The Sociomateriality of (Dis)order: The Case of Fighting, Living and Surviving a Battle

Abstract

Organising includes moments of order and disorder, emerging through the imbrication of human and material agencies. There is a lack of insight into how human and material agencies are imbricated during (dis)order, and how imbrications lead to (dis)order. This paper addresses this gap through a content analysis of a book reporting the Battle of Stalingrad. Drawing on the theory of affordances, the author identifies how different materials were used to organize activities, and whether and how those activities led to (dis)order. The analysis suggests that soldiers used materials to organize different activities within one and the same organizational context, causing (dis)order. Whether order or disorder emerged was dependent on how human and material agencies were imbricated, and how they related to internal or external conditions. The findings contribute to our understanding of how imbrications of human and material agencies enhance and/or constrain organization and how they lead to (dis)order.