Place-making: A Phenomenological Theory of Technology Appropriation

We study the introduction of new technology into (organizational) practices. We argue against the dualist under-pinning of typical IS technology appropriation literature and develop a phenomenological theory of appropriation based on Martin Heidegger’s analysis of equipment. On this view, technology moves from being an object inspected in the practice foreground to becoming equipment as a transparent means located in the practice background. We show that this transformation occurs through a practice of actively performed place-making in which the technology is accommodated in the practice among existing equipment, practical logics and social identities. We illustrate our theory with a rich case study of social media appropriation, making methodological use of the novel feature that self-referential conversations are captured within the technology, providing access to direct evidence of the appropriation phenomenon. The paper contributes a more nuanced sociomaterial account of the simultaneous transformation of technology and practices occurring in technology introduction.

[1]  Fred D. Davis,et al.  User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models , 1989 .

[2]  Andrew Pickering,et al.  The mangle of practice : time, agency, and science , 1997 .

[3]  Terry Winograd,et al.  Understanding computers and cognition - a new foundation for design , 1987 .

[4]  Kai Riemer,et al.  Artifact or Equipment? Rethinking the Core of IS using Heidegger's ways of being , 2011, ICIS.

[5]  Séamas Kelly,et al.  Distributed Communication as Collective Socio-material Sensemaking in Global Software Work , 2009, ICIS.

[6]  Karen Barad.  Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning , 2007 .

[7]  Linda Stern,et al.  Software appropriation over time: from adoption to stabilization and beyond , 2010 .

[8]  Shirley Gregor,et al.  The Nature of Theory in Information Systems , 2006, MIS Q..

[9]  Gabrielle Durepos.  Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor‐Network‐Theory , 2008 .

[10]  Alan R. Dennis,et al.  Understanding Fit and Appropriation Effects in Group Support Systems via Meta-Analysis , 2001, MIS Q..

[11]  Andrew McAfee,et al.  Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges , 2009 .

[12]  William D. Blattner.  Heidegger's 'Being and Time': A Reader's Guide , 2007 .

[13]  W. Orlikowski,et al.  Explicit and Implicit Structuring of Genres in Electronic Communication: Reinforcement and Change of Social Interaction , 1999 .

[14]  Jaana Porra,et al.  Colonial Systems , 1999, Inf. Syst. Res..

[15]  Gordon B. Davis,et al.  User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View , 2003, MIS Q..

[16]  Dale Goodhue,et al.  Task-Technology Fit and Individual Performance , 1995, MIS Q..

[17]  J. Alexander,et al.  Images of Organization , 1988 .

[18]  Leslie P. Willcocks,et al.  The mind or the heart? it depends on the (definition of) situation , 2006, J. Inf. Technol..

[19]  Richard A. Watson,et al.  Cartesian Metaphysics: The Scholastic Origins of Modern Philosophy , 2004 .

[20]  R. Hepburn,et al.  BEING AND TIME , 2010 .

[21]  Ronald E. Rice,et al.  Technology adaption: the case of a computer-supported inter-organizational virtual team 1 , 2000 .

[22]  Ralph Stair,et al.  Principles of information systems , 2014 .

[23]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations , 2000, Theory in CSCW.

[24]  Iris Marion Young,et al.  to Heidegger Blackwell Companions to Philosophy , 2005 .

[25]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  Toward a “Critical Mass” Theory of Interactive Media , 1987 .

[26]  Andreas Reckwitz.  Toward a Theory of Social Practices , 2002 .

[27]  Robert B. Johnston,et al.  The difficulty of studying inter-organisational IS phenomena on large scales: critical reflections on a research journey , 2010, Electron. Mark..

[28]  Ron Weber,et al.  Ontological foundations of information systems , 1997 .

[29]  Alexander Richter,et al.  Eliciting the Anatomy of Technology Appropriation Processes: a Case Study in Enterprise Social Media , 2012, ECIS.

[30]  T. Schatzki.  The Site of the Social: A Philosophical Account of the Constitution of Social Life and Change , 2002 .

[31]  Charles Taylor,et al.  Engaged agency and background in Heidegger , 1993 .

[32]  Graham Harman,et al.  Technology, objects and things in Heidegger. , 2010 .

[33]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[34]  R. Ruiz,et al.  Sein und zeit , 2007 .

[35]  Jorge Secada.  Cartesian Metaphysics: The Scholastic Origins of Modern Philosophy , 2000 .

[36]  Jun Zhang,et al.  A case study of micro-blogging in the enterprise: use, value, and related issues , 2010, CHI.

[37]  David Hume.  A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to introduce the experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects , 1972 .

[38]  W. Orlikowski.  The sociomateriality of organisational life: considering technology in management research , 2010 .

[39]  Susan V. Scott,et al.  10 Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization , 2008 .

[40]  Ron Weber,et al.  Evaluating and Developing Theories in the Information Systems Discipline , 2012, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[41]  Beth Preston,et al.  Cognition and Tool Use , 1998 .

[42]  Gerardine DeSanctis,et al.  Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory , 1994 .

[43]  Robert B. Johnston,et al.  Toward a Theory of IOIS Variance: A New Framework for Studying Inter-organisational Information Systems , 2010, Int. J. Strateg. Inf. Technol. Appl..

[44]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  A Foundation for the Study of IT Effects: A New Look at DeSanctis and Poole's Concepts of Structural Features and Spirit , 2008, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[45]  H. Dreyfus,et al.  Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time. , 1990 .

[46]  K. Weick,et al.  Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking , 2005 .

[47]  Ronald E. Rice,et al.  Technology Adaptation: The Case of a Computer-Supported Inter-Organizational Virtual Team , 2000, MIS Q..

[48]  Hubert L. Dreyfus,et al.  A Companion to Heidegger , 2004 .

[49]  Simon Critchley,et al.  On Heidegger's Being and Time , 2008 .

[50]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Where the action is , 2001 .

[51]  Lucas D. Introna.  Management, Information and Power , 1997 .

[52]  Lucas D. Introna.  Towards a Post-human Intra-actional Account of Sociomaterial Agency (and Morality) , 2014 .

[53]  B. Latour.  Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory , 2005 .

[54]  Karen Barad.  Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter , 2003, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

[55]  Phil Turner,et al.  Affordance as context , 2005, Interact. Comput..

[56]  Steven Crowell.  Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I by Hubert L. Dreyfus , 1993 .

[57]  A. Kellerman,et al.  The Constitution of Society : Outline of the Theory of Structuration , 2015 .

[58]  Frank Moisiadis,et al.  Principles of information systems, 2nd ed. , 2011 .

[59]  S. Howard,et al.  A Field Study of Perceptions and Use of Mobile Telephones by 16 to 22 Year Olds , 2002 .

[60]  L. Willcocks,et al.  Social theory and philosophy for information systems , 2004 .

[61]  P. Leonardi,et al.  What’s Under Construction Here? Social Action, Materiality, and Power in Constructivist Studies of Technology and Organizing , 2010 .