Debates & Provocations

All disciplinary fields operate under specific beliefs and assumptions and commit to specific ontologies, values, goals, and topics. These define what is ‘in’ and what is ‘out’, what method is acceptable and what is not; what assumptions guide research, and what is an appropriate code of conduct. Healthy and open academic communities occasionally reflect on such issues by engaging in arguments and debates to settle such issues when new theories, phenomena or puzzles emerge in the field. Sometimes such arguments are triggered by provocateurs who poke sacred cows and ask the contrarian questions. The information systems field is, in this regard, no different. Though the field has occasionally engaged in debates about its core, identity, preferred research method or nature of technology or value of causal explanations such debates are rarely part of our community meetings (a legendary meeting of this sort was the IFIP 8.2 meeting in Manchester under title ‘IS a dubious science’). This track seeks to fill this gap and invites submissions that propose a structured debate or a provocation on topics relevant for the IS field.

Track Chairs
Varun Grover, University of Arkansas, USA. Email: vgrover@uark.edu
Kalle Lyytinen, Case Western Reserve University, USA. Email: kalle@case.edu