Paper Number
ICIS2026-3843
Paper Type
Short
Abstract
Digital technologies shape how organisations engage with time, yet temporality remains under theorised in Information Systems (IS) research. This paper investigates how digital technologies participate in the production and reconfiguration of temporal relations in police intelligence work. Drawing on a timescapes perspective, we examine intelligence activities surrounding large-scale events such as football matches and protests, where actors must navigate uncertainty, emerging information, and future consequences. Based on an interpretive qualitative case study, our preliminary findings identify five interrelated dimensions of timescapes: synchronising layered temporalities, revisable sequences, rhythm and event-time coordination, kairotic judgement, and anticipation and persistence. These findings suggest that digital technologies continuously reconnect past experiences, present developments, and anticipated futures, keeping temporal relations open to ongoing revision and reconfiguration. We conceptualise this as temporal plasticity and outline how future research will develop it into a recursive process model explaining the ongoing reconfiguration of temporal relations in digitally mediated work.
Recommended Citation
Gritt, Emma and Forsgren, Emma, "Navigating Digital Timescapes in High‑Stakes Police Intelligence Work" (2026). ICIS 2026 Proceedings. 18.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2026/implement/implement/18
Navigating Digital Timescapes in High‑Stakes Police Intelligence Work
Digital technologies shape how organisations engage with time, yet temporality remains under theorised in Information Systems (IS) research. This paper investigates how digital technologies participate in the production and reconfiguration of temporal relations in police intelligence work. Drawing on a timescapes perspective, we examine intelligence activities surrounding large-scale events such as football matches and protests, where actors must navigate uncertainty, emerging information, and future consequences. Based on an interpretive qualitative case study, our preliminary findings identify five interrelated dimensions of timescapes: synchronising layered temporalities, revisable sequences, rhythm and event-time coordination, kairotic judgement, and anticipation and persistence. These findings suggest that digital technologies continuously reconnect past experiences, present developments, and anticipated futures, keeping temporal relations open to ongoing revision and reconfiguration. We conceptualise this as temporal plasticity and outline how future research will develop it into a recursive process model explaining the ongoing reconfiguration of temporal relations in digitally mediated work.
Comments
12_Implementation_and_organizing