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Critical systemic thinking as a foundation for information systems research practice

Peter M. Bednar (School of Computing, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK)
Christine Welch (Department of Strategy and Business Systems, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK)

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society

ISSN: 1477-996X

Article publication date: 10 August 2012

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore a particular philosophical underpinning for Information Systems (IS) research – critical systemic thinking (CST). Drawing upon previous work, the authors highlight the principal features of CST within the tradition of critical research and attempt to relate it to trends in the Italian school of IS research in recent years, as exemplified by the work of Claudio Ciborra but also evident in work by, e.g. Resca, Jacucci and D'Atri.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper which explores CST, characterised by a focus on individual uniqueness, and socially‐constructed, individual worldviews as generators of human knowing.

Findings

The paper draws on work by Heinz Klein in which he elaborated three constitutive stages in critical research: interpretive, genealogical and constructive. The authors introduce a fourth, reflective stage and discuss five categories of critical research, reflecting different perspectives on emancipation, culminating in emergent expressionism, associated with Ciborra and the Italian school more generally.

Research limitations/implications

This paper discusses approaches to CST and how they might have practical implications in IS development. The distinction between approaches founded in logical empiricism and those founded in hermeneutic dialectics are considered and the development of critical and systems strands are discussed.

Practical implications

The paper addresses CST as an approach to development of information systems. Such approaches enable users to explore their individually unique understandings and create a constructive dialogue with one another, which emancipates and empowers users to own and control their own development processes and hence build more productive and usable systems.

Social implications

A focus on research which is oriented towards emancipation in the tradition of critical social theory.

Originality/value

The paper draws on extensive theoretical research carried out by the authors over a period of more than ten years in CST and synthesises the practical implications.

Keywords

Citation

Bednar, P.M. and Welch, C. (2012), "Critical systemic thinking as a foundation for information systems research practice", Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 144-155. https://doi.org/10.1108/14779961211261058

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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