Strong versus Weak Sociomateriality

Abstract

This rejoinder discusses the essay by Ramiller (2016) entitled "New Technology and the Post-human self: Rethinking Appropriation and Resistance" which aims at exploring the implications of a sociomaterial perspective for people's practical encounters with new information technologies. Our argument is based on our position within strong materiality, which in line with the essay acknowledges the materiality of the post-human self, but does not accept a dualist positon which separates the human and the technical, or as the author expresses it the 'user' and the 'system'. While we agree with the author that it is important to research how sociomaterial entanglements emerge and not just research those which exist, we maintain "strong" sociomateriality does not, as the author puts forward, represent an end point for the academic inquiry into IT appropriation, but indeed is a starting point.