The concept of genre within the critical approach to information systems development

Abstract Jurgen Habermas' Critical Social Theory is regarded as a potential approach to information systems development (hereinafter referred to as the critical approach). However, the theoretical promise of this approach has not yet been operationalized in practice. This paper discusses the potential of the genre theory of organizational communication as a conceptual basis for doing so, using two studies that applied genre concepts to analyses and debates on document management. In particular, the paper illustrates the capability of genre concepts in responding to pleas for three types of rationality — communicative, emancipatory, and formal — considered fundamental to any method of information systems development pursuing the critical approach. Genre theory arguably provides a useful conceptual basis for structuring and analyzing organizational communication within the critical approach.

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