THE SOCIAL MATERIALITY OF GILBERT SIMONDON’S PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

This paper presents a mapping of how Gilbert Simondon’s thought has been appropriated within Brazilian scientific output in the field of Information Science. It aims to map and analyze this appropriation by identifying the key thematic and epistemological cores present in works retrieved from the Information Science Database (BRAPCI). The study is part of doctoral research on political individuation grounded in Simondonian philosophy within the field of Information Science. It is characterized as qualitative, exploratory, and bibliographic research. The corpus was compiled through a search in BRAPCI, combining the term "Simondon"—using the Boolean operator AND—with the terms "Information Theory," "Individuation," "Cybernetics," and "Information Science." The selected works underwent qualitative content analysis aimed at identifying units of meaning and conceptual convergences. The analysis yielded three thematic categories: a) an epistemological critique of informational functionalism; b) disinformation and algorithmic de-individuation; and c) the relational materiality of information. The results reveal a quantitatively limited yet theoretically significant presence of Simondonian thought in Brazilian Information Science; its appropriation challenges functionalist conceptions of information and fosters perspectives that are relational, processual, and linked to technicality and individuation.