Agnostic Affordances: Challenging the Critical Realist Connection
Lanamäki, Arto (2023-12-06)
Avaa tiedosto
Sisältö avataan julkiseksi: 06.12.2024
Springer
06.12.2023
Lanamäki, A. (2023). Agnostic Affordances: Challenging the Critical Realist Connection. In: Jones, M.R., Mukherjee, A.S., Thapa, D., Zheng, Y. (eds) After Latour: Globalisation, Inequity and Climate Change. IFIPJWC 2023. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 696. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50154-8_20
https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
© 2023 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
© 2023 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202312083583
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202312083583
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
James J. Gibson’s affordance theory (AT) and Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism (CR) have both gained attention in Information Systems (IS) research. After works by Markus and Silver [1] and Volkoff and Strong [2], IS research has linked affordance theory (AT) with CR metatheory. However, this essay challenges this connection in three ways: 1) Gibson was not a critical realist; 2) The similarities between CR and AT are limited; and 3) The legitimacy of the CR-AT connection is questionable because it is not present outside IS. The essay then showcases examples of IS-AT research that use AT with non-CR perspectives, proving that affordance is a neutral concept that can be applied with any theoretical approach. Finally, I propose that an exploration of the New Mechanical Philosophy’s (NMP) concept of methodological mechanism (MM) could aid in establishing a non-committal and neutral characterization of AT in IS.
James J. Gibson’s affordance theory (AT) and Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism (CR) have both gained attention in Information Systems (IS) research. After works by Markus and Silver [1] and Volkoff and Strong [2], IS research has linked affordance theory (AT) with CR metatheory. However, this essay challenges this connection in three ways: 1) Gibson was not a critical realist; 2) The similarities between CR and AT are limited; and 3) The legitimacy of the CR-AT connection is questionable because it is not present outside IS. The essay then showcases examples of IS-AT research that use AT with non-CR perspectives, proving that affordance is a neutral concept that can be applied with any theoretical approach. Finally, I propose that an exploration of the New Mechanical Philosophy’s (NMP) concept of methodological mechanism (MM) could aid in establishing a non-committal and neutral characterization of AT in IS.
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