The IRMA Community
Newsletters
Research IRM
Click a keyword to search titles using our InfoSci-OnDemand powered search:
|
From Intermediary to Mediator and Vice Versa: On Agency and Intentionality of a Mundane Sociotechnical System
Abstract
Assuming symmetry between human and nonhuman actors is a tenet of actor-network theory (ANT), i.e., an actor, anyone or anything that modifies a state of affairs. This symmetric perspective entails granting agency attributes to both human and nonhuman actors, an approach that has been often criticised. By means of a combination of research observation and participation, the use of electronic mail systems, especially the automatically generated “Out of Office” message, is examined in this article to emphasise the distinction between agency and intentionality. The fundamental assumption is that work practices are nothing less than technology mediated activities and the use of electronic mail and its multiple tools is an inherently sociotechnical practice. The notions of intermediaries and mediators are introduced not only to corroborate that the division between the social and the technical is artificial but also to reveal the difference between nonhuman agency and human intentionality.
Related Content
|
Man Tianxing, Vasiliy Yurievich Osipov, Ildar Raisovich Baimuratov, Natalia Alexandrovna Zhukova, Alexander Ivanovich Vodyaho, Sergey Vyacheslavovich Lebedev.
© 2020.
27 pages.
|
|
Alexey Kashevnik, Nikolay Teslya.
© 2020.
23 pages.
|
|
Sergey Vyacheslavovich Lebedev, Michail Panteleyev.
© 2020.
26 pages.
|
|
Valentin Olenev, Yuriy Sheynin, Irina Lavrovskaya, Ilya Korobkov, Lev Kurbanov, Nadezhda Chumakova, Nikolay Sinyov.
© 2020.
42 pages.
|
|
Konstantin Nedovodeev, Yuriy Sheynin, Alexey Syschikov, Boris Sedov, Vera Ivanova, Sergey Pakharev.
© 2020.
34 pages.
|
|
Andrey Kuzmin, Maxim Safronov, Oleg Bodin, Victor Baranov.
© 2020.
23 pages.
|
|
Alexander Yu. Meigal, Dmitry G. Korzun, Alex P. Moschevikin, Sergey Reginya, Liudmila I. Gerasimova-Meigal.
© 2020.
26 pages.
|
|
|