First Call for papers

A Pre-ECIS and AIS SIG Prag Workshop on

IT Artefact Design & Workpractice Intervention

June 10, 2012, Barcelona

Invitation

An international workshop for IS scholars interested in one or more of the following related issues:

·         design science research

·         theorizing the IT artefact

·         action research and other intervention strategies

·         theorizing practices and work-systems

·         the use of action-oriented theories in IS

·         practice relevance and usefulness of IS research

·         researcher-practitioner collaboration

·         engaged scholarship

·         practice research

·         pragmatist epistemology

There is a growing interest in IS research for research strategies aiming for design and change. This can be pursued through design science research (Hevner et al, 2004), action research (Davison et al, 2004) or combinations thereof (Sein et al, 2011). Accompanying an interest for the design of IT artefacts is a quest for theorizing the IT artefact (Orlikowski & Iacono, 2001). Improved understanding of IT artefacts is needed in relation to their design, use and evolution. An improved understanding of the context of IT artefacts is needed as well. There is growing interest to theorize the context as practices (Feldman & Orlikowski, 2011; Goldkuhl, 2011) or work-systems (Alter, 2006). This includes an interest for the combined social and material characters of such practices (Orlikowski & Scott, 2008).

The interest for design and change follows the claim for relevance and usefulness of IS research (Benbasat & Zmud, 1999) and the importance of researcher-practitioner collaboration (Mathiassen, 2002). This kind of research orientation have been giving different labels like e.g. engaged scholarship (Van de Ven, 2007; Mathiassen & Nielsen, 2008), mode 2 knowledge production (Nowotny et al, 2001), practice research (Mathiassen, 2002; Goldkuhl, 2011) or practical science (Gregor, 2008). Pivotal in this search for more relevant and useful research is the articulation of supportive, prescriptive and normative knowledge. This can take the form of design theory (Gregor & Jones, 2007) or the broader notion of practical theory (Cronen, 2001; Goldkuhl, 2007).

In order to bring these different threads together we must turn to pragmatist epistemology. There is a re-introduction of pragmatism as a viable research paradigm in some social sciences (Wicks & Freeman, 1998; Fishman, 1999) including information systems (Goles & Hirschheim, 2000; Ågerfalk, 2010; Goldkuhl, 2012) as manifested by the formation of the AIS Special Interest Group on Pragmatist IS Research (SIGPRag) in 2008 (www.sigprag.org). The pragmatist foundations of design science research (Lee & Nickerson, 2010) and action research (Baskerville & Myers, 2004) have also been acknowledged.

Pragmatist epistemology joins together the different threads described above:

·         Knowledge in the making

·         Relevant and useful knowledge

·         Knowledge of actions and practices

The purpose of this workshop is to bring together scholars interested in one or more of these pragmatist threads. This is done in order to weave a pragmatist web to be more powerful in its knowledge generation and use. Theoretical reflections and concrete examples are demanded!

Dates and submission details

Submissions: March 25, 2012

Notification: April 30, 2012

Final manuscripts: May 25, 2012

Workshop: June 10, 2012, Barcelona, Spain (just before the 20^th European Conference on Information Systems, ECIS-2012)

The workshop website is www.vits.org/adwi/. Papers are expected to be between 5-15 pages. Submissions should be sent as e-mail attachments to goran.goldkuhl@liu.se. Please use the ECIS format template (can be found at the workshop website). Workshop proceedings will be electronically published and distributed. Selected papers from the workshop will be forwarded to review and publishing in the journal Systems, Signs & Actions (www.sysiac.org).

