Principles for IT Praxiography

As information technologies become increasingly distributed, assembled and evolving through use, new conceptualizations of IT-as-artifact are pertinent. This theoretical paper compares two different analytical approaches that explicitly attempt to move beyond our commonplace conceptions of information technologies as single, fixed, and stable objects. The paper starts by outlining a structurational practice approach, an influential line of research in the Information Systems field. Secondly, a more radical practice approach is borrowed from the field of Science and Technology Studies and discussed as a promising path for bringing the complexities of contemporary IT into view. Building on the latter practice approach, the paper concludes with a set of principles for conducting IT praxiography that can improve our understanding of how IT emerges through a range of differing sites, practices and concerns.