Jürgen Habermas revisited via Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography: A hermeneutic approach to critical Information Systems research
Critical Information Systems (IS) research is sometimes appreciated for the shades of gray it adds to sunny portraits of technology's emancipatory potential. In this article, we revisit a theory about Wikipedia’s putative freedom from the authority of corporate media's editors and authors....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Responsible Technology |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666659624000167 |
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| author | Reilly Smethurst Amber G. Young Ariel D. Wigdor |
| author_facet | Reilly Smethurst Amber G. Young Ariel D. Wigdor |
| author_sort | Reilly Smethurst |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Critical Information Systems (IS) research is sometimes appreciated for the shades of gray it adds to sunny portraits of technology's emancipatory potential. In this article, we revisit a theory about Wikipedia’s putative freedom from the authority of corporate media's editors and authors. We present the curious example of Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography and its history of crowd-sourced editorial decisions, published on Wikipedia's talk pages. We use a hermeneutic method to subject the theory about Wikipedia's “rational discourse” and “emancipatory potential” to a soft, empirical test. When we examined Cook's Wikipedia biography and its editorial decisions, what we found pertained to authoritative discourse – the opposite of “rational discourse” – as well as Jürgen Habermas's concept of dramaturgical action. Our discussion aims to change how critical scholars think about IS's Habermasian theories and emancipatory technology. Our contribution – a critical intervention – is a clear alternative to mainstream IS research's moral prescriptions and mechanistic causes. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-335eddc4949f4b15be40c1bb32f00c7a |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2666-6596 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Responsible Technology |
| spelling | doaj-art-335eddc4949f4b15be40c1bb32f00c7a2025-08-20T01:58:56ZengElsevierJournal of Responsible Technology2666-65962024-12-012010009010.1016/j.jrt.2024.100090Jürgen Habermas revisited via Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography: A hermeneutic approach to critical Information Systems researchReilly Smethurst0Amber G. Young1Ariel D. Wigdor2University of Luxembourg, LuxembourgUniversity of Arkansas, United States; Corresponding author at: University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR United States.University of North Texas, United StatesCritical Information Systems (IS) research is sometimes appreciated for the shades of gray it adds to sunny portraits of technology's emancipatory potential. In this article, we revisit a theory about Wikipedia’s putative freedom from the authority of corporate media's editors and authors. We present the curious example of Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography and its history of crowd-sourced editorial decisions, published on Wikipedia's talk pages. We use a hermeneutic method to subject the theory about Wikipedia's “rational discourse” and “emancipatory potential” to a soft, empirical test. When we examined Cook's Wikipedia biography and its editorial decisions, what we found pertained to authoritative discourse – the opposite of “rational discourse” – as well as Jürgen Habermas's concept of dramaturgical action. Our discussion aims to change how critical scholars think about IS's Habermasian theories and emancipatory technology. Our contribution – a critical intervention – is a clear alternative to mainstream IS research's moral prescriptions and mechanistic causes.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666659624000167Emancipatory technologyEmpirical critical researchHabermasHermeneuticsSocial inclusionWikipedia |
| spellingShingle | Reilly Smethurst Amber G. Young Ariel D. Wigdor Jürgen Habermas revisited via Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography: A hermeneutic approach to critical Information Systems research Journal of Responsible Technology Emancipatory technology Empirical critical research Habermas Hermeneutics Social inclusion Wikipedia |
| title | Jürgen Habermas revisited via Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography: A hermeneutic approach to critical Information Systems research |
| title_full | Jürgen Habermas revisited via Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography: A hermeneutic approach to critical Information Systems research |
| title_fullStr | Jürgen Habermas revisited via Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography: A hermeneutic approach to critical Information Systems research |
| title_full_unstemmed | Jürgen Habermas revisited via Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography: A hermeneutic approach to critical Information Systems research |
| title_short | Jürgen Habermas revisited via Tim Cook's Wikipedia biography: A hermeneutic approach to critical Information Systems research |
| title_sort | jurgen habermas revisited via tim cook s wikipedia biography a hermeneutic approach to critical information systems research |
| topic | Emancipatory technology Empirical critical research Habermas Hermeneutics Social inclusion Wikipedia |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666659624000167 |
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