Philosophical foundations for informing the future(S) through IS research

Abstract Information systems (IS) scholars have suggested IS researchers have a responsibility to consider how information and communication technologies could, in the future, influence sociotechnical practices and outcomes. However, research focused specifically on “the future” has yet to gain a strong foothold within the scholarly IS field. In this essay, we suggest a philosophical foundation and epistemological basis for futures-oriented research to advance such scholarship in the IS field. We first highlight epistemic assumptions about futures-oriented research drawn from the discourse of futures studies. We then draw on Feenberg’s philosophy of “potentiality and actuality” of technology as a foundation to consider how knowledge generated through IS research about the sociotechnical past and present might inform futures-oriented inquiry. We illustrate these arguments with examples from the emerging arena of “big data” research.

[1]  Ping Wang,et al.  Chasing the Hottest IT: Effects of Information Technology Fashion on Organizations , 2010, MIS Q..

[2]  Emre Yetgin,et al.  Are Social Media Emancipatory or Hegemonic? Societal Effects of Mass Media Digitization in the Case of the SOPA Discourse , 2016, MIS Q..

[3]  Bart Custers,et al.  Data Dilemmas in the Information Society: Introduction and Overview , 2013, Discrimination and Privacy in the Information Society.

[4]  Gerhard Masur,et al.  The image of the future : enlightening the past, orientating the present, forecasting the future , 1962 .

[5]  Vasant Dhar,et al.  Editorial - Big Data, Data Science, and Analytics: The Opportunity and Challenge for IS Research , 2014, Inf. Syst. Res..

[6]  Youngjin Yoo,et al.  Distributed Tuning of Boundary Resources: The Case of Apple's iOS Service System , 2015, MIS Q..

[7]  Veda C. Storey,et al.  Design science in the information systems discipline: an introduction to the special issue on design science research , 2008 .

[8]  Shirley Gregor,et al.  The Nature of Theory in Information Systems , 2006, MIS Q..

[9]  Mike Chiasson,et al.  Habermas and information systems research: New directions , 2011, Inf. Organ..

[10]  Bernd Carsten Stahl,et al.  From computer ethics to responsible research and innovation in ICT: The transition of reference discourses informing ethics-related research in information systems , 2014, Inf. Manag..

[11]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  Organizing for Innovation in the Digitized World , 2012, Organ. Sci..

[12]  Paul Gray,et al.  Using Scenarios to Understand the Frontiers of IS , 1999, Inf. Syst. Frontiers.

[13]  B. Stahl,et al.  Ethics of Emerging Information and Communication Technologies On the implementation of responsible research and innovation , 2016 .

[14]  Jonathan Rosenhead,et al.  Soft Systems Methodology in Action , 1991 .

[15]  David Godes,et al.  Introduction to the Special Issue - Social Media and Business Transformation: A Framework for Research , 2013, Inf. Syst. Res..

[16]  S. Inayatullah.  Layered methodology: meanings, epistemes and the politics of knowledge , 2002 .

[17]  Richard Baskerville,et al.  Fashion Waves in Information Systems Research and Practice , 2009, MIS Q..

[18]  Michael Rosemann,et al.  Toward Improving the Relevance of Information Systems Research to Practice: The Role of Applicability Checks , 2008, MIS Q..

[19]  Wendell Bell.  Foundations of futures studies: Human science for a new era volume II: Values, objectivity, and the good society , 1997 .

[20]  Paul Gray,et al.  Future Penetration of Academic Electronic Journals: Four Scenarios , 2002, Inf. Syst. Frontiers.

[21]  A. Feenberg.  Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited , 2002 .

[22]  Paul Gray,et al.  Methods for Studying the Information Systems Future , 2011, Researching the Future in Information Systems.

[23]  Kevin Mentzer,et al.  Foresight for a responsible future with ICT , 2014, Information Systems Frontiers.

[24]  Paul M. Leonardi,et al.  When Flexible Routines Meet Flexible Technologies: Affordance, Constraint, and the Imbrication of Human and Material Agencies , 2011, MIS Q..

