Learning through techno-human entwinement: Implications for the adoption of technologies drawn from agricultural and ICT interventions in the Philippines

In developing countries, such as the Philippines, there is great concern among educational, government and non-government organizations regarding the implementation of agricultural technologies delivered through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), at both regional and national levels. While these types of introduced technologies are discussed in the literature of organizational practice, they are largely absent in studies of management and informal education. This study seeks to address this paucity by investigating the entwinement (i.e. process of interweaving) of humans and this type of introduced technologies through the theoretical perspectives of sociomateriality (i.e. interweaving of human and technologies) and sensemaking (i.e. giving meaning to experience). More specifically, it examines how farmers learn through a process of interweaving with one specific intervention – use of ICT to learn agricultural technologies. Using the theoretical perspective of sociomateriality (Orlikowski, 2008; Leonardi, 2012) to examine farmers’ views on the affordances of interventions, this study illustrates how their learning is bound up in an ever-deepening entwinement with the technology through which it is delivered. In addition, this study investigates the processes, which lead to its adoption, through the perspective of sensemaking (Weick, 2005). Conducted as an ethnographic case study, this research draws on observations of farmers’ practices for over four months in two Farmers Information and Technology Services (FITS) centres in Region XI, in the Philippines. These centres aimed to deliver agricultural technologies through ICT. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis. Participants included 32 farmers, two FITS managers, an instructional designer, five FITS/village staff members, a farmer scientist, and three community and farmer group leaders. As to the findings related to the possibility of an action to an object, it indicates that participant’s perspectives can be grouped in three distinct ways namely: as a bundle of technical features inherent in the properties of technological tools (e.g., sending email, viewing diseases), as design features of the services provided and as relations between these features. These perspectives appear to build on one another, resulting in ongoing improvement and the emergence of new technologies, routines, affordances, and the altered perception of new constraints. This expansion of perception results in a shift from individual to group affordances. Through the perspective of sensemaking (Weick, 2005), this study identifies two types of sensemakers among the farmers: minimal sensemakers and reflective sensemakers. It also reveals two new influences, previously unrecognized in the literature which resulted to limited sensemaking: a) external affordances (e.g., subsidies) and b) the emergence of a cultural trait, “gaya-gaya” (i.e. imitation). Moreover, these results further illustrate how the sensemaking process is made visible when viewed from a sociomaterial perspective. Using the assumptions of the sociomaterial perspective that learning is made visible in practice, this study found that participants progressed through three stages, namely: figuring, configuring and reconfiguring. Findings indicate that during ‘figuring’, the farmers engaged in various learning processes by observing others and engaging in verbal exchanges (e.g., linking new abstract ideas with material objects, organizing ideas, and verbal referencing). In ‘configuring’, farmers learned by experimentation, storytelling, group learning and the integration of sociomaterial objects in farming routines. During ‘reconfiguring’, farmers engaged in experimentation that focused on the creation of new knowledge and understanding, and the manipulation of new artefacts. The findings of this study are vital for understanding how an individual’s perspectives, sensemaking and ways of learning lead to adoption. It contributes to the literature new insights into the process of entwinement between individuals and interventions using the perspectives of sociomateriality and sensemaking in the context of informal education in a developing country

Responsible AI and Analytics for an Ethical and Inclusive Digitized Society

publishedVersio

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: NL

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: N

Social Media and the Formation of Organizational Reputation

The rise of social media is changing how evaluative judgments about organizations are produced and disseminated in the public domain. In this article, we discuss how these changes question traditional assumptions that research on media reputation rests upon, and we offer an alternative framework that begins to account for how the more active role of audiences, the changing ways in which they express their evaluations, and the increasing heterogeneity and dynamism that characterizes media reputation influence the formation of organizational reputations

Current perspectives on communication and media research

Peer reviewe

An investigation of management accounting control systems in the palm oil industry:a sociomaterial approach to practice change

The primary aim of this research is to understand what constitutes management accounting and control (MACs) practice and how these control processes are implicated in the day to day work practices and operations of the organisation. It also examines the changes that happen in MACs practices over time as multiple actors within organisational settings interact with each other. I adopt a distinctive practice theory approach (i.e. sociomateriality) and the concept of imbrication in this research to show that MACs practices emerge from the entanglement between human/social agency and material/technological agency within an organisation. Changes in the pattern of MACs practices happens in imbrication processes which are produced as the two agencies entangle. The theoretical approach employed in this research offers an interesting and valuable lens which seeks to reveal the depth of these interactions and uncover the way in which the social and material imbricate. The theoretical framework helps to reveal how these constructions impact on and produce modifications of MACs practices. The exploration of the control practices at different hierarchical levels (i.e. from the operational to middle management and senior level management) using the concept of imbrication process also maps the dynamic flow of controls from operational to top management and vice versa in the organisation. The empirical data which is the focus of this research has been gathered from a case study of an organisation involved in a large vertically integrated palm oil industry company in Malaysia specifically the refinery sector. The palm oil industry is a significant industry in Malaysia as it contributed an average of 4.5% of Malaysian Gross Domestic Product, over the period 1990 -2010. The Malaysian palm oil industry also has a significant presence in global food oil supply where it contributed 26% of the total oils and fats global trade in 2010. The case organisation is a significant contributor to the Malaysian palm oil industry. The research access has provided an interesting opportunity to explore the interactions between different groups of people and material/technology in a relatively heavy process food industry setting. My research examines how these interactions shape and are shaped by control practices in a dynamic cycle of imbrications over both short and medium time periods

