Technological Objects, Social Positions, and the Transformational Model of Social Activity1
MIS QuarterlyPublished 1 September 2013
Philip Faulkner, Jochen Runde
Citations135
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score4.49
SNIP2.65
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
The transformational model of social activity, in many ways the centerpiece of critical realism, has been widely used in areas of information systems research but little has been done so far to develop a systematic theory of the nature, position, and identity of technological objects within the context of the TMSA.
Abstract
The transformational model of social activity (TMSA), in many ways the centerpiece of critical realism, has been widely used in areas of information systems research. However, little has been done so far to develop a systematic theory of the nature, position, and identity of technological objects within the context of the TMSA. Our aim in this paper is to fill this gap, paying particular attention to the important category of nonmaterial technological objects that lie at the heart of modern information systems.
Keywords
Social SciencesDecision SciencesPhysics and Astronomy
Reassembling the Social
15,424 Citations2005Bruno Latour
Organization ScienceThe Duality of Technology: Rethinking the Concept of Technology in Organizations
4,786 Citations1992Wanda J. Orlikowski
The paper suggests that the reformulation of the technology concept and the structurational model of technology allow a deeper and more dialectical understanding of the interaction between technology and organizations.
Organization ScienceUsing Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations
4,581 Citations2000Wanda J. Orlikowski
A Realist Theory of Science
4,008 Citations2013Roy Bhaskar
Social Studies of ScienceThe Social Construction of Technological Systems
3,392 Citations1989Ron Westrum
This book, a report on a conference, goes far in opening this vast area for public inspection of the web of human relations which originates, nurtures, and transforms technologies.
Organization StudiesSociomaterial Practices: Exploring Technology at Work
3,015 Citations2007Wanda J. Orlikowski
Realist social theory the morphogenetic approach
2,798 Citations1995Margaret S. Archer
Information Systems ResearchResearch Commentary: Desperately Seeking the “IT” in IT Research—A Call to Theorizing the IT Artifact
2,722 Citations2001Wanda J. Orlikowski, Calogero Iacono
It is proposed that IS researchers begin to theorize specifically about IT artifacts, and then incorporate these theories explicitly into their studies, and believe that such a research direction is critical if IS research is to make a significant contribution to the understanding of a world increasingly suffused with ubiquitous, interdependent, and emergent information technologies.
Cambridge University Press eBooksStructure, Agency and the Internal Conversation
2,386 Citations2003Margaret S. Archer
European Journal of Operational ResearchInterpreting information systems in organizations
2,030 Citations1995
Organization ScienceOpen Source Software and the “Private-Collective” Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science
2,007 Citations2003Eric von Hippel, Georg von Krogh
It is proposed that open source software development is an exemplar of a compound "private-collective" model of innovation that contains elements of both the private investment and the collective action models and can offer society the "best of both worlds" under many conditions.
ACM Transactions on Information SystemsTechnological frames
1,717 Citations1994Wanda J. Orlikowski, Debra C. Gash
It is suggested that where the technological frames of key groups in organizations—such as managers, technologists, and users— are significantly different, difficulties and conflict around the development, use, and change of technology may result.
Academy of Management Annals10 Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization
1,606 Citations2008Wanda J. Orlikowski, Susan Scott
Academy of Management Annals10 Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization
1,415 Citations2008Wanda J. Orlikowski, Susan Scott
Contemporary Sociology A Journal of ReviewsBeing Human: The Problem of Agency
1,293 Citations2002Ulf Himmelstrand, Margaret S. Archer
Choice Reviews OnlineReclaiming reality: a critical introduction to contemporary philosophy
1,267 Citations1990
Cambridge University Press eBooksMaking our Way through the World
1,262 Citations2007Margaret S. Archer
Academy of Management ReviewGenres of Organizational Communication: A Structurational Approach to Studying Communication and Media
1,219 Citations1992JoAnne Yates, Wanda J. Orlikowski
Economics and Reality
1,217 Citations1997Tony Lawson
Critical Realism: An Introduction to Roy Bhaskar's Philosophy
1,049 Citations1994Andrew Collier
Cambridge Journal of EconomicsThe sociomateriality of organisational life: considering technology in management research
929 Citations2009Wanda J. Orlikowski
Actor-Network Theory and IS Research: Current Status and Future Prospects
654 Citations1997Geoff Walsham
The broad conclusion is that the actor-network theory has much to offer in both theoretical and methodological terms, and on the potential value of the theory for IS research in the future.
