Digital assemblages: Evidence and theorizing from the computerization of the U.S. residential real estate industry

The contribution of this paper is to theorize on the roles information and communication technologies (ICT) play in reshaping work arrangements and specifically to advance the concept of a digital assemblage as a lens for this analysis. We pursue an alternative conceptualization of the role of ICT: computerization. The fundamental premise of computerization is that actors are embedded in transactions and that ICT are taken up and used to support this embedding rather than for purposes of strict economic rationality. This work draws on data from a study of the U.S. residential real estate industry, which serves here as a “living laboratory” for studying information-intensive industries.