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Agnostic Affordances: Challenging the Critical Realist Connection

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After Latour: Globalisation, Inequity and Climate Change (IFIPJWC 2023)

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((IFIPAICT,volume 696))

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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.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.janrecker.com/this-is-research-podcast/affordances-is-the-new-tam/

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Acknowledgements

I originally drafted this paper in 2021. It underwent two rounds of revisions at EJIS from December 2021 to January 2023. Afterwards, it was reviewed at I&O from February to May 2023. These processes significantly enhanced the paper’s arguments. I express my gratitude to the editors and reviewers at EJIS, I&O, and the IFIP joint conference for their valuable support. It is important to note the standard disclaimer: Any remaining errors or shortcomings are solely my responsibility.

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  1. University of Oulu, PO Box 8000, 90014, Oulun Yliopisto, Finland

    Arto Lanamäki

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  1. Arto Lanamäki
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  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Matthew R. Jones

  2. University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Arunima S. Mukherjee

  3. University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Devinder Thapa

  4. University of Essex, Colchester, UK

    Yingqin Zheng

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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

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