Beyond Sociomaterial: An Alternative Approach to Theorizing About Digital Artifacts

Information Systems researchers often study artifacts in light of their purpose, use, and effects. Their research is often conducted relying on a socio-technical or sociomaterial based ontology. For these realism-based approaches, ever-present security vulnerabilities, conflate the properties of the digital artifact making it impossible to conceive of a universal artifact. This paper explores how the types, tokens, and properties of IT artifacts change because of these vulnerabilities. This problematic condition for realism can be resolved by the adoption of agential functionalism. A functionalist views the type and token of an artifact by the function that it performs which results in a more consistent ontology when considering the impacts of security events. This move beyond materialism considers the properties of the IT artifact important but atheoretical allowing researchers to focus on the artifact’s purpose, use, and effects. Ultimately, this ontology allows research to retain a type/token distinction necessary for generalized theories.