The materiality of contract in relation to ICT: Lessons from a biography of contract management software

Abstract

This paper explores the materiality of contract in relation to ICT as illuminated by a biography of contract management software. Lessons learned are: that contracting is situated, entangled and dynamic and resists abstract, closed and static approaches to automation; the importance of material dimensions of contracting such as data practices (including data definition and extraction, data entry, data quality assurance, and the construction and integration of databases), scale in relation to cost, and industry; that while some contracts are suitable for algorithmic reduction, some are not, and the contract document is likely to remain important in relation to the latter; and that algorithmic reduction of contract does not necessarily generate synthesizing organizational contracting knowledge - an "enterprise view" of contract - but potentially confounds it. This study suggests as a basis for further research a theorization of contract as a technology of connectedness, in a relationship of potential convergence, complementarity and substitution with ICT. © 2014 IEEE.