The Possibility of Naturalism
637 Citations2014Roy Bhaskar
British Journal of SociologySocial Origins of Educational Systems
527 Citations1981Margaret Peil, Margaret S. Archer
Management ScienceThe Architecture of Participation: Does Code Architecture Mitigate Free Riding in the Open Source Development Model?
511 Citations2006Carliss Y. Baldwin, Kim B. Clark
Social Studies of ScienceBiodiversity Datadiversity
508 Citations2000Geoffrey C. Bowker
It is argued that as sets of heterogeneous databases are made to converge, there is a layering of values into the emergent infrastructure, and this layering process is relatively irreversible.
OrganizationOntology in Organization and Management Studies: A Critical Realist Perspective
477 Citations2005Steve Fleetwood
The social construction of facts and artefacts: or How the sociology of science and the sociology of technology might benefit each other
467 Citations1987Trevor Pinch, Wiebe E. Bijker
Organization ScienceTechnological Embeddedness and Organizational Change
448 Citations2007Olga Volkoff, Diane M. Strong +1 more
A new theory of technology-mediated organizational change is proposed that explains the process of change as a three-stage cycle in which the ostensive, performative, and material aspects of organizational elements interact differently in each stage.
Information and OrganizationReal-izing information systems: critical realism as an underpinning philosophy for information systems
422 Citations2004John Mingers
Critical realism is proposed as an underpinning philosophy that has the potential to overcome both sets of difficulties within the underlying philosophies of science—particularly positivism and interpretivism.
Materiality and Organizing: Social Interaction in a Technological World
412 Citations2013Paul M. Leonardi, Bonnie Nardi +1 more
Visualisation and Cognition: Drawing Things Together
407 Citations2012Bruno Latour
Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation
360 Citations2009Roy Bhaskar
Cambridge Journal of EconomicsHow is technology made?--That is the question!
359 Citations2009Wiebe E. Bijker
Medical Entomology and ZoologyMaking a World of Difference: IT in a Global Context
353 Citations2001Geoff Walsham
First MondayDigital materiality? How artifacts without matter, matter
347 Citations2010Paul M. Leonardi
It is contended that moving away from linking materiality to notions of physical substance or matter may help scholars of technology integrate their work more centrally with studies of discourse, routine, institutions and other phenomena that lie at the core of organization theory, specifically, and social theory more broadly.
Materiality and Organizing
303 Citations2012Paul Leonardi, Jochen Runde, Youngjin Yoo, Bonnie Nardi, Jannis Kallinikos, Hamid Ekbia, Wanda Orlikowski, Susan Scott, Samer Faraj, Albert Borgmann, Dan Robey, Leonardi, Paul M +2 more
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part AThe dual nature of technical artefacts
242 Citations2006Peter Kroes, Anthonie Meijers
Information and OrganizationSociomateriality — Taking the wrong turning?
221 Citations2013Alistair Mutch
The claims for sociomateriality are reviewed and two key problems are isolated: a failure to be specific about technology and a neglect of broader social structures are isolated.
Information and OrganizationOvercoming theory-practice inconsistencies: Critical realism and information systems research
215 Citations2006Matthew L. Smith
It is proposed that a critical realist ontology allows for one re-interpretation of the activity of science as implicitly predicated upon natural and social realism as well as the concepts of structures and generative mechanisms.
Decision Support SystemsThe provision of online public goods: Examining social structure in an electronic network of practice
205 Citations2009Molly Wasko, Robin Teigland +1 more
The results suggest that the electronic network of practice chosen for this study is sustained through generalized exchange, is supported by a critical mass of active members, and that members develop strong ties with the community as a whole rather than develop interpersonal relationships.
Academy of Management ReviewOn the Identity of Technological Objects and User Innovations in Function
177 Citations2009Philip Faulkner, Jochen Runde
This paper advances a theory of the technical identity of a technological object that gives due weight to both its form and its function, and uses this theory to categorize different forms of technological change and to unpack some neglected aspects of user-driven innovations in function.
