RE-PRESENTING TECHNOLOGY: IT CONSULTANCY REPORTS AS TEXTUAL REALITY CONSTRUCTIONS

This paper examines the reports produced by management consultants as exercises in textual reality construction. Concentrating on a particular variant of this genre - namely, the information technology (IT) strategy report - its focus is on the ways in which 'reality' and the forms of know...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociology (Oxford) 1994-05, Vol.28 (2), p.455-477
Main Authors: Bloomfield, Brian P., Vurdubakis, Theo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communication
Consultants
Consulting services
Corporate strategies
Environmental technology
Genre
Information Technology
Inscriptions
Knowledge
Management
Management consultants
Management consulting
Management reports
Managers
Middle management
Project management
Public domain
Reading
Reality
Recommendations
Scientific Knowledge
Social aspects
Social Determination of Meaning
Sociology
Sociology of communication and mass media. Sociolinguistics
Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture
Technology
Texts
Textual reality construction
Theory
Writing
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Summary:This paper examines the reports produced by management consultants as exercises in textual reality construction. Concentrating on a particular variant of this genre - namely, the information technology (IT) strategy report - its focus is on the ways in which 'reality' and the forms of knowledge appropriate to it are constituted in the course of certain communicative practices. More specifically, we look at the practices that aim to control technology for organisational purposes; and we illustrate our case with a discussion on the textual practices through which the boundary between the 'technical' and the 'social' is constructed and sustained. In this connection it is worth noting that consultancy reports on IT reflect a concern central to social scientific inquiry - namely, the analytical relationship between the 'social' and 'technical' domains. Our starting point is to situate such reports within the broader category of textual and graphical constructs - inscriptions - which in various fields of enquiry and application, discipline and practice, are used to represent reality in order to act on it, control or dominate it, as well as to secure the compliance of others in that domination.
ISSN:0038-0385
1469-8684
DOI:10.1177/0038038594028002006