Re-composing the elephant' : bringing the big picture back into IS research
Carroll, Jennie and Fidock, Justin 2012, Re-composing the elephant' : bringing the big picture back into IS research, in ACIS 2012 : Location, location, location : Proceedings of the 23rd Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2012, ACIS, [Geelong, Vic.], pp. 1-10.
Information Systems is a practice-based discipline. It experiences periodic debates about the rigour and relevance of its research. The tensions between pretensions to be a ‘real’ science (rigour) and the need to contribute to practice (relevance) are intensified at a time of low student enrolment, lack of a clear identity, and uncertainties about the viability of our discipline. This essay argues that decomposing phenomena into narrow topics of research to achieve rigour is damaging to our discipline if we fail to then ‘recompose’ or integrate these back into understanding, lessons and guidelines for application to real-world practices. This argument is illustrated through recent work on the motors that drive changes in technology appropriation. It highlights the importance of plurality of theories and methods in understanding complex real-world phenomena in order to achieve both rigour and relevance.
Notes
Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright owner.
Language
eng
Field of Research
089999 Information and Computing Sciences not elsewhere classified
Socio Economic Objective
970108 Expanding Knowledge in the Information and Computing Sciences
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Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au.