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364-1147-00L 1 Credits DR D-MTEC
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Technology and Organization: A Social Practice Perspective

Lecturers & Examiners: Dr. Eugenia Cacciatori
VVZ CR n/a

Last Updated: 2026-02-05 15:55:27

Abstract

The social practice approach provides a nuanced way to examine the co-shaping of technology and organizing, and account for ‘the duality of technology’ as it operates between the material and the social. We will look at what that means and how to craft research and papers in this perspective.

Objective

After this seminar participants will: - Know the distinctive features of the social practice approach to technology and organizing, including what questions it can and cannot answer - Know the distinctive features of specific approaches to sociomateriality - Know the debates surrounding key concepts in these approaches, such as material agency, affordances, socio-material entanglement, boundary object, epistemic objects etc. - Understand the methodological strategies associates with a social practice approach to technology - Be able to generate research questions and research strategies with a view to advancing the scholarly debate in this area - Be able to position a paper in this literature

Content

This seminar will be relevant to students interested in developing a socially grounded perspective on how technologies are adopted and used, in particular in relation to problem-solving processes, knowledge flows, and power dynamics of organizations and industries. The seminar will enable participants to become familiar with a major theoretical perspective that is influencing technology studies in organization theory and information systems; and that is becoming increasingly influential in strategy via the strategy as practice approach. Participants will benefit from having attended a foundational seminar on knowledge in organizations (e.g., “Perspectives on Organizational Knowledge”) and will find the module a useful complement to modules such as “Innovation in the Digital Space”. The seminar will be structured in three sessions of three hours plus 15 minutes break each. Each session will include a short introduction by the lecturer. A discussion of readings, led by designated discussants but involving all participants, will follow.

Resources

Literature

Bailey, D. E., Leonardi, P. M., Barley, S. R. (2012). The lure of the virtual. Organization Science, 23(5), 1485-1504. Barley, S. R. (1986). Technology as an occasion for structuring: Evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments. Administrative Science Quarterly, 31(78-108). Beane, M. (2019). Shadow learning: Building robotic surgical skill when approved means fail. Administrative Science Quarterly, 64(1), 87-123. Bechky, B. A. (2003). Object lessons: Workplace artifacts as representations of occupational jurisdiction. American Journal of Sociology, 109(3), 720-752. Comi, A., Whyte, J. (2017). Future making and visual artefacts: An ethnographic study of a design project. Organization Studies, 0170840617717094. Leonardi, P. M. (2013). Theoretical foundations for the study of sociomateriality. Information and Organization, 23(2), 59-76. Leonardi, P. M. (2017). Methodological guidelines for the study of materiality and affordances In M. Raza & S. Jain (Eds.), Routledge companion to qualitative research in organization studies (pp. 279-290). New York: Routledge. MacKenzie, D., Spears, T. (2014). ‘A device for being able to book P&L’: The organizational embedding of the Gaussian copula. Social Studies of Science, 44(3), 418-440. Nicolini, D., Mengis, J., Swan, J. (2011). Understanding the role of objects in cross-disciplinary collaboration. Organization Science. Orlikowski, W. J. (1992). The duality of technology: Rethinking the concept of technology in organizations. Organization Science, 3(3), 398-427.

General Information

Language
English
Levels
DR
Frequency
Every two years

Examination

Type
ungraded semester performance
Assessment (pass or fail) will be based on:Seminar participationWritten coursework submissions.

Course Components

Type Title Time & Place Hours
lecture Technology and Organization: A Social Practice Perspective
Block course
  • 06.05 Date 14:15-17:00 (HG G 26.5)
  • 20.05 Date 14:15-17:00 (HG G 26.5)
  • 27.05 Date 14:15-17:00 (HG G 26.5)
9 h semesterly

Offered In