Governing social practice: Technology and institutional change

In this article, we extend the concept of technology beyond the conventional understanding of systems and artifacts as embodiments of particular functionalities that are variously enacted in local settings. Technological artifacts or systems epitomize operational couplings that extend beyond the hum...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Theory and society Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 395 - 421
Main Authors: Kallinikos, Jannis, Hasselbladh, Hans, Marton, Attila
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.07.2013
Springer Netherlands
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Archives
Business Studies
Collective memory
Cultural factors
Cultural identity
Cultural institutions
Cultural memory
Cultural preservation
Digital libraries
Företagsekonomi
Governance
History of technology
Information
Information technology
Institutions
Interpersonal relations
Libraries
Literature
Museums
Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Professional practice
Regulative regimes
Search engines
Social control
Social relations
Social Sciences
Sociology
Sociology of knowledge and ethics
Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture
Sociology of technology
Status functions
Technological functions
Technology
Europe
Status functions
Regulative regimes
Search engines
Information
Institutions
Technological functions
Cultural memory
Social relationships
Memory
Digital
Technological evolution
Technology
Organizational Change
Culture
ISSN:0304-2421, 1573-7853, 1573-7853
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In this article, we extend the concept of technology beyond the conventional understanding of systems and artifacts as embodiments of particular functionalities that are variously enacted in local settings. Technological artifacts or systems epitomize operational couplings that extend beyond the human-technology interface. Such couplings entail multiple, unobtrusive, backstaged links that evade human interpretation yet are critically involved in the reproduction and control of social relations. Cast in this light, technologies emerge as complex rationalized embodiments for structuring social relationships and, in this quality, complement and occasionally compete with institutional modes of governance. We explore these ideas in the empirical context of cultural memory organizations (e.g., libraries, archives, museums). As the outcome of the technological developments that have marked the field over the last two decades, the operations of memory institutions increasingly mingle with those of information aggregators and search engines. These developments reframe longstanding professional practices of memory organizations and, in this process, challenge their institutional mandate.
Bibliography:SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0304-2421
1573-7853
1573-7853
DOI:10.1007/s11186-013-9195-y