Government, E-Government and Modernity ‘The times they are a-changin’; and even the changes are a-changin

E-government is far too often taken to mean ‘government business as usual’ plus the internet. This paