What Does Really Matter in Technology Adoption and Use? A CCO Approach

Abstract

International audienceBuilding on Orlikowski's reflections on sociomateriality, this article argues that we have to stop separating the material and the social to be able to precisely account for what matters in technology adoption and use, and that one way to do this is to take people's matters of concern seriously. This means two things: taking into account all the matters of concern that come to express themselves in conversations (whether related to tools, rules, documents, principles, etc.) and not just the people who voice them, and showing how some of these concerns start mattering more than others by connecting with other matters of concern. To demonstrate the theoretical and empirical value of this approach, we analyze two interactional episodes taken from our longitudinal study of the introduction of a wiki at the French National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management

A Relational Approach to Materiality and Organizing: The Case of a Creative Idea

“…As Latour [31] reminds us, the term "social" indeed comes etymologically from the Latin sequor, which means "to follow" -a word that also gave the Latin secta, which means a line of conduct, way of life, or principle, and is the root of the English word "sect" [36]. Speaking about the social aspect of something or someone thus amounts to referring to what relates this thing or person to other beings.…”

“…According to this third version of sociomateriality, sociality and materiality should be considered two different and intractable aspects of everything that comes to exist and be [36]. By focusing on the material aspect of something or someone, we highlight what sustains its existence.…”

“…and, on the other, an immaterial/social world (the one of thoughts, emotions, discourse, speech, cultures, ideas, etc.). On the contrary, if something (or someone) exists, it is always because it materializes itself in one way or another, whether through the form of a website [1,11,36], a spokesperson [40], a number [52], a look [41], etc. through which a relation is established.…”

The yellow vests and the communicative constitution of a protest movement

“…And, in Extract 3, the gilet jaune movement is constituted as a movement against Vinci, a company that 'takes' the money of motorway users. However, this is only part of the story and this is where a purely linguistic analyses might stop; yet as Martine et al (2015) note, 'when something, whatever it may be, starts animating a conversation, it certainly becomes discursive but it would be a mistake to reduce it to a purely discursive (or social) entity' (p. 21). Martine et al (2015) therefore argue that it is not talk alone that constitutes the organization/protest movement, rather it is within the communicative interplay between human and non-humans that one must look for the constitution of organizations/protest movements.…”

Evaluating Creativity Through the Degrees of Solidity of Its Assessment: A Relational Approach

“…This is important for, as various communication researchers have shown over the past 10 years, creativity is far from being the only thing that manifests itself over the course of communicational interactions. Things as various as rules, technologies, emotions, principles, ideas, or even architectural elements have been shown not only to act in such interactions, but also to act with various degrees of authority or force (Bencherki & Cooren, 2011;Cooren & Sandler, 2014;Kuhn & Burk, 2014;Martine, Cooren, B enel, & Zacklad, 2016;Vasquez, 2013). Vasquez, C. (2013 …”