A4 Refereed article in a conference publication

Entanglement of infrastructures and action: Exploring the material foundations of technicians' work in smart infrastructure context




AuthorsMarko Niemimaa

Conference nameInternational Conference on Information Systems

  • PublisherAssociation for Information Systems

Publication year2016

Book title ICIS 2016 Proceedings

Journal name in source2016 International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2016

ISBN978-0-9966831-3-5

ISSN1026-1079

Web address http://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2016/ISOrganizations/Presentations/12/


Abstract

This study explores the mutual constitution of materiality and action in smart infrastructure context by focusing on technicians' IT-enabled work with complex, distributed, and inherently unreliable smart power grid. Past research suggests infrastructures form a context and a topic unlike the dyadic interaction of humans and computers, and have provided accounts of the ways in which the smart infrastructures shape technicians' work. This study develops a view of agency in smart infrastructure context in order to increase understanding on materiality of action. A concept of infra-acting is brought forth that situates action as part of (the material constitution of) infrastructure. Infra-acting posits that performing actions as part of infrastructures are (1) conditioned by material history; (2) dependent on mobilizing actors; (3) shaped by invisible and dynamic actors; and (4) riddled by vagaries. An ethnographic research provides an empirical illustration to foreground technicians' actions corollary to the materiality of infrastructure.



Last updated on 26/11/2024 05:46:29 PM