Technology argument frames : examining the impact of argumentation on the development of a health information exchange initiative

This dissertation applies the Technology Frames of Reference (TFR) theoretical lens to examine the implementation of a health information exchange (HIE) initiative in southeast USA. It extends the TFR lens by developing Toulminian argument maps to depict frame structure and employing the argument theories of Toulmin, Habermas and Perelman Olbrechts-Tyteca to help analyze the role that argumentation plays in the emergence and development of the technology frames that characterized this HIE endeavor. The argument maps developed in this dissertation helped to assess the level of argumentation within frames and to compare argumentation across frame domains. The argument maps were also used to structurally depict changes in frame salience over time and helped to facilitate the discovery of a prominent “perspective blindness” or “perspective indifference” which was the key finding of this dissertation. Previous TFR literature has focused on dysfunctions produced by conflict/alignment issues. This dissertation extends this research by highlighting the role that conflict avoidance or frame apathy may play in producing these dysfunctions. Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s New Rhetoric was recommended as a boundary spanning discursive framework that could help ameliorate the problems associated with both inter-frame conflict and frame indifference