Exploring Blockchain Governance

Blockchain systems continue to attract significant interest from both practitioners and researchers. What is more, blockchain systems come in various types, such as cryptocurrencies or as inter-organizational systems in business networks. As an example of a cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, one of the most prominent blockchain systems to date and born at the time of a major financial crisis, spearheaded the promise of relying on code and computation instead of a central governing entity. Proponents would argue that Bitcoin stood the test of time, as Bitcoin continues to operate to date for over a decade. However, these proponents overlook the never-ending, heated debates “behind the scenes” caused by diverging goals of central actors, which led to numerous alternative systems (forks) of Bitcoin. To accommodate these actors’ interests in the pursuit of their common goal is a tightrope act, and this is where this dissertation commences: blockchain governance. Based on the empirical examples of various types and application domains of blockchain systems, it is the goal of this dissertation to 1) uncover governance patterns by showing, how blockchain systems are governed, 2) derive governance challenges faced or caused by blockchain systems, and, consequently, to 3) contribute to a better understanding to what blockchain governance is. This dissertation includes four parts, each of these covering different thematical areas: In the first part, this dissertation focuses on obtaining a better understanding of blockchain governance’s context of reference by studying blockchain systems from various application domains and system types, for example, led by inter-organizational networks, states, or an independent group of actors. The second part, then, focuses on a blockchain as an inter-organizational system called “cardossier”, a project I was involved in, and its governance as a frame of reference. Hereupon, for one, I report on learnings from my project involvement in the form of managerial guidelines, and, for two, I report on structural problems within cardossier, and problems caused by membership growth and how they can be resolved. The third part focuses on a wider study of blockchains as inter-organizational systems, where I summarize findings of an analysis of 19 blockchain consortia. The findings, for one, answer the question of why blockchain consortia adopt blockchain technology, and, for two, show internal and external challenges these systems faced to derive managerial recommendations. The fourth and last part studies blockchain governance’s evolution and contributes an analysis of blockchain’s governance features and its contrast to established modes of governance. These four parts, altogether, have scientific value as they increase our understanding on blockchain governance. Consequently, this dissertation contributes to the body of knowledge on modes of governance, distributed system governance, and blockchain governance in general. I do so, by grounding the concept of blockchain governance in empirical detail, showing how these systems are governed on various application domains and system types, and by studying empirical challenges faced or caused by these systems. This approach is relevant and necessary, as blockchain systems in general, but particularly outside of cryptocurrencies, mostly still are in pursuit of a sustainable blockchain governance. As blockchains can be expected to continue to mature, the upcoming years offer very fruitful ground for empirical research along the empirical insights and theoretical lines shown in this dissertation

Distorting mirror: Formation of party political sphere on social media in Finland

