Critical realism and information systems research: why bother with philosophy?
Garcia and Quek (1997) point out the difficulties in defining the actual object of information systems research - 'Is the object of research in information systems of a technological or social nature? Is it the organization, an information system or a social system?' (p. 450). A recent IFI...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Borås
2002-01-01
|
| Series: | Information Research: An International Electronic Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://informationr.net/ir/7-2/paper124.html |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832558004346552320 |
|---|---|
| author | Philip J. Dobson |
| author_facet | Philip J. Dobson |
| author_sort | Philip J. Dobson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Garcia and Quek (1997) point out the difficulties in defining the actual object of information systems research - 'Is the object of research in information systems of a technological or social nature? Is it the organization, an information system or a social system?' (p. 450). A recent IFIP conference on Organisational and Social Perspectives on Information technology examines some of the social and organisational issues involved in IS Research (IFIP TC8 WG8.2, 2000). At this conference Jones (2000) examined the number of citations in the IFIP WG8.2 conference literature that refer to social theorists to determine the level of interest in the use of social theory in information systems research. Over the period 1979-1999 57% of papers had references to social theorists - the four major theorists being Giddens, Habermas, Foucault and Latour. This paper suggests that it would be useful to widen the range of social theorists used in IS to include that of Bhaskar who proposes a critical realist approach to social research. In order to highlight the main aspects of the philosophy the paper will critique a framework developed to suggest IS research approaches. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ef9bcd98d9d84d38ac2388523bc9d82e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1368-1613 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2002-01-01 |
| publisher | University of Borås |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Information Research: An International Electronic Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-ef9bcd98d9d84d38ac2388523bc9d82e2025-02-03T01:34:51ZengUniversity of BoråsInformation Research: An International Electronic Journal1368-16132002-01-0172124Critical realism and information systems research: why bother with philosophy?Philip J. DobsonGarcia and Quek (1997) point out the difficulties in defining the actual object of information systems research - 'Is the object of research in information systems of a technological or social nature? Is it the organization, an information system or a social system?' (p. 450). A recent IFIP conference on Organisational and Social Perspectives on Information technology examines some of the social and organisational issues involved in IS Research (IFIP TC8 WG8.2, 2000). At this conference Jones (2000) examined the number of citations in the IFIP WG8.2 conference literature that refer to social theorists to determine the level of interest in the use of social theory in information systems research. Over the period 1979-1999 57% of papers had references to social theorists - the four major theorists being Giddens, Habermas, Foucault and Latour. This paper suggests that it would be useful to widen the range of social theorists used in IS to include that of Bhaskar who proposes a critical realist approach to social research. In order to highlight the main aspects of the philosophy the paper will critique a framework developed to suggest IS research approaches.http://informationr.net/ir/7-2/paper124.htmlinformation systemsrealismphilosophyresearch frameworkcritical realismsocial theorysocial research |
| spellingShingle | Philip J. Dobson Critical realism and information systems research: why bother with philosophy? Information Research: An International Electronic Journal information systems realism philosophy research framework critical realism social theory social research |
| title | Critical realism and information systems research: why bother with philosophy? |
| title_full | Critical realism and information systems research: why bother with philosophy? |
| title_fullStr | Critical realism and information systems research: why bother with philosophy? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Critical realism and information systems research: why bother with philosophy? |
| title_short | Critical realism and information systems research: why bother with philosophy? |
| title_sort | critical realism and information systems research why bother with philosophy |
| topic | information systems realism philosophy research framework critical realism social theory social research |
| url | http://informationr.net/ir/7-2/paper124.html |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT philipjdobson criticalrealismandinformationsystemsresearchwhybotherwithphilosophy |