IFIP JWC 2023. Agnostic Affordances: Challenging the Critical Realist Connection
Channel: Arto Lanamäki
Date: 2023-12-07

This is an article presentation for the IFIP Joint Working Conference, December 2023.

Lanamäki, A. (2023). Agnostic Affordances: Challenging the Critical Realist Connection. In: Jones, M.R., Mukherjee, A.S., Thapa, D., Zheng, Y. (eds) After Latour: Globalisation, Inequity and Climate Change. IFIPJWC 2023. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 696. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50154-8_20

0:00 Start
0:37 Introduction (Problematization and what is 'Agnostic')
1:33 Introduction (AT, CR, and AT-CR)
3:15 SECTION 2 - Popularity of AT in IS research
4:05 AT-CR connection in IS
5:17 Volkoff & Strong (2013)
5:32 Alleged CR roots
6:15 SECTION 3 - Gibson was not a Critical Realist (biographical comparisons)
7:09 Timeline of Gibson's and Bhaskar's books
8:34 Differencies in influences
9:10 CR's stratified ontology
10:24 Bhaskar's spiritual turn and the so-called "unobservable causal powers"
11:26 Gibson's flirt with realism
11:59 Debunking the "CR roots" myth
12:15 SECTION 4 - Underlying similarities and clear parallels
12:35 ...are very limited
14:25 SECTION 5 - The CR-AT connection is absent outside IS
15:20 SECTION 6 - Non-CR AT perspectives in IS top journals (four examples from MIS Quarterly)
15:47 SECTION 7 - Affordances as mechanisms. Agnosticism. New mechanical philosophy.
16:10 Hedström & Ylikoski (2000) on CR
16:41 Ioannidis & Psillos (2022) on methodological mechanisms. The uselessless of metaphysical foundations for MBE.
17:51 Post scriptum about Leonardi's essay in December 2023 issue of MISQ
18:20 Conclusion