1 Version as of 11 April, 2013, for comment: An edited version of this is to appear in Tucker, A. and Topi, H. (Ed) CRC Handbook of Computing, Chapman and Hall, in press. Sociotechnical approaches to the study of Information Systems Steve Sawyer, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY 13244 USA
[email protected] Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY 13244 USA
[email protected] Abstract Through this chapter we provide an overview of the sociotechnical premise: the mutual constitution of people and technologies. The sociotechnical premise and its various approaches, including the seminal work of the Tavistock scholars, the Nordic and Scandic approaches, and their evolution, are developed as the historical basis of this work. In the chapter we also cover the role of sociological thinking, the contributions of science and technology studies and social construction/social shaping of technology, actor network theories, and contemporary approaches. The chapter concludes with a cursory review of current debates around economic sociology, multidimensional networks and advancing our current conceptualization of the digital artifact. Acknowledgements Thanks to Brian Butler, Sean Goggins, and Heikki Topi for their comments on earlier versions of this chapter. Thanks to students of the Syracuse iSchool’s “sociotech reading group,” and particularly Gabe Mugar, Matt Willis, Andreas Kuehn, and Janet Marsden, for comments and questions on formative parts of the work presented here.