Systemic Complexity and Sociomateriality-A Research Agenda

This study proposes an agenda—Systemic Complexity—that returns the information systems (IS) field back to its original foundations in systems thinking by focusing on the elements of complexity in systems. It extends previous studies of complexity in IS by (1) emphasizing the material agency of the information technology (IT) artifact and its symmetry with human agency, (2) leveraging existing research traditions in IS using principles of complexity such as nonlinearity and self-organization, and (3) opening the IS field to better understand emergent behaviors of complex systems. The study also argues how these concepts are commensurable with sociomaterial research approaches allowing IS to progress into new directions of research using mutually reinforcing methods in both complexity science and sociomateriality.

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