Dialectics in Information Systems Research: Principles and Practices

Presenters

Raffaele Ciriello
Lecturer, University of Sydney
Lars Mathiassen
Professor, Georgia State University

Abstract

The ongoing digitalization introduces complex and multifaceted tensions for inpiduals, organizations, and societies. Digital platforms and ecosystems, such as social media, blockchain, artificial intelligence, crowdfunding, virtual collaboration environments, and mobile apps, all create exciting opportunities but also ethical challenges and dilemmas that we only begin to understand. Dialectics is a highly effective approach to studying such tensions by creating appealing accounts of the conflicts, dilemmas, and paradoxes in everyday life. In Information Systems (IS) research, dialectics is particularly useful for representing and navigating the contradictory nature of technology in practice. As such, dialectics could help to achieve high-quality, high-impact publications for a broad range of IS scholars.

Seminar participants will get an introduction to the theoretical foundations, history, and key methodological principles of dialectics, and an analysis of the state-of-the art as well as exemplary cases of dialectics in IS research practice. The 90-minute session features two 30min presentations and plenary discussions. No prior knowledge of dialectics is required and IS researchers at all levels are invited to attend. While early career researchers (PhD students and junior faculty) are expected to extend their methodological repertoire and knowledge of the IS literature, IS scholars with a more advanced understanding of dialectics are expected to benefit from stimulating discussions with a vibrant and inclusive group of junior and senior IS scholars passionate about dialectics. Our hope is to gather constructive feedback for a related Professional Development Workshop to be held at ICIS2021.

Biographies

Raffaele Ciriello serves as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney Business School. His research focuses on digital innovation, blockchain, and IS development, and has appeared in renowned journals (EJIS, IJIM, BISE) and conferences (ICIS, ICSE, ECIS, HICSS). Before joining Sydney, Raffaele served as Assistant Professor at IT University of Copenhagen (Denmark), earned a PhD and M.Sc. from University of Zurich (Switzerland), and a B.Sc. from University of Stuttgart (Germany). He engaged with software firms, music platforms, startups, charities, banks, and IT consulting houses for research and teaching. Raffaele received the Outstanding Associate Editor Award at ICIS2019, the ITU Award for Teaching Excellence, and has participated in various competitive early career workshops such as ICIS2017 JFC, ICSE2017 JFC, WI2015 DC, and ICIS2014 DC.

Lars Mathiassen is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, Professor at the Computer Information Systems Department and Co-Founder of the Center for Digital Innovation at Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University. His research focuses on digital innovation, on health informatics, and on IT development & management. He commonly approaches these phenomena through dialectic inquiry. Lars has published extensively in leading academic journals, including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of MIS, Research Policy, Journal of Business Ethics, Health Services Research, Communications of the ACM, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, Journal of Information Technology, and Journal of Strategic Information Systems. Lars was a co-founder of Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, he has served as senior editor for MIS Quarterly, Journal of Information Technology and Information & Organization and he currently serves as senior editor for Engaged Management ReView. Lars has supervised more than 50 doctoral dissertations.