Shifting the Focus: The Role of Presence in Reconceptualising the Design Process

In this paper the relationship between presence and imaging is examined with the view to establish how our understanding of imaging, and subsequently the design process, may be reconceptualised to give greater focus to its experiential potential. First, the paper outlines the research project contributing to the discussion. Then, it provides brief overviews of research on both imaging and presence in the process highlighting the narrow conceptions of imaging (and the recognition of the need for further research) compared to the more holistic and experiential understandings of presence. The paper concludes with an argument and proposed study for exploring the role of digital technology and presence in extending the potential of imaging and its role in the design process. As indicated in the DRS Conference Theme, this paper focuses “…on what people experience and the systems and actions that create those experiences.” Interface designers, information architects and interactive media artists understand the powerful influence of experience in design. ‘Experience design’ is a community of practice driven by individuals within digital based disciplines where the belief is that understanding people is essential to any successful design in any medium and that “…experience is the personal connection with the moment and… every aspect of living is an experience, whether we are the creators or simply chance participants” (Shedroff, 2001, p. 5). Keywords: Design, Design Process, Presence, Imaging, Grounded Theory</p

Grounded Theory in Information Systems Research – from Themes in IS Discourse to Possible Developments

The grounded theory approach (GT) has been applied in qualitative research in information systems for a long time. Besides many papers that report results from such applications, there exist also many papers that discuss research-methodological issues concerning GT. This paper investigates the literature on GT-methodological issues in IS. The presentation is structured in six themes of the IS/GT discourse. These are: 1) GT variants, 2) GT and research paradigms, 3) GT and guidance, 4) usefulness of GT in IS studies, 5) the influence and use of pre-understandings in the GT research process, 6) the character of a grounded theory or other GT research outcomes. Conclusions are drawn from this review and based on these conclusions two suggestions are given for further development of a grounded theory approach in IS research. These suggestions are: 1) an enhanced action perspective with adapted conceptualizations for the IS research context to be used as support for analysis of data, 2) a clarification of a balanced interaction between inductive data analysis and use of extant theories in theory formation. These suggestions are grounded in pragmatist foundations that are apparent in original and evolved Straussian GT

GROUNDED COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS: A HANDS-ON APPROACH TO ANALYSING DIGITAL INNOVATION

As socio-technical processes related to digital innovation are increasingly connected and distributed across geographical, organisational, and temporal boundaries, the methods we use to study them must be adapted to accommodate the greater detail and scope of the phenomenon. Specifically, there is a need to operationalise methods for generating inductive theory of distributed digital innovation from digital trace data. An emerging stream of IS research on computationally intensive inductive theorising lays the groundwork for such methods. This paper builds on this foundation to develop a hands-on approach to operationalising grounded theorizing in computational analysis of digital trace data. The paper first conceptualises trace data of digital innovation as a new research context before articulating an approach to operationalising grounded theory in computational analysis of digital innovation. The application of the grounded computational analysis approach is then briefly illustrated in the context of digital trace data from an online social network before possible directions for further research are laid out

Speaking as one, but not speaking up : dealing with new moral taint in an occupational online community

This paper builds a process theory of how participants in an online community deal with a new identity threat. Based upon the in-depth, interpretive case study of an online community of retail bankers, it develops a grounded theory that reveals that participants in an online community deal with new taint by protecting their occupation's identity but not by attempting to repair its external image. In the investigated community, reactions progressed from rejecting the taint to distancing from it and, finally, resigning to it. Overall, the dynamics of an occupational online community reveal that the objective of protecting the existing identity of its members supersede that of taking a more proactive stance to address the identity threat and attempt to influence new regulations affecting the occupation

Building Grounded Theory with Social Media Data

The growing popularity and constant innovations of social media platforms and applications have transformed ways of interacting, working, creating value and innovating. We elaborate upon how building theory from case studies may be adapted to the opportunities and challenges of social media environments. We delve into key challenges of the research process: case study design, data analysis, and engaging in multi methods

