Talking Past Each Other - A Discursive Approach to the Formation of Societal-Level Information Pathologies in the Context of the Electronic Health Card in Germany

Authors

Lauri Wessel, Freie Universität BerlinFollow
Martin Gersch, Freie Universität Berlin, Chair of Business AdministrationFollow
Erik HarloffFollow

Document Type

Research Paper

Abstract

An explorative case study is used to investigate the formation of information pathologies on the societal level. The paper conceptualizes these particular information pathologies as ‘interaction-related Information pathologies’ (Picot et al., Information, organization and management. Springer, Berlin, 2008) and proposes that the production of information by multiple stakeholders leads to ‘distortions’ (Cukier et al., Inf Syst J 19(2):175–196, 2009) on the societal level. This broad proposition is then explored by means of a qualitative case study of the media coverage surrounding the implementation of the ‘Electronic Health Card’ in Germany. Based on that study, the initial proposition is further specified by conceptualizing how a process of path constitution ‘distorts’ a debate from being about legitimacy of an ICT innovation to being about illegitimacy of stakeholders.

Recommended Citation

Wessel, Lauri; Gersch, Martin; and Harloff, Erik (2017) "Talking Past Each Other - A Discursive Approach to the Formation of Societal-Level Information Pathologies in the Context of the Electronic Health Card in Germany," Business & Information Systems Engineering: Vol. 59: Iss. 1, 23-40.
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/bise/vol59/iss1/3