The Social Construction of Technology: A Critical Organizational Interpretation

• In Event: Expanding The Relationship of Technology and Organizing

Abstract

This paper offers an alternative critique of Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) approaches. This takes a critical organizational perspective that accounts for organizations as discursive sites of struggle. To illustrate the utility of critical organizational concepts for the development of SCOT research, Orlikowski’s (1992) structurational model of technology is interrogated. Specific concepts from critical organizational perspectives are offered to provide the necessary conceptual tools to begin opening up the many black boxes of interpretive flexibility.

Author

• Amanda Porter, University of Colorado, Boulder