Becoming, Assemblages and Intensities: Re-Exploring Rules and Routines

Abstract

As we log into our computers, type in our passwords and connect to our extended world of networks, contacts and associations through email, the Internet and a wealth of applications, there can be a feeling that this electronic world appears automatically at our fingertips with an endless series of connections, standards and routines being performed effortlessly. When things fail or go wrong (e.g., network errors, hardware problems, etc.), we may begin to question ideas of agency, process and accountability as we explore problems and possible solutions. Even in these occasions, we can easily slip into deterministic accounts that rely on certain a priori divides (e.g., subject/object, structure/ agency, technology/society and nature/culture), simplistic cause-effect relations and a realist version of the ‘truth’ as existing out-there. Thus, in order to ‘explain’ or ‘account’ for the situation, certain object/subject positions, sets of relations and divides may be taken for granted and performed as such through this process. While such an approach has been evident in studies seeking to research the role of routines, procedures and standards within organizations, there is also an increasing number of approaches and theorists who seek to open up new spaces of enquiry by unpacking these divides and going beyond a realist representation of objectivity and ‘truth’.