Sociomateriality as Radical Ontology: Insights for ICTs from the Phenomenology of Sport

The concept of “sociomateriality” challenges assumed distinctions between the human and social, on the one hand, and the material and technological, on the other. Arguments have been made for adopting a radical relational ontology that sees the social and material as dynamically emergent within the context of practice. However, it remains unclear what is truly superior about the sociomaterial approach, in contrast to rich analyses of complex interactions between human actors and artifacts, conventionally conceived. This essay suggests a modest step forward that brings cognition more clearly into the picture. Although those championing the sociomaterial position have good reason to tread carefully around cognition, a conceptualization that embraces the materiality of cognition, itself, can actually provide a more complete grounding for the desired ontological shift, and help point the way toward an improved understanding of such central concerns as competence and resistance

Reconsidering Resistance in the Post-Human Era

User resistance to new technology has long been a central concern to the information systems discipline. The current discourse on “sociomateriality” invites us to rethink what resistance means in individual terms. This essay represents a preliminary effort to recast resistance as a phenomenon that reflects the politics of personal boundaries. Sociomateriality figures into the discussion because it challenges distinctions that have customarily been assumed to hold between the human and social, on the one hand, and the material and technological, on the other. Notwithstanding this challenge, however, to make progress in understanding resistance, we must recognize that the dissolution of such distinctions is a pragmatic accomplishment. Here I propose that it is useful to view the individual as having personal boundaries that flex with the tasks and technologies that are engaged. Resistance, then, arises when new technologies pose disruptive and undesired changes to those boundaries

Rethinking the Characteristics of IS/IT Innovations:Rhetorics and Managerial Perspective

The innovation is an important concept in organizational studies of information systems (IS) and information technologies (IT). In particular, it plays a central role in research on IS/IT adoption and diffusion (Fichman, 1992; Swanson, 1994). This work draws on a long tradition of research on the diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 1983; Zaltman et al., 1973). Central to this tradition is the straightforward notion that (1) prospective adopters evaluate innovations in making their adoption decisions, and (2) those evaluations can be said to focus on particular characteristics of innovations that are made salient by the practical challenges adopters face. Scholars have offered numerous characteristics for consideration, in the context of studies addressing many different kinds of innovations (Tornatzky & Klein, 1982). On the whole, these characteristics pertain primarily to individual adopters (Rogers, 1983) and have consequently found their main use, in IS/IT research, in diffusion studies focused on end users (e.g., Moore & Benbasat, 1991; Ramiller, 1994; Wynekoop, 1992). However, where the research focus shifts to adoption decisions at the organizational level, the pertinent challenges change and therefore so, too, do the salient characteristics of IS/IT innovations. But, what are these characteristics? On the whole, the research literature addressing this question is thin. The research-in-progress that is the subject of this report addresses this lacuna

From the Neighborhood Up! : Neighborhood Sustainability Certification Frameworks and the New Urban Politics of Scale

Urban sustainability goals are closely tied to the current political context, in which the imperative to attract highly mobile global capital frequently steers the objectives of local government. In this paper, I argue for the incorporation of the neighborhood scale into contemporary understandings of “local” or “urban” sustainability policy, emphasizing the potential for multi-scalar certification frameworks to subvert the predominant global-local relationship. By shifting the conceptualization and implementation of sustainability from globally dependent urban regimes to a diverse array of discrete urban communities, neighborhood-scale initiatives are able to draw greater attention to issues of social equity, environmental justice, and spatially uneven development. At the same time, the ability for those initiatives to operate within (inter)national certification frameworks provides them with guidance, greater legitimacy, and opportunities for knowledge-sharing. I explore this idea through an examination of two neighborhood-scale sustainability certification frameworks: the well-established “LEED for Neighborhood Development” certification that uses a points-based framework to evaluate the sustainability of neighborhood redevelopment designs; and the “EcoDistricts” framework, which uses a general set of “imperatives” to evaluate neighborhood sustainability. Through quantitative analysis, I find that neighborhoods participating in both of these frameworks are at potential risk of gentrification. However, through case studies and empirical analysis, I find that certification frameworks and neighborhood-scale projects form a mutually constitutive relationship in which interpretations of sustainability and social equity are generated by neighborhood stakeholders, codified through certification, and evolve through local adaptation

