Research Agenda | Computing Information Technology: The Human Side

Having described our approach to human inquiry, we consider the current status of sociopragmatic constructivism, with respect to Masterman's classification, as both a "metaphysical," depicting a "Weltanschauung" — a consensus reached within our research group on the most fundamental issues of human inquiry —, and a "sociological paradigm," encompassing "the entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques" (op. cit.) shared by our research group. In order to turn the current status of our paradigm of inquiry into a viable methodological framework for research, we must develop a "construct paradigm," which provides us with methods, tools, instruments, and procedures for gaining insight into the subject under consideration.

Finally, we will now describe our developing research agenda. This will be an iterative, heuristic process, during which we will have to go back and forth between the actual development and the meta-scientific level as we encounter fundamental problems. Thus, the development of the research agenda will actually not be preceded, but accompanied by the evolution of the paradigm of inquiry used (which in our case will be sociopragmatic constructivism). In the following paragraphs we present the next tasks to explore the field of information systems. The categorization is arbitrary and the problems addressed may even overlap, but we believe the categories chosen facilitate an understanding of a workable research agenda and what IS research could look like.

Refinement of sociopragmatic constructivism as a research paradigm.

As we outlined above, we do not assume SPC to become a quasi-static paradigm, which once developed and defined, will just serve as a stagnant framework for further research in IS. Rather, it will have to be refined on an ongoing basis. This means we will have to continuously question its basic assumptions, and redefine properties of SPC accordingly. This redefinition will be guided by objectives like the practical relevance of the properties and their viability in a certain context, which of course depends on this very context as well as on the people applying such a paradigm in that context.
Practical application of sociopragmatic constructivism.

In order to enable people to apply the paradigm of sociopragmatic constructivism, we will need to develop practical guidance for the application of SPC in conception, development and use of IS. Again, practical relevance and viability will be our essential objectives. Participatory approaches are prototypical examples that provide a frame of reference for the development of a practical applicable SPC.
Implications of sociopragmatic constructivism for IS research.

The developments we describe will, on the basis of SPC as a research paradigm, necessarily have several implications for the understanding of IS research. We therefore have to take care of the following issues:
1. Foundations of IS, i.e., methodological considerations become necessary when talking about information systems. A shift from methodical to methodological considerations will have to take place as we start questioning basic assumptions taken for granted in contemporary IS research.
2. Explication and further refinement of fundamental concepts like "information" or "model," which depend on the paradigm of inquiry chosen. By adopting a new paradigm, sociopragmatic constructivism, we will also have to develop means for the explication of concepts for an appropriate analysis of our presuppositions.
3. Transdisciplinarity will be pivotal for understanding IS as socio-technical systems and instruments of mediate inquiry. We regard the disciplines listed in the following paragraphs as being most influential on the understanding of information systems:
  1. Cultural Theory. The impact of this discipline on IS research would include most of the results of the modernism-postmodernism debate, as well as newer results from cultural philosophy and organization theory, which will have an ongoing impact on IS research too.
  2. Philosophy of Science. The consideration of the philosophical foundations of IS will also have a continuous impact, if only due to the fact the epistemological position to be taken in IS research is not clear by now.
  3. Sociology. Getting to know and becoming able to explain the social processes constituting an information system will be an important issue for the whole project to succeed.

In summary, by developing SPC along with this research agenda, we strive to understand more of the background of "doing IS research" and "developing information systems." In doing this, we realize that we need to take other research disciplines into consideration. The fact that most of the topics addressed here seem to be in a flux, is, in our view, "not a bug, it's a feature!" — because 'the world' is continuously evolving.