two talks in Dublin

This just arrived.

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1. SEMINAR
The Centre for Innovation, Technology & Organisation (CITO), in association with the MIS Subject Area and the UCD School of Philosophy, will host a seminar on Friday 17th of April at 2pm (venue in UCD to be confirmed.) The seminar isentitled A New Theory of Substance, and the speaker is Professor Graham Harman from the American University in Cairo. Professor Dermot Moran from the UCD School of Philosophy will be the discussant.

Recent years have seen the emergence of a body of interdisciplinary research which attempts to address perceived limitations in how we conceptualise information and communication technologies (ICT) and their role in the (re)configuration ofsocial/organisational life. This eclectic scholarship directs attention to the material nature of technology as it is experienced by embodied actors, thus offering the promise of more sophisticated analyses of how technologies mediate human action inorganisational settings.

It is within this context, that Professor Harman’s work has gained widespread attention and acclaim for its attempts to develop an ‘object-orientated philosophy’. Much of Professor Harman’s focus is on an interpretation of the tool-analysis of Heidegger’s Being and Time, developed in his book Guerrilla Metaphysics—Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things. In reviewing this book, Bruno Latour observes: “This [book] fully deserves the title of guerrilla warfare, though Harman, instead of brandishing Che Guevara’s Kalashnikov, in another futile enterprise of deconstruction, has adopted William James’s splendid style to bring us back to the buzzing, blooming world”.

Professor Harman has engaged, with Bruno Latour, in a number of recent management debates at the London School of Economics on the subject of Actor-Network Theory (http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/informationSystems/newsAndEvents/2008events/HarmanLatour.htm), and he co-edits, with Latour, the ‘New Metaphysics’ series. In May of this year Professor Harman will publish his latest book, Prince of Networks—Bruno Latour and Metaphysics.

Abstract
The concept of substance has relatively few defenders in present-day philosophy. I happen to be one of them, though I also believe that several features of the classical concept of substance (simplicity, naturalness, and eternity) must be discarded. For me, the necessity of a new concept of substance (or “objects,” as I prefer) comes from Heidegger’s tool-analysis. With this analysis Heidegger does not just show that invisible human practices come before conscious human awareness. Instead, the analysis shows that objects exist as something over and above all their relations to other things (the exact opposite of Bruno Latour’s relational model of actors). Most contemporary philosophies are simply variant “radical” attempts to deny the existence of objects. Objects are reduced either to their relations, or to how they are manifested in human consciousness, or to tiny material particles, or to “pre-individual singularities,” or to a shapeless, formless rumbling of inarticulate being. I oppose all such radical models, and insist on a “polarized” model of philosophy in which objects can never be reduced to any of their specific incarnations in the world.

Please Note
To help us choose the venue, we would be obliged if those interested could signal their intention to attend by emailing peadar.oscolai@ucd.ie

2. WORKSHOP
The seminar will be followed on Monday 20th of April with a half-day workshop entitled ‘Object-Oriented Philosophy’. The workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss the relevance and contribution of this perspective to our conceptualisations of information systems and technology in organisational contexts. Topics of discussion will include attempts to position Professor Harman’s contribution within the current debates in management/ organisation studies that revolve around materiality, practice theory, neo-institutionalist theory and elements of Actor Network Theory.

During this workshop PhD students will discuss a number of ongoing projects, including healthcare innovations and reconfigurations associated with the introduction of telemedicine systems, knowledge work and technologies involved in Ireland’s new Deep Brain Stimulation programme, and software development as distributed, collective work.

Please Note
Contact peadar.oscolai@ucd.ie if you have an interest in attending.