Societal Impact of Information Systems

Digitalization holds much promise to enhance organizational performance, reduce social barriers, enable environmental sustainability, and increase accessibility to information, networks, commerce and services. However, the pervasiveness and emphasis on digitalization, if not approached with social consciousness, may have unintended negative consequences for its societal impact. On the one hand, digital transformation efforts can enable a more sustainable society, such as the rise of smart cities or circular economies. On the other hand, digitalization may be inaccessible to certain communities and may further exclude institutionally marginalized communities and individuals across the globe. Furthermore, decision-making systems that leverage aspects of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to introduce biased outcomes. Given the complexity and velocity of digitalization, our understanding of its social impact often lags behind its introduction and widespread use.

The Information Systems community is in a unique position to uncover and shed light on the effects digitalization and various applications of information technologies have on our society. This track calls for papers that investigate both the intended and unintended societal impacts of information systems. Studies in this track go a long way to inform regulators, practitioners, users, and researchers from other disciplines. This track welcomes innovative, rigorous and relevant theoretical, empirical, and design studies on societal impacts from interactions with and influences of information systems. Empirical (qualitative and quantitative) studies as well as design-oriented research and conceptual/theoretical papers for theory development will be considered. Various dimensions, including social, economic, cultural and ethical aspects, can be involved in these relationships. We encourage submissions at different levels and cross-levels of analysis. The research questions may derive from a broad spectrum of disciplines.

Track Co-Chairs
Hala Annabi, Ph.D., University of Washington
Robin Teigland, Ph.D., Chalmers University of Technology
Shuk Ying (Susanna) Ho, Ph.D., The Australian National University