Sociomateriality as flesh

Abstract

ABSTRACT An important contribution to the field of communication is François Cooren's critique of the assumption that the social and the material are entangled because this assumption reproduces the divide it claims to reject. Rather, Cooren proposes that the social and the material are properties, or (im-)properties, of one another because their relational differences bring organizations into existence. Cooren's three conclusions on this matter argue that the sociomateriality of an organization is a relational ontology. In this article, I problematize those three conclusions and suggest Maurice Merleau-Ponty's ontology of flesh as an alternative to overcome the problematics of each conclusion. Conclusion 1 lacks a conceptual groundwork explaining where social and material matter comes from, and I suggest flesh as the element to categorize matter. Conclusion 2 denigrates human existence to a matter of degree. I reframe this through the notion of alterity. Conclusion 3 suggests that relations and relata are the same yet theoretical support for that proposition is missing. As such, I offer the missing theoretical support through Merleau-Ponty's ontology of flesh. Taken together, Merleau-Ponty's ontology of flesh provides one coherent system and better affirms each of Cooren's conclusions of what a relational/communicative ontology of organization consists of.