Minitrack for Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) on Design Theory and Research: From Design Science to Positive Design
Minitrack Chairs:
Mark Aakhus, Rutgers University, USA,
Pär J. Ågerfalk, Uppsala University, Sweden,
Contact Email:
Important Dates
January 2, 2009: Manuscript Central will start accepting paper submissions
February 20, 2009 (11:59 PM Pacific time zone): Deadline for paper submissions
April 2, 2009: Authors will be notified of acceptances on or about this date
April 20, 2009 (11:59 PM Pacific time zone): For accepted papers, camera ready copy due
Objective and Aspirations
The objective of this minitrack is to explore how pragmatic and action-oriented perspectives on IS and IT can rovide grounds for making the shift from design science to positive design.
Description
Information and communication technology, in general, and computerized information systems in particular, are used in organizations and society to support and facilitate collaborative human activity. How people act and work through information systems in this way presents an important challenge for understanding and practising design in IS. This year's Design Theory and Research track, however, points out that the term design has been used primarily to denote the activity of creating IT applications. Positive Design refers to the contribution of design in driving positive change and fostering betterment for all levels of human rganizations and communities.
Prior interests in IT design attend principally to the artifact which is problematic when it directs attention way from social and organizational contexts in which the artifact exists and the human activity in which it is taken up. This way of attending to design arises in part from viewing information systems as tools for computation and information storage rather than for communication and construction of social reality.
Pragmatic and action-oriented theories address this by attending to the relationship among IT artifacts,
human activity, and organizational and societal contexts. Indeed, the widespread use of the Internet and
other, often related, communication-centric technologies emphasize the social action character of information systems more than ever. But, what are the implications for IS design and for the possibilities of Positive Design when viewing information systems primarily as tools for communication? Refocusing attention to communication requires reconsideration of IT design (both as process and as product) as well as the role of IT in constructing social action spaces.
We solicit contributions related to all aspects of design theory that can be useful in this endeavour, including theoretical constructs and design methods as well as concrete implementations and their evaluation. We envisage that contributions draw upon one or more of a variety of theoretical orientations, including activity theory, actor-network theory, design science, language/action theory, structuration theory, activity theory, conversation analysis, social phenomenology, symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, soft systems theory, critical social theory, hermeneutics, social semiotics, socio-pragmatism, situated cognition theory, practice theory and affordance theory.
In general, pragmatic and action-oriented approaches in IS research rest on the following set of assumptions from (http://www.sigprag.org/):
• Human life is a life of activity.
• Humans do things that effect changes in their environment and/or within themselves.
• Doing permeates thinking, conceptualizations and language use.
• Human consciousness is a practical one that is in constant interplay with interventive, investigative,
and evaluative actions.
• Practical consciousness is formed by experience from previous actions and participation in social
contexts.
• IT and information systems are fundamentally symbolic language systems.
• Linguistically expressed collective presuppositions, norms and categories (such as those embedded in
IT and information systems) serve human activity and life.
• The true value of IT and information systems lies in their potential to support human communication
and collaboration central to human activity and life.
Suggested Topics
• Action-oriented theorization of IT artifacts
• The social action and interaction of IS design
• Collaborative Design Process
• User-designer interaction in IS development
• Organizational Online Communities
• Collaborative Communities
• Pragmatic evaluation of information systems
• Action-oriented ontologies for conceptual modeling
• Sensemaking, Deliberation, Decision-Making Support
• Design and method rationale
• IS development methods as action knowledge
• Rationality resonance in ISD
• Action theoretic concepts for meta-modeling
• Action modeling in ISD contexts
• IS and action in context
• Contextually aware systems
• IS agency in organizations
• Embodied interaction
• User interfaces as languages for action
• Actability and usability
• Accountability in information systems
• New forms of action and interaction spaces
• Socially responsible IS design
Special Instructions
The minitrack on Pragmatic and Action-Oriented Approaches to Positive Design is organized by the AIS
Special Interest Group on Pragmatist IS Research (SIGPrag).
urther information about the conference and minitrack proposals is available in AMCIS2009 Web site at:
http://www.amcis2009.org