Paper Type
Completed Research Paper
Abstract
User resistance to new technology has long been a central concern to the information systems discipline. The current discourse on “sociomateriality” invites us to rethink what resistance means in individual terms. This essay represents a preliminary effort to recast resistance as a phenomenon that reflects the politics of personal boundaries. Sociomateriality figures into the discussion because it challenges distinctions that have customarily been assumed to hold between the human and social, on the one hand, and the material and technological, on the other. Notwithstanding this challenge, however, to make progress in understanding resistance, we must recognize that the dissolution of such distinctions is a pragmatic accomplishment. Here I propose that it is useful to view the individual as having personal boundaries that flex with the tasks and technologies that are engaged. Resistance, then, arises when new technologies pose disruptive and undesired changes to those boundaries.
Recommended Citation
Ramiller, Neil C., "Reconsidering Resistance in the Post-Human Era" (2013). AMCIS 2013 Proceedings. 3.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2013/ISPhilosophy/GeneralPresentations/3
Reconsidering Resistance in the Post-Human Era
User resistance to new technology has long been a central concern to the information systems discipline. The current discourse on “sociomateriality” invites us to rethink what resistance means in individual terms. This essay represents a preliminary effort to recast resistance as a phenomenon that reflects the politics of personal boundaries. Sociomateriality figures into the discussion because it challenges distinctions that have customarily been assumed to hold between the human and social, on the one hand, and the material and technological, on the other. Notwithstanding this challenge, however, to make progress in understanding resistance, we must recognize that the dissolution of such distinctions is a pragmatic accomplishment. Here I propose that it is useful to view the individual as having personal boundaries that flex with the tasks and technologies that are engaged. Resistance, then, arises when new technologies pose disruptive and undesired changes to those boundaries.