Dual materiality and knowing in petroleum production

Authors:
Thomas Østerlie;Petter G. Almklov;Vidar Hepsø
Affiliations:
Department of Computer and Information Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway;NTNU Social Research Ltd., 7491 Trondheim, Norway;Department of Petroleum Engineering and Applied Geophysics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Venue:
Information and Organization
Year:
2012

Citing 9
Cited 5

A confessional account of an ethnography about knowledge work

MIS Quarterly
Knowing in Practice: Enacting a Collective Capability in Distributed Organizing

Organization Science
Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions

Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions
The social construction and visualisation of a new Norwegian offshore installation

ECSCW'97 Proceedings of the fifth conference on European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
Materiality and change: Challenges to building better theory about technology and organizing

Information and Organization
Organizing technologies of vision: Making the invisible visible in media-laden observations

Information and Organization
Review: Knowledge management and knowledge management systems: conceptual foundations and research issues

MIS Quarterly
Reliability, mindfulness, and information systems

MIS Quarterly
Who decides the shape of product markets? The knowledge institutions that name and categorise new technologies

Information and Organization

The family resemblance of technologically mediated work practices

Information and Organization
Exploring preconditions for open innovation: Value networks in industrial firms

Information and Organization
Sociomateriality at the royal court of IS

Information and Organization
Beyond the computer: Changing medium from digital to physical

Information and Organization
Conceptual fluidity in the study of accounting information systems: the case of corporate performance management

International Journal of Business Information Systems

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between materiality and knowing through the notion of dual materiality. Dual materiality highlights how digital technology becomes important, as its materiality plays an integral part in creating, not simply representing, the materiality of the physical world. We elaborate upon this insight through a theory on sociomaterial knowing grounded in ethnographic fieldwork within a petroleum company. The main theoretical proposition of this theory is that knowing arises from the emerging patterns of interaction between material phenomena, the material arrangements for knowing about these phenomena, and knowledge practices. We elaborate upon this through three predominant modes of knowing in petroleum production: instrumentation, interpretation, and learning. This paper contributes to the broader discourse on sociomateriality by refining ideas of materiality through the notion of dual materiality. We conclude by encouraging further exploration of different materialities in contemporary work and organizing.