The Facets of Sociomateriality: A Systematic Mapping of Emerging Concepts and Definitions

Abstract

Abstract. Sociomateriality is gaining momentum and is by now characterized as a research stream in the information system field. Although some definitions emerged, there is still uncertainty about how to conceptually and analytically address sociomateriality. The debate ranges from understanding sociomateriality as just a fancy word for technology to treating it as a de-facto theory of the human-technology relationship. To bring the field forward, a common basic understanding of what sociomateriality entails is needed. In this paper we set out to contribute to such an understanding. We do this by conducting a systematic mapping study of emerging concepts and definitions in the current empirical body of literature on sociomateriality. Our analysis finds three key resulting facets: mutuality (what is a sociomaterial assemblage?), performativity (how does it perform?), and multidimensionality (When and where does it perform?). Our findings outline how sociomaterial studies analytically and methodologically address performativity spanning across time and space.

A Case Study of an Information Infrastructure Supporting Knowledge Work in Oil and Gas Exploration

“…This paper brings forward a case of modern O&G exploration and shows how it is a sociomaterial (Parmiggiani & Mikalsen 2013) and highly information-centric process, involving a complex combination of information systems, large amounts of heterogeneous data (the material), and several teams cooperating across space and time (the social). This sociomaterial assembly can be seen as an information infrastructure (II), a concept originating in science and technology studies.…”

Sociomaterial analysis of Music Notation Lessons: Virtual work and digital materialities

“…Recent management and organization science scholarship seeks for theoretical insights by recapitulating constructs such as social practice [1] [3], affordances [2] and virtual team work [4] [26]. Information Systems (IS) researchers [5] [6] [9] explore and classify facets of sociomateriality. The Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) community is also engaged in debates about the configurations of the social and material [7], the way in which new digital technologies establish new materialities [8] and the techniques which may offer useful insights [10].…”

Adopting a Sociomaterial Perspective for the Analysis of Digital Public Spheres

“…Claiming CMC as both socially and materially constituted effects an analytical orientation acknowledging the social construction of material artifacts enacted in human practice, and that this socially-enacted materiality is a constitutive agent within these practices (Orlikowski & Scott, 2008;Leonardi, 2012;Parmiggiani & Mikalsen, 2013). The mutual constitution of artifacts thus opens up the black box of 'technology" to analysis and critique.…”

“…This aspect reiterates the contextual embeddedness of all sociomaterial practices, while remaining aware of the instability of these bounded contexts (Parmiggiani & Mikalsen, 2013;Sawyer & Jarrahi, 2013). Sociomaterial analysis revealing the dynamic spatio-temporal relationships of a practice extends awareness toward more expansive and complex contextual strata.…”

“…As discussed earlier, a sociomaterial perspective is recommended as a means of theorizing the particular character of political engagement through CMC, and of analyzing these practices beyond their particular contextual enactments. A sociomaterial perspective regards the mutual constitution of the social and material within enacted practices, and consists of three interrelated aspects: mutual constitution, performativity, and contextual multidimensionality (Parmiggiani & Mikalsen, 2013;Sawyer & Jarrahi, 2013).…”