Can the field of MIS be disciplined?
Communications of the ACM
What computers still can't do: a critique of artificial reason
What computers still can't do: a critique of artificial reason
The productivity paradox of information technology
Communications of the ACM
Technological frames: making sense of information technology in organizations
ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) - Special issue on social science perspectives on IS
The squandered computer: evaluating the business alignment of information technologies
The squandered computer: evaluating the business alignment of information technologies
Communications of the ACM
Competing dichotomies in IS research and possible strategies for resolution
ICIS '98 Proceedings of the international conference on Information systems
Semiotics in information systems engineering
Semiotics in information systems engineering
Software Development and Reality Construction
Software Development and Reality Construction
Combining IS Research Methods: Towards a Pluralist Methodology
Information Systems Research
Epistemological perspectives on IS-Development: a consensus-oriented approach on conceptual modeling
WM'05 Proceedings of the Third Biennial conference on Professional Knowledge Management
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
Contemporary understanding of information systems (IS) is flawed by fundamental problems in information systems research and practice. In this chapter, we claim that philosophical presuppositions have a great influence on our understanding of IS. Reflecting on the modernism-postmodernism debate and its methodological consequences for IS research, we derive the need for a paradigmatic foundation of IS research. Referring to Kuhn's concept of "paradigm," we develop a framework for the conceptualization of "paradigms of inquiry." We use the notion of "model," which we believe to be pivotal for the understanding of IS, to illustrate the implications of the adoption of a "paradigm of inquiry." In response to a criticism of both the positivist and the radical-constructivist paradigms, we develop a paradigm called "sociopragmatic constructivism" (SPC). Presupposing that human inquiry relies on social contextualization, common practice and cultural history, we propose an agenda for upcoming IS research grounded in SPC.