SNS의 존재론적 논의와 기술적 행위를 통한 사회구조의 변화 가능성: 비판적 사실주의를 중심으로

초록

New communication technologies including social networking sites (SNSs) enable people do things they could previously only imagine and let them construe new kinds of social practices. However, despite the current explosive attention to SNS and academic achievement, we have not reached a general agreement on the meaning of SNS. In addition,it is also true that we haven’t actively discussed on how this specific technological artifacts and technical practices enabled by them affect the reproduction or change of social structures. In order to overcome these limitations, this study first critically reviewed previous research on SNS and attempted to understand the nature of social and material reality of SNS based on critical realists such as Lawson, Bhaskar, and Archer. Through the discussion, we defined SNS as a one of the emergent structures that rely on intentional human activities but have the potential to affect them reciprocally, and argue that technical practices mediate between social and cultural structure and individual agency. In addition,we discussed on how primary agents and corporate agents, which were proposed by Archer as distinct social collectives, can be applied to the context of SNS, what kinds of behavioral strategies can be employed by these collectives, and how they affect existing social structures. Finally, we explored the concepts of social integration and system integration articulated by Lockwood and four situational logics discussed by Archer. Based on these, we tried to understand how collective interactions occurring on SNS can be related to structural reproduction and change.

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