OrganizationActors and Networks or Agents and Structures: Towards a Realist View of Information Systems
173 Citations2002Alistair Mutch
This paper looks at ANT from the perspective of the social realism of Margaret Archer, and explores the value of incorporating concepts from ANT into a social realist approach, but argues that the latter offers a more productive way of approaching information systems.
First MondayA theory of digital objects
141 Citations2010Jannis Kallinikos, Aleksi Aaltonen +1 more
These claims are supported with reference to the elusive identity of digital documents and the problems of authentication/preservation of records such an identity posits and the operations of search engines and the effects digital search has on the content of the documents it retrieves.
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)Critical realism and information systems research: Why bother with philosophy?
135 Citations2002Philip Dobson
Organization ScienceTechnology, Organization, and Structure—A Morphogenetic Approach
133 Citations2009Alistair Mutch
Gains are seen to accrue from Archer's morphogenetic approach: greater clarity about the material properties of technology, links to broader structural conditions arising from the conceptualization of the relationship between agency and structure, and the potential to explore the importance of reflexivity in contemporary organizations.
Information and OrganizationGenerative mechanisms for innovation in information infrastructures
129 Citations2010Bendik Bygstad
From the analysis it is proposed that there are two self-reinforcing mechanisms in information infrastructures: the first is the innovation mechanism, resulting in a new service, and the second is the service mechanism, resulted in more users and profits.
London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science)Reopening the Black Box of Technology Artifacts and Human Agency
76 Citations2002Jannis Kallinikos
The argument presented in this article is that the premises governing human-technology interaction partly derive from the distinctive ways by which each technology defines a domain of reference, and organizes and codifies knowledge and experience within it.
AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) (Association for Information Systems)Using Critical Realism to Explain Strategic Information Systems Planning
76 Citations2006Paul A. Morton
This paper shows how the philosophy of social science known as Critical Realism (CR) can inform information systems (IS) research and shows how an open systems ontology of social reality better explains the nature of causation in complex social interactions and accounts for the fact that outcomes are not predictable.
Cambridge Journal of EconomicsEngineering and the dual nature of technical artefacts
66 Citations2009Peter Kroes
Cambridge Journal of EconomicsOn making infrastructure visible: putting the non-humans to rights
66 Citations2009Trevor Pinch
From Essentialism to Constructivism: Philosophy of Technology at the Crossroads
61 Citations2000Andrew Feenberg
Techné Research in Philosophy and TechnologyAn Ontology of Technology
60 Citations2008Clive Lawson
By drawing upon recent developments in social ontology and extending these into the technological realm it is possible to sustain a conception of technology that is not only irreducibly social but able to give due weight to those features that distinguish technical objects from other artefacts.
Technological Forecasting and Social ChangeTypes of technology
59 Citations2010Robert Aunger
It is argued that technologies can be distinguished as a combination of type of producer and an idealized artefact life history, using this definition, a number of technologies are identified.
Information Resources Management JournalMaking the Case for Critical Realism
48 Citations2007Phillip Dobson, John Myles +1 more
It is described how critical realism can provide a useful "underlabourer" for research, by "clearing the ground a little... removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way of knowledge" Locke, 1894, p. 14.
On Sociomateriality
36 Citations2012Philip Faulkner, Jochen Runde
From Essentialism to Constructivism
36 Citations2000Andrew Feenberg
Cambridge Journal of EconomicsOn technological objects and the adoption of technological product innovations: rules, routines and the transition from analogue photography to digital imaging
36 Citations2008Jochen Runde, Michael W. Jones +2 more
Cambridge Journal of EconomicsWhat's special about human technology?
22 Citations2009Robert Aunger
This ability enabled human societies to develop specialised forms of organised production, which in turn allowed the stock of artefacts to diversify and accumulate, whereas the technological repertoires of other species remain at a relatively constant level of complexity.
Journal of the Royal Society of MedicineTurntable Technique: The Art of the DJ
7 Citations2000Stephen Webber
A woman aged 57 was seen twelve hours after the sudden onset of lower abdominal pain, which had become a constant ache in the left lower quadrant, and the possibility of intussusception of the left colon but the presence of air filled loops of bowel precluded confident interpretation.
Identity transitions : towards a critical realist theory of identity
3 Citations2011Holly Birkett