Inaugural Lifespan Writing Research Conference Report

From May 31 – June 2, 2018, an international group of scholars met in Athens, Ohio to discuss lifespan writing research and plan the next steps of the Writing through the Lifespan Collaboration’s central goal: a multi-site, multi-generational study of writing. The conference consisted of five plenary talks, four small-group discussion sessions, eighteen individual presentations during three breakout sessions, and a full day of reviewing the progress of both the Collaboration and the conference and planning next steps for lifespan writing research. The proceedings of the conference and the June 2 meetings were recorded and are available on Box for conference attendees and members of the Collaboration who were unable to attend. At the conclusion of the June 2 meetings, it was decided that the Collaboration would move forward in four specific steps. First, it would hold another conference in Athens, Ohio in mid Summer 2020. Second, it would release an edited collection based on the work of the conference. Third, it would organize multi-site studies of writing through the lifespan via lines of inquiry, preliminary versions of which will be released in late summer. Fourth, it would explore the methodological and theoretical challenges of lifespan writing research further between now and a conference through a series of virtual works-in-progress meetings with interested lifespan-oriented researchers beginning in early Fall 2018

Postmodern American sociology: A response to the aesthetic challenge

Over the past two decades, American sociologists have debated about the postmodern and what we might call postmodern American sociology began to emerge at the turn of this century. This dissertation examines the nature of the postmodern in general, and postmodern American sociology in particular, in terms of three models of knowledge: science, morality, and aesthetics; This dissertation pays close attention to the fact that science, morality, and aesthetics began to be differentiated from religion in the modern era, which posited two problems: the problem of legitimacy of knowledge and the problem of figuring out the relationship among science, morality, and aesthetics. It sees the modern as a specific way to address these two problems. About the first problem, the modern derived legitimacy of knowledge from the idea of progress: progress in science and technology will lead to the improvement in material well-being as well as the moral perfection of individuals and societies. About the second problem, the modern presented two positions. The Enlightenment tried to reintegrate science, morality, and aesthetics into society according to scientific laws while the Counter-Enlightenment did so according to moral laws. In this sense, the modern is defined as the scientization and moralization of ontology, epistemology, and ethics/politics, which proceeded from the 17th century to the early 1960s in Western societies; This dissertation also observes how the process of dedifferentiation, a process of social entropy leading to the collapse of boundaries, is changing the two issues associated with the modern. It is increasingly difficult to derive legitimacy of each knowledge from the idea of progress because science and morality become contested arenas mainly by the implosive impact of electronically-mediated culture industry on ontology, epistemology, and ethics/politics. The process of dedifferentiation also makes the problem of integration of science, morality, and aesthetics into society outdated by refiguring them in terms of the state of incommensurability. In this sense, the postmodern is defined as the aestheticization of ontology, epistemology, and ethics/politics, which has proceeded from the early 1960s on in advanced Western societies; This dissertation examines the nature of postmodern American sociology by situating it within this general relationship between the modern and the postmodern. It investigates how sociology has been based on the modern, excluding the aesthetic, how the postmodern as the aesthetic challenge is threatening the modern discipline of sociology, and how some American sociologists, especially critical and interactionist sociologists, form postmodern American sociology in the course of responding to the aesthetic challenge. Finally, this dissertation proposes that postmodern American sociology needs multi- or trans-disciplinary approaches for addressing the postmodern, the core of which is the synthesis of poststructuralist linguistics and post-Marxist political economy

Developing Theory Through Integrating Human and Machine Pattern Recognition

New forms of digital trace data are becoming ubiquitous. Traditional methods of qualitative research that aim at developing theory, however, are often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of such data. To remedy this situation, qualitative researchers can engage not only with digital traces, but also with computational tools that are increasingly able to model digital trace data in ways that support the process of developing theory. To facilitate such research, this paper crafts a research design framework based on the philosophical tradition of pragmatism, which provides intellectual tools for dealing with multifaceted digital trace data, and offers an abductive analysis approach suitable for leveraging both human and machine pattern recognition. This framework provides opportunities for researchers to engage with digital traces and computational tools in a way that is sensitive to qualitative researchers’ concerns about theory development. The paper concludes by showing how this framework puts human imaginative capacities at the center of the push for qualitative researchers to engage with computational tools and digital trace