In this dissertation, I assess interaction in social media as a novel mode of political participation and ask how are party politics extended within the social media public sphere in Finland during the 2010s. In this research, I evaluate the formation of the social media political sphere by analyzing the party–political, demographic, and ideological standings from which the sphere is produced and accessed, and how these factors are reconstructing social structures and orders on social media platforms. This dissertation concentrates on the six largest parties in Finland, namely the Social Democratic Party, the Finns Party, the National Coalition Party, the Center Party, the Green League, and the Left Alliance. By combining theoretical perspectives from a variety of academic fields, such as sociology, political science, social psychology, and economic sociology, the dissertation attempts to produce nuanced understandings of social, ideological, and party-political origins of digital participation and other topical phenomena, such as political polarization and spread of hate speech, in the Finnish political context. In addition to a theoretical introduction, the dissertation comprises five research articles that cross-expose the party-related political actions on social media platforms from different perspectives. Articles I and II form temporal and structural frames for understanding the evolution of the social media political sphere in Finland. In Article I, we investigate the current state of and recent changes in access to social media, as well as the utilization of social media platforms for various purposes by the Finnish population. The social mechanisms that guide the formation of the social structure of the social media sphere are evaluated in Article II. In the following articles, we provide a more nuanced understanding of the formation of the social media political sphere. In Article III, we evaluate the state of the social media political sphere by assessing social media participation among party supporter groups in the Finnish political field and contribute to the discussion on the effects of party supporters’ sociodemographic background and value-based premises on social media participation. In Articles IV and V, social media participation is understood as an explanatory mechanism associated with party supporters’ behavioral tendencies on social media and affective aspects of party members’ commitment to their parties. The research contributes novel knowledge related to political participation in social media and the formation of the political sphere in Finland during the 2010s. In the dissertation, I propose that political discussions in social media could be understood as a political activity through which participants can modify the public opinion by raising ideological aims and desires within the public sphere. The research illuminates how social structures and ideological aims both accelerate and attenuate political activity in the social media political sphere. In addition, the research shows how social structures and ideological stances are reflected in the structures of social media networks. Results of the dissertation also indicate that the social media political sphere emphasizes the visibility of the new identity parties, namely the Finns Party, the Green League, and the Left Alliance. Accordingly, the results infer that political discussions related to post-material and neo-conservative issues are highlighted on social media, which is especially reflected in the pronounced activity of the new identity parties’ supporters and members within both the social media sphere and political parties.-- Väitöstutkimus käsittelee sosiaalisessa mediassa käytävää keskustelua uudenlaisena yhteiskunnallisen osallistumisen muotona ja kysyy, miten puoluepolitiikka välittyy sosiaalisen median tilaan 2010-luvun Suomessa. Tutkimus lähestyy sosiaalista mediaa politiikan tilana keskittyen jäljittämään, mistä sosiaalisista ja ideologisista lähtökohdista tilaan liitytään, mistä lähtökohdista tilaa täytetään sekä miten nämä lähtökohdat vaikuttavat tilan sosiaaliseen rakenteeseen ja järjestykseen. Tutkimus nojaa politiikan sosiologiseen, politologiseen, sosiaalipsykologiseen sekä taloussosiologiseen teoriaan ja yhdistelee uudella tavalla eri kentillä käytyjä tieteellisiä keskusteluja. Siten tutkimus monipuolistaa nykyistä ymmärrystä digitaalisesta osallistumisesta ja auttaa hahmottamaan sosiaalisen median ajankohtaisten ilmiöiden – kuten muun muassa kuplaantumisen, polarisaation ja vihapuheen – taustalla piileviä yhteiskunnallisia rakenteita, puoluelähtöisiä eroja sekä ideologisia kannusteita. Johdanto- ja yhteenveto-osuuden lisäksi tutkimus sisältää viisi tutkimusartikkelia, joissa sosiaalisen median kautta tapahtuvaa poliittista osallistumista ja puolueiden edellytyksiä sosiaalisen median julkisessa tilassa tarkastellaan erilaisia näkökulmia ja aineistoja hyödyntäen. Väitöstutkimuksen kaksi ensimmäistä artikkelia muodostavat ajallisen ja rakenteellisen kehyksen sosiaalisen media tilan muodostumisen ymmärtämiselle. Ensimmäisessä artikkelissa tarkastelemme sosiaalisen median käytön väestöryhmäkohtaisia eroja sekä ajallisia muutoksia 2010-luvun Suomessa. Toisessa artikkelissa puolestaan tutkimme sosiaalisen median verkostojen muodostumiseen liittyviä sosiaalisia ja poliittisia mekanismeja. Väitöstutkimuksen kolmannessa, neljännessä sekä viidennessä artikkelissa paneudumme yksityiskohtaisemmin sosiaalisessa mediassa tapahtuvaan poliittiseen toimintaan. Kolmannessa artikkelissa tutkimme, miten suomalaisten puolueiden kannattajat käyttävät sosiaalista mediaa poliittisiin tarkoituksiin sekä miten kannattajaryhmien sosiodemografinen tausta ja poliittiset asenteet vaikuttavat sosiaalisessa mediassa tapahtuvaan poliittiseen osallistumiseen. Neljännessä ja viidennessä artikkelissa sosiaalisen median poliittista osallistumista lähestytään selittävänä toimintana, joka on yhteydessä niin puoluekannattajien sosiaalisen median toiminta- ja käyttäytymistapoihin kuin puoluejäsenten kokemaan puoluesitoutumiseen. Käsillä oleva väitöstutkimus tuottaa uutta empiiristä tietoa sosiaalisessa mediassa tapahtuvasta poliittisesta osallistumisesta ja (puolue)poliittisen tilan muodostumisesta 2010-luvun Suomessa. Tutkimuksessa esitän, että sosiaalisessa mediassa tapahtuva yhteiskunnallisten aiheiden kommentointi ja niihin liittyvä keskustelu voidaan ymmärtää politiikan tekemisenä, jossa keskusteluun osallistumalla muokataan sosiaalisen median julkista tilaa ja nostetaan ideologisia tavoitteita suuremman yleisön nähtäville. Tutkimus valottaa, miten sosiaaliset rakenteet ja ideologiset asenteet yhtäältä kannustavat ja toisaalta vaimentavat suomalaisten osallistumista sosiaalisessa mediassa. Samoin tutkimus osoittaa, miten sosiaaliset rakenteet ja ideologiset tavoitteet heijastuvat sosiaalisen median käyttäjien sosiaalisiin verkostoihin. Sosiaalisten rakenteiden sekä ideologisten asenteiden merkityksellisyydestä johtuen sosiaaliseen mediaan muotoutuva poliittinen tila korostaa erityisesti uusien identiteettipuolueiden – eli perussuomalaisten, vihreiden ja vasemmistoliiton – tavoitteiden näkyvyyttä julkisessa keskustelussa sekä näiden puolueiden asemaa suomalaisella poliittisella kentällä. Samoin tutkimus antaa viitteitä siitä, miten sosiaalisessa mediassa tapahtuva poliittinen keskustelu kärjistyy erityisesti postmaterialististen sekä uuskonservatismisten ryhmien välillä, mikä osaltaan heijastuu uusien identiteettipuolueiden kannattajien ja jäsenten toimintaan sekä sosiaalisessa mediassa että poliittisissa puolueissa