[25]  H. D. Jouvenel,et al.  A Brief Methodological Guide to Scenario Building , 2000 .

[26]  Rudy Hirschheim,et al.  Witty invention or dubious fad? Using argument mapping to examine the contours of management fashion , 2012, Inf. Organ..

[27]  Richard Baskerville,et al.  Generalizing Generalizability in Information Systems Research , 2003, Inf. Syst. Res..

[28]  Richard A. Slaughter,et al.  Futures Studies as an Intellectual and Applied Discipline , 1998 .

[29]  Paul Gray,et al.  The IS Organization of the Future: Four Scenarios for 2020 , 2007, Inf. Syst. Manag..

[30]  Andrew Feenberg.  Critical Theory of Communication Technology: Introduction to the Special Section , 2009, Inf. Soc..

[31]  Bernd Carsten Stahl,et al.  Responsible research and innovation in information systems , 2012, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[32]  Toon Calders,et al.  Discrimination and Privacy in the Information Society - Data Mining and Profiling in Large Databases , 2012, Discrimination and Privacy in the Information Society.

[33]  James.  Futures studies as applied knowledge , 2022 .

[34]  Susan V. Scott,et al.  10 Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization , 2008 .

[35]  Andrew Feenberg,et al.  Ten Paradoxes of Technology , 2010 .

[36]  Sue Newell,et al.  The Sociomaterialty of Information Systems: Current Status, Future Directions , 2014, MIS Q..

[37]  Mike Chiasson,et al.  The Ends of Information Systems Research: A Pragmatic Framework , 2012, MIS Q..

[38]  Michael D. Myers,et al.  A Set of Principles for Conducting and Evaluating Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems , 1999, MIS Q..

[39]  E. Shafir.  The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy , 2013 .

[40]  France Bélanger,et al.  The role of information systems research in shaping the future of information privacy , 2015, Inf. Syst. J..

[41]  John Mingers,et al.  Real-izing information systems: critical realism as an underpinning philosophy for information systems , 2004, Inf. Organ..

[42]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  Beyond Rigor and Relevance: Producing Consumable Research about Information Systems , 1998 .

[43]  F. C. P. Motta.  The theory of communicative action , 1991 .

[44]  R. V. Schomberg.  Towards Responsible Research and Innovation in the Information and Communication Technologies and Security Technologies Fields , 2011 .

[45]  A. Malhotra,et al.  Alternative Modernity: The Technical Turn in Philosophy and Social Theory , 1995 .

[46]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  Design Science in Information Systems Research , 2004, MIS Q..

[47]  M. Callon.  What Does It Mean to Say That Economics Is Performative? , 2006, Do Economists Make Markets?.

[48]  Towards an Internet of Trusted Data , 2019, Trusted Data.

[49]  Andrew D. Selbst,et al.  Big Data's Disparate Impact , 2016 .

[50]  H. Marcuse.  One Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society , 1964 .

[51]  Ritu Agarwal,et al.  The Digital Transformation of Healthcare: Current Status and the Road Ahead , 2010 .

[52]  Jae Kyu Lee.  Invited Commentary - Reflections on ICT-enabled Bright Society Research , 2016, Inf. Syst. Res..

[53]  Tyler J. Veak.  Democratizing Technology: Andrew Feenberg's Critical Theory of Technology , 2006 .

[54]  E. Hafen,et al.  Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence? , 2017, Towards Digital Enlightenment.

[55]  Judy McKay,et al.  The dual imperatives of action research , 2001, Inf. Technol. People.

[56]  J. Habermas.  Theory of Communicative Action , 1981 .

[57]  Mike Chiasson,et al.  Researching the Future: The Information Systems Discipline's Futures Infrastructure , 2011, Researching the Future in Information Systems.

[58]  Harold A. Linstone.  Futures research methodology—Version 2.0 , 2004 .

[59]  Stephen L. Vargo,et al.  Service Innovation in the Digital Age: Key Contributions and Future Directions , 2015, MIS Q..

[60]  Paul Gray,et al.  From Hindsight to Foresight: Applying Futures Research Techniques in Information Systems , 2008, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[61]  Andrew Feenberg,et al.  Commodity and Community in Social Networking: Marx and the Monetization of User-Generated Content , 2015, Inf. Soc..