Applying the Social of Translation to a System Project in a Lagging Enterprise

Although actor-network theory (ANT) is enjoying increasing interest in information systems research, we are still in the early stages of understanding and appreciating ANT’s potential for drawing lessons and developing guidance for industry practitioners. This paper focuses on extending that practical understanding. Here, ANT is applied in creating an account of a human-services firm’s experience in building its first major information system. Several practical implications are drawn that point the way toward further adapting ANT thinking for applied use in system-project contexts. Central among the insights are: the potential value in viewing project leadership in terms of actor-network management; the need to treat network management more as a matter of facilitation than control; the importance of recognizing that the effective management of interests may have to begin with the very constitution of those interests; the need to understand how indirect representations of key interests during software construction may break down when the interests themselves are directly engaged during implementation; the need to manage the particulars of critical issues on which network stability depends; and the importance of grasping the interdependence between network stability and adaptability in design

The Virtual Interactive Case Project in the Systems Analysis and Design Course

A team-based term project is a common feature of the systems analysis and design course. However, instructors often face a difficult choice between field projects and written cases. Field projects offer students a more realistic experience; however, they are more difficult to focus properly, tend to produce uneven opportunities, and are prone to problems with client access and reliability. This paper reports on a hybrid, technology-assisted approach that attempts to achieve some of the advantages of both approaches

Making the Case: The Systems Project Case Study as Storytelling

Term projects based on case studies are a common way to engage students in the concepts and skills introduced by information-systems development courses. The case study works as a pedagogical approach in great part because it tells a story, which taps into the centrality of narrative in human cognition. This paper draws on thinking in the area of narrative studies in order to develop a systematic perspective on the task of writing systems-project case studies. A general narrative framework for the case study is proposed, with the goal of providing structured guidance in the development, use, and evaluation of cases. The author’s recent experience in developing a case study for use in database-management courses illustrates key points

Community Learning in Information Technology Fashion

In their striving to learn about information technology innovations, organizations draw on knowledge resources available in the diverse organizational communities that converge around those innovations. But even as such organizations learn about an innovation, so too does the larger community. Community learning takes place as its members reflect upon their learning and contribute their experiences, observations, and insights to the community’s on-going innovation discourse. Community learning and organizational learning thus build upon one another in a reciprocal process, or cycle, over time, as the stock of interpretations, adoption rationales, implementation strategies, and utilization patterns is expanded and refined. Relative to this overall cycle, we explore the neglected aspect that concerns how community learning draws on organizational learning. Analyzing the community discourse on enterprise resource planning (ERP) over the past 14 years, we found that different types of organizational actors played different roles, at different times, in contributing different types of knowledge to the discourse. Research analysts and technology vendors took leadership early on in articulating the know-what (conceptualization and interpretation) and know-why (justification) for ERP. Later on, adopters came to dominate the discourse through contributions of know-how (capacitation). We situate these observations in a larger model of the learning cycle, and outline a number of areas for future research on the crucial interactions between organizational and community learning in IT innovation

Radioactive silicon as a marker in thin-film silicide formation

A new technique using radioactive 31Si (half-life =2.62 h), formed in a nuclear reactor, as a marker for studying silicide formation is described. A few hundred angstroms of radioactive silicon is first deposited onto the silicon substrate, followed immediately by the deposition of a few thousand angstroms of the metal. When the sample is heated, a silicide is first formed with the radioactive silicon. Upon further silicide formation, this band of radioactive silicide can move to the surface of the sample if silicide formation takes place by diffusion of the metal or by silicon substitutional and/or vacancy diffusion. However, if the band of radioactive silicide stays at the silicon substrate interface it can be concluded that silicon diffuses by interstitial and/or grain-boundary diffusion. This technique was tested by studying the formation of Ni2Si on silicon at 330 °C. From a combination of ion-beam sputtering, radioactivity measurement, and Rutherford backscattering it is found that the band of radioactive silicide moves to the surface of the sample during silicide formation. From these results, implanted noble-gas marker studies and the rate dependence of Ni2Si growth on grain size, it is concluded that nickel is the dominant diffusing species during Ni2Si formation, and that it moves by grain-boundary diffusion