Abstract

This paper presents a phenomenological and hermeneutic analysis of the cognitive evolution of an Information Systems (IS) research laboratory (LII), covering its activity between 1990 and 2024. The investigation identifies two autopoietic reflexive feedback mechanisms that governed LII's selective development: one stabilising its intervention scheme for organisational innovation, and another guiding its adoption of new technological research foci. The first mechanism led to the stable deployment of Social Practice Design (SPD), combining third-order cybernetics, critical systemic thinking, and therapeutic co-construction. The second mechanism drove the laboratory through successive shifts of focus, selecting only those technological innovations that embodied holistic characteristics (Ciborra’s "Shi"). Through empirical text analysis of LII's published interventions, coupled with descriptive phenomenological reflection and hermeneutic interpretation, we trace the laboratory's evolving cognitive trajectory across four major technological and epistemological shifts, from its original simple Participatory Design approach: (1) Design for End User Design in Use (DEUDU), (2) Social Practice Design (SPD), (3) Descriptive Phenomenological Method (DPM), and (4) Trustworthy Governable Platforms (TGP). We argue that these shifts reflect intentionality sedimented within the laboratory's community of practice. The resulting analysis provides both a cognitive autobiography of the research centre and a contribution to epistemological reflection in socio-technical IS research.

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