[62]  A. Feenberg.  The critical theory of technology , 1990 .

[63]  Andrew Feenberg,et al.  Democratizing Technology: Interests, Codes, Rights , 2001 .

[64]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  Empirical Research in Information Systems: The Practice of Relevance , 1999, MIS Q..

[65]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  What Happens When Evaluation Goes Online? Exploring Apparatuses of Valuation in the Travel Sector , 2014, Organ. Sci..

[66]  J. Urry,et al.  Enacting the social , 2004 .

[67]  W. Orlikowski.  Sociomaterial Practices: Exploring Technology at Work , 2007 .

[68]  A. Giddens.  The consequences of modernity , 1990 .

[69]  W. Orlikowski.  The Duality of Technology: Rethinking the Concept of Technology in Organizations , 2014 .

[70]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  Research Commentary - The New Organizing Logic of Digital Innovation: An Agenda for Information Systems Research , 2010, Inf. Syst. Res..

[71]  M. Markus,et al.  Information technology and organizational change: causal structure in theory and research , 1988 .

[72]  Shahper Vodanovich,et al.  Research Commentary - Digital Natives and Ubiquitous Information Systems , 2010, Inf. Syst. Res..

[73]  Nicholas Berente,et al.  Wikipedia, Critical Social Theory, and the Possibility of Rational Discourse 1 , 2009, Inf. Soc..

[74]  Robert F. Lusch,et al.  Service Innovation: A Service-Dominant Logic Perspective , 2015, MIS Q..

[75]  Mats Lindgren,et al.  Scenario Planning: The Link Between Future and Strategy , 2003 .

[76]  Jan Pries-Heje,et al.  The Design Theory Nexus , 2008, MIS Q..

[77]  Bernd Carsten Stahl,et al.  Tomorrow’s ethics and today’s response: An investigation into the ways information systems professionals perceive and address emerging ethical issues , 2014, Inf. Syst. Frontiers.

[78]  Mike Chiasson,et al.  Researching the Future in Information Systems - IFIP WG 8.2 Working Conference, Turku, Finland, June 6-8, 2011. Proceedings , 2011, Researching the Future in Information Systems.

[79]  Bernd Carsten Stahl,et al.  What Future? Which Technology? On the Problem of Describing Relevant Futures , 2011, Researching the Future in Information Systems.

[80]  Olaf Helmer,et al.  Looking Forward: A Guide to Futures Research , 1983 .

[81]  Thomas G. Dietterich,et al.  Rise of concerns about AI , 2015, Commun. ACM.

[82]  Anat Hovav.  Using scenarios to understand the frontiers of IS: Fifteen years later (a postscript) , 2014, Inf. Syst. Frontiers.

[83]  Margunn Aanestad,et al.  Information Systems Innovation Research: Between Novel Futures and Durable Presents , 2011, Researching the Future in Information Systems.

[84]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  Research Commentary - Digital Infrastructures: The Missing IS Research Agenda , 2010, Inf. Syst. Res..

[85]  Jan vom Brocke,et al.  Utilizing big data analytics for information systems research: challenges, promises and guidelines , 2016, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[86]  Veda C. Storey,et al.  Business Intelligence and Analytics: From Big Data to Big Impact , 2012, MIS Q..

[87]  Chris Peters,et al.  The daily you: How the new advertising industry is defining your identity and your worth , 2012, New Media Soc..

[88]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Improvising Organizational Transformation Over Time: A Situated Change Perspective , 1996, Inf. Syst. Res..

[89]  Erik Brynjolfsson,et al.  Big data: the management revolution. , 2012, Harvard business review.

[90]  Wiebe E. Bijker,et al.  Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change , 1995 .

[91]  Graham Mackenzie.  Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity , 2012 .

[92]  Mark Lycett,et al.  ‘Datafication’: making sense of (big) data in a complex world , 2013, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[93]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Studying Information Technology in Organizations: Research Approaches and Assumptions , 1991, Inf. Syst. Res..