Paper Number
1889
Paper Type
Short
Description
The ‘digital first’ paradigm and its ontological reversal proposition bring new risks and implications for governing and regulating digital technologies. This article reports the findings from a qualitative study of the justifications used in legislating a ‘digital first’ artifact: Australia’s COVIDSafe contact tracing app. We build on justification theory (‘orders of worth’ framework) and use deductive qualitative analysis for examining 74 parliamentary records of proceedings (Hansards) in 2020 and 2021. The findings are structured in 38 empirical themes and 15 conceptual categories, which pertain to five orders of worth used in justifying the actors’ positions. This research unpacks the complexities of the justifications invoked in the legislative debates and sheds light on the novel and important yet understudied practices of governing ‘digital first’ artifacts.
Recommended Citation
Sharifi Khajedehi, Salma; Namvar, Morteza; Pool, Javad; and Akhlaghpour, Saeed, "On Justification: Legislating a Digital First Artifact" (2022). ICIS 2022 Proceedings. 5.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2022/it_policy/it_policy/5
On Justification: Legislating a Digital First Artifact
The ‘digital first’ paradigm and its ontological reversal proposition bring new risks and implications for governing and regulating digital technologies. This article reports the findings from a qualitative study of the justifications used in legislating a ‘digital first’ artifact: Australia’s COVIDSafe contact tracing app. We build on justification theory (‘orders of worth’ framework) and use deductive qualitative analysis for examining 74 parliamentary records of proceedings (Hansards) in 2020 and 2021. The findings are structured in 38 empirical themes and 15 conceptual categories, which pertain to five orders of worth used in justifying the actors’ positions. This research unpacks the complexities of the justifications invoked in the legislative debates and sheds light on the novel and important yet understudied practices of governing ‘digital first’ artifacts.
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