Rob Kling In Search of One Good Theory: The Origins of Computerization Movements

Abstract

Rob Kling’s intellectual contribution is a corpus of work that exemplifies the craft of inquiry and the social enterprise of science. He applied core sociological ideas and grounded them in evidence. His work connected theory, method, and evidence. His observations of the empirical world over more than a quarter-century led to research questions that transcended disciplinary boundaries, invigorated disciplines, transformed our thinking, and helped us develop a working vocabulary about technology and social life. He was decidedly unapologetic about his eclecticism — instead, reveling in the need to employ multiple theoretical frameworks, multiple methodologies, and multiple sources of evidence to make his arguments. This paper examines Rob Kling’s craft of inquiry. It traces the evolution of his theorizing, methodological choices, and gathering of evidence to understand computerization movements, an inquiry that situates his analysis in an unfailingly consistent critical stance towards computers and social life.