From duality to dualism in complex project organizing: structuration and morphogenetic theory

Abstract

Research on complex information systems projects (CISP) has relied heavily on Giddens' structuration theory. We argue that this reliance on structuration theory hampers the further development of research on CISP because it incorporates the temporal conflation of the synchronic and diachronic dimensions of social analysis that lies at the heart of structuration theory. The result is that it is difficult to analyse the different temporal rhythms of the development of the social and the material over time which become temporally "fused" by being analysed within the same conceptual time-frame. We propose to advance CISP research by drawing on the morphogenetic critique of structuration theory so that they are retained in a temporal dualism, rather than conflated in a temporal duality. This allows the differing temporal rhythms of the social and the material to be analysed both separately and jointly.