Dual materiality and knowing in petroleum production

​This paper explores the relationship between materiality and knowing through the notion of dual materiality.

Dual materiality highlights how digital technology becomes important, as its materiality plays an integral part in creating, not simply representing, the materiality of the physical world. We elaborate upon this insight through a theory on sociomaterial knowing grounded in ethnographic fieldwork within a petroleum company.

The main theoretical proposition of this theory is that knowing arises from the emerging patterns of interaction between material phenomena, the material arrangements for knowing about these phenomena, and knowledge practices. We elaborate upon this through three predominant modes of knowing in petroleum production: instrumentation, interpretation, and learning.

This paper contributes to the broader discourse on sociomateriality by refining ideas of materiality through the notion of dual materiality. We conclude by encouraging further exploration of different materialities in contemporary work and organizing.