Communicative Figurations

This open access volume assesses the influence of our changing media environment. Today, there is not one single medium that is the driving force of change. With the spread of various technical communication media such as mobile phones and internet platforms, we are confronted with a media manifold of deep mediatization. But how can we investigate its transformative capability? This book answers this question by taking a non-media-centric perspective, researching the various figurations of collectivities and organizations humans are involved in. The first part of the book outlines a fundamental understanding of the changing media environment of deep mediatization and its transformative capacity. The second part focuses on collectivities and movements: communities in the city, critical social movements, maker, online gaming groups and networked groups of young people. The third part moves institutions and organizations into the foreground, discussing the transformation of journalism, religion, politics, and education, whilst the fourth and final part is dedicated to methodologies and perspectives

Distributed Infrastructuring and Innovation: an ethnographic enquiry into collaborative modes of work in an internet of things ecosystem

Emerging low-power wireless networks are being used for a range of data collection systems such as asset tracking, environmental monitoring, smart agriculture and smart city facilities. The relatively low costs of hardware components, modular network architectures and open standards are allowing a diversity of new actors to engage with the construction of ‘internet of things’ (IoT) networks and applications. Various branches of research within management studies, critical theory, design theory, feminism and science and technology studies (STS) have explored collaborative modes of technology development among heterogeneous groups of actors and addressed questions of how and why users become involved in technology development. There is however scant empirical and theoretical work on the involvement of ‘users’ and other non-conventional actors in contemporary data-oriented infrastructures such as the IoT. Conjointly, most policy roadmaps concerning the rise of pervasive data networks rely primarily on industry-oriented analyses and quantitative forecasts and hence remain blind to the involvement of non-corporate actors in the shaping of technological futures. Building on an STS-inflected framework, this study contributes to bridging this gap with a micro-level enquiry into collaborative work practices in the realm of the IoT. This thesis explores the case of The Things Network, an initiative with the mission to build low-power wireless networks in a decentralised fashion with a strong reliance on geographically dispersed contributors. The initiative is far removed from traditional top-down infrastructure implementation strategies and faces a range of ambivalences related to organisation, growth and sustainability. The study is concerned with the questions of what types of work, social organisations and artefacts are subsumed in the emerging ecosystem? why/how contributors organise and operate local networks? whether and how control is exerted by the project owners? and how the uneven actions of users and other non-conventional actors are implicated in the generation of technical improvements and outcomes? The methodology comprised a multi-site ethnographic exploration over two and a half years with the practitioners contributing variously to the construction of data networks and the development of IoT solutions within the initiative. An ecological analysis is developed, drawing on theories and concepts from infrastructure studies and the social shaping of technology framework. The evolution of the initiative is traced throughout the stages of inception, early scaling up and global expansion. Through casting low-power networks as ‘data infrastructure’, the analysis foregrounds the challenges and dilemmas associated with scaling up in the context of decentralisation. The concept of ‘distributed infrastructuring’ is proposed as a means to capture the orchestration of the piecemeal work of disparate and dispersed actors operating autonomously with a common network architecture. The findings suggest that this mode of infrastructuring is symptomatic of an industry trend towards an increasing fragmentation and distribution of professional development activities among a range of actors. We conclude that policy and practice would benefit from a nuanced recognition of the diversity of contributions, positionalities and preferences in the broad landscape of data-driven technologies