B1 Non-refereed journal articles
Enacting Accountability in IS Research after the Sociomaterial Turn(ing) (2020)

Schultze, U., van den Heuvel, G., & Niemimaa, M. (2020). Enacting Accountability in IS Research after the Sociomaterial Turn(ing). Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 21(4), Article 10. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00620

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Schultze, Ulrike; van den Heuvel, Gijs; Niemimaa, Marko

Journal or series: Journal of the Association for Information Systems

eISSN: 1536-9323

Publication year: 2020

Volume: 21

Issue number: 4

Article number: 10

Publisher: Association for Information Systems

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00620

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access:

Additional information: Editorial.

Abstract

Sociomateriality represents an emergent philosophical stance that instantiates an ontological turn towards relationality and materiality in information systems (IS) research. As an emergent perspective or way of seeing, sociomateriality has significant implications for researchers and the practices they employ. If we accept that the ontological, epistemological, and methodological assumptions we enact in our research shape the realities we perceive and create, questions around researchers’ accountability for the realities they produce need to be addressed. The sociomaterial turn(ing) in IS challenges our deeply held assumptions about what constitutes reality. What are these challenges, and how are they being addressed in sociomaterial research? And what implications for accountability in IS research more generally does a turn towards relationality and materiality hold? The objectives of this editorial are: (1) to sensitize IS researchers, irrespective of their ontological and epistemological persuasions, to the field’s turn(ing) toward relationality and materiality; (2) to provide insight into the practices of data generation, analysis, and presentation through which this turn(ing) is being enacted in sociomaterial theorizing; and (3) to contemplate the implications of this turn(ing) for the accountability of IS research more generally.

Keywords: information systems science; relativity; materiality; ontology (philosophy); theory of knowledge; methodology; research ethics; liability

Free keywords: relationality; materiality; ontology; entanglement; performativity; world-making; research ethics

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2020