文章基本信息

标题：The Double Dance of Agency: A Socio-Theoretic Account of How Machines and Humans Interact
本地全文：下载
作者：Jeremy Rose ; Matthew Jones
期刊名称：Systems, Signs & Actions
电子版ISSN：1652-8719
出版年度：2005
卷号：1
期号：1
页码：19-37
出版社：Lingköping University, Aarhus University
摘要：The nature of the relationship between information technology (IT) and organizations has been a long-standing debate in the Information Systems literature. Does IT shape organizations, or do people in organisations control how IT is used? To formulate the question a little differently: does agency (the capacity to make a difference) lie predominantly with machines (computer systems) or humans (organisational actors)? Many proposals for a middle way between the extremes of technological and social determinism have been put advanced; in recent years researchers oriented towards social theories have focused on structuration theory and (lately) actor network theory. These two theories, however, adopt different and incompatible views of agency. Thus, structuration theory sees agency as exclusively a property of humans, whereas the principle of general symmetry in actor network theory implies that machines may also be agents. Drawing on critiques of both structuration theory and actor network theory, this paper develops a theoretical account of the interaction between human and machine agency: the double dance of agency. The account seeks to contribute to theorisation of the relationship between technology and organisation by recognizing both the different character of human and machine agency, and the emergent properties of their interplay.
关键词：agency; structuration theory; actor network theory; human-machine interaction; technology;organisation