The Conceptualization of IT: Respective Contributions of Sociology and Information System
François-Xavier de Vaujany ()
Computer Programs from University Library of Munich, Germany
Abstract:
The following article aims at analyzing the different phases the IS- sociology relationship has gone through and at pointing out some specific features of sociologists and IS scientists in their conceptualization of IT. It shows that both academic fields develop more and more convergent theorizations. The first part is centred on an historical analysis of sociology itself. It shows the great comeback of the Object within the sociological field at the beginning of the 80s. Different models have been developed from the generalized kinds of sociology to those that have been focused on the social construction of the Object. These make up sociological groups, which we call 'autonomous'. Part two is based on sociological approaches used and worked out in the domain of IS. These are presented by means of three historical moments (causalist, actor-based and processual). For each of these stages the influence of sociologies, notably those that deal with the Object, is obvious and models are more or less 'illuminated' by means of broader perspectives. In the third part, there is a discussion of ontological differences between the work of sociologists studying IS objects and the work of IS researchers drawing on sociologists’ conceptual contributions. Lastly, it seems that if sociology and IS sometimes diverge in the way they study sociotechnical systems, they converge gradually in their conceptualization of the IT artifact.
Keywords: IT conceptualization; Sociology of IS; IS management; sociotechnical approaches; IS research; epistemology. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-09-25
Note: Type of Document - zip; pages: 28. Source: de Vaujany (FX), (2005), « The Conceptualization of IT: Respective Contributions of Sociology and Information System », Journal of Information Technology Impact, vol 5, n°1, pp. 39-58
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/prog/papers/0509/0509001.zip (application/zip)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwppr:0509001
Access Statistics for this software item
More software in Computer Programs from University Library of Munich, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by EconWPA ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).