reckwitz, A. (2012). Affective spaces: A praxeological outlook. Rethinking History, 16(2), 241–258.
Schatzki, T. R. (1996). Social practices: A Wittgensteinian approach to human activity and the social. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schatzki, T. R. (2002). The site of the social: A philosophical account of the constitution of social life and change. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Schatzki, T. R. (2010). Materiality and social life. Nature and Culture, 5(2), 123–149.
Schatzki, T. R. (2013). The edge of change: On the emergence, persistence, and dissolution of practices. In E. Shove & N. Spurling (Eds.), Sustainable practice: Social theory and climate change (pp. 31–46). London: Routledge.
Scott, S. V., & Orlikowski, W. J. (2013). Sociomateriality—Taking the wrong turning? A response to Mutch. Information and Organization, 23(2), 77–80.
Scott, S. V., & Orlikowski, W. J. (2014). Entanglements in practice: Performing anonymity through social media. MIS Quarterly, 38(3), 863–893.
Suchman, L. A. (2007). Human-machine reconfigurations: Plans and situated actions (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Venters, W., Oborn, E., & Barrett, M. (2014). A trichordal temporal approach to digital coordination: The sociomaterial mangling of the CERN grid. MIS Quarterly, 38, 927–949.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Morgan-Thomas, A. (2018). Schatzki and Techno-Organizational Practice. In: Mitev, N., Morgan-Thomas, A., Lorino, P., de Vaujany, FX., Nama, Y. (eds) Materiality and Managerial Techniques . Technology, Work and Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66101-8_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66101-8_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66100-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66101-8
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)