Workshop co-chairs

Brian Donellan, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland (Brian.Donnellan@nuim.ie)

Göran Goldkuhl, Linköping University (goran.goldkuhl@liu.se)

Organisers

AIS Special interest group on Pragmatist IS research (SIG Prag)

Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Sweden

Innovation Value Institute, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland

Programme Committee

Mark Aakhus, USA

Pär Ågerfalk, Sweden

Steven Alter, USA

Michel Avital, Denmark

Karin Axelsson, Sweden

Deborah Bunker, Australia

Dubravka Cecez-Kecmanovic, Australia

Rodney Clarke, Australia

Gabriel Costello, Ireland

Karin Hedström, Sweden

Markus Helfert, Ireland

Ola Henfridsson, Sweden

Jonny Holmström, Sweden

Robert Johnston, Australia

Gustaf Juell-Skielse, Sweden

Mikael Lind, Sweden

Rikard Lindgren, Sweden

Lars-Olof Lychnell, Sweden

Judy McKay, Australia

Angela Nobre, Portugal

Sandeep Purao, USA

Matti Rossi, Finland

Duane Truex, USA

Rajiv Vashist, Australia

John Venable, Australia

Hans Weigand, The Netherlands

Trevor Wood-Harper, UK

Fahri Yetim, Germany

References

Ågerfalk P J (2010) Getting Pragmatic, European Journal of Information Systems, 19(3), 251–256.

Alter S (2006) Work systems and IT artifacts – does the definition matter?, Communications of AIS, Vol. 17, pp 299-313

Baskerville R, Myers M (2004) Special issue on action research in information systems: making IS research relevant to practice – foreword, MIS Quarterly, Vol 28 (3), p 329-335

Benbasat I, Zmud R W (1999) Empirical research in information system research: The practice of relevance, MIS Quarterly, Vol 23 (1), p 3-16

Cronen V (2001) Practical theory, practical art, and the pragmatic-systemic account of inquiry, Communication theory, Vol 11 (1), p 14-35

Davison R M, Martinsons M G, Kock N (2004) Principles of canonical action research, Information Systems Journal, Vol 14, p 65–86

Feldman M, Orlikowski W (2011) Theorizing practice and practicing theory, Organization Science, Vol 22, p 1240-1253

Fishman D B (1999) The case for pragmatic psychology, New York University Press, New York

Goles T, Hirschheim R (2000) The paradigm is dead, the paradigm is dead … long live the paradigm: the legacy of Burell and Morgan, Omega, Vol 28, p 249-268

Goldkuhl G (2007) What does it mean to serve the citizen in e-services? - Towards a practical theory founded in socio-instrumental pragmatism, International Journal of Public Information Systems, Vol 2007 (3), pp 135-159

Goldkuhl G (2011) The research practice of practice research: theorizing and situational inquiry, Systems, Signs & Actions, Vol 5 (1), p 7-29

Goldkuhl G (2012) Pragmatism vs. interpretivism in qualitative information systems research, European Journal of Information Systems, (Forthcoming)

Gregor S (2008) Building theory in a practical science, in Hart D, Gregor S (Eds, 2008) Information Systems Foundations: The role of design science, ANU E Press, Canberra

Gregor S, Jones D (2007) The Anatomy of a Design Theory, Journal of AIS, Vol 8 (5), p 312-335

Hevner A R, March S T, Park J, Ram S (2004) Design science in information systems research, MIS Quarterly, Vol 28 (1), p 75-115

Lee A, Nickerson J (2010) Theory as a Case of Design: Lessons for Design from the Philosophy of Science, Proc of the 43^rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

Mathiassen L (2002) Collaborative practice research, Information Technology & People, Vol 15 (4), p 321-345

Mathiassen L, Nielsen P A (2008) Engaged Scholarship in IS Research. The Scandinavian Case, Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, Vol 20 (2), p 3–20

Nowotny H, Scott P, Gibbons M (2001) Re-thinking science. Knowledge and the public in an age of uncertainty, Polity, Cambridge

Orlikowski W J, Iacono C S (2001) Research commentary: Desperately seeking the “IT” in IT research – a call to theorizing the IT artefact, Information Systems Research, Vol 12 (2), pp 121-134

Orlikowski W J, Scott S V (2008) Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization, The Academy of Management Annals, Vol 2(1), p 433-474

Sein M, Henfridsson O, Purao S, Rossi M, Lindgren R (2011) Action design research, MIS Quarterly, Vol 35 (1), p 37-56

Van de Ven A (2007) Engaged scholarship: A guide for organizational and social research, Oxford University Press, Oxford

Wicks A C, Freeman R E (1998) Organization studies and the new pragmatism: Positivism, anti-positivism, and the search for ethics, Organization Science, Vol 9 (2), p 123-140