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 本文围绕社会物质性（sociomateriality）相关论争展开拓展性研究，并对当前的本体论（ontology）研究议程进行批判。本文依托管理学、组织研究与信息系统领域的经典文献，梳理了组织领域内社会与物质关系论争的兴起、发展、固化与普及进程。基于这一发展脉络，本文指出，当前社会物质性本体论的研究议程，在很大程度上是通过对“本体论”概念的修辞性运用构建而成的。本研究的理论贡献在于，对社会物质性本体论的所谓发展进程提出质疑，并对其采用的三类修辞策略进行梳理与例证：作者随机性（authorial randomness）、理论离心化（theoretical centrifugation）与概念迁延（conceptual procrastination）。本文最终提出，有必要回归该论争中基于其发展脉络而言的核心现象——新技术的扩散及其在组织与社会层面所产生的后续影响。本研究对未来研究的主要启示在于，应采用实用主义本体论（pragmatic ontologies），以恢复现象相对于本体论的首要地位。