Sociomateriality and Organizational Analysis: from Rhetoric to Relevance

Abstract This essay expands upon the debate on sociomateriality with a critique of the current ontological agenda. Based upon the influential literature from the fields of management and organization studies, and information systems, it presents the emergence, the development, the consolidation and the popularization of the debate on the relations between the social and the material in organizations. Drawing on this trajectory, the paper suggests that the current agenda for a sociomaterial ontology is constituted predominantly through rhetorical uses of the notion of ontology. The relevance of this contribution lies in questioning the supposed development of a sociomaterial ontology, describing and exemplifying its rhetorical strategies: authorial randomness, theoretical centrifugation, and conceptual procrastination. It concludes that it is necessary to return to the phenomenon as relevant “in” the debate from the point of view of its trajectory: the diffusion of new technologies and the subsequent implications at the organizational and social levels. The main implication for future research is the adoption of pragmatic ontologies with the aim of restoring the primacy of the phenomenon over the ontology.

摘要 本文针对当前本体论议程展开批判，以此拓展关于社会物质性（sociomateriality）的学术论辩。本文依托管理与组织研究、信息系统领域的权威文献，梳理了组织中社会与物质关系相关论辩的兴起、发展、巩固与普及历程。基于这一发展轨迹，本文指出，当前社会物质性本体论议程主要通过对本体论概念的修辞性运用构建而成。本研究的理论贡献在于，对所谓社会物质性本体论的发展进程提出质疑，并对其采用的三类修辞策略进行描述与例证：作者任意性、理论离心化以及概念拖沓。本文最终提出，应当回归论辩中依据其发展轨迹被视为核心的现象本身——即新技术的扩散及其在组织与社会层面引发的后续影响。本研究对未来研究的核心启示在于，应采用实用主义本体论，以恢复现象相较于本体论的首要地位。