Sociomateriality in Digital Health
Matthew JonesSummary
A body of research has emerged since 2007 that has adopted the term sociomateriality to not only describe a range of approaches that seek to redress the neglect of materiality in the study of technology and organizations but also to challenge traditional conceptions of technology and organizations as self-contained entities that influence, or interact with, one another. Drawing on ideas from science and technology studies, sociomateriality, especially of the latter variety, proposes that technology and organizations form a mutually constitutive assemblage. Although the applicability of sociomaterial concepts is not restricted either to healthcare or to digital technologies, these ideas have been taken up in a number of healthcare studies, some of which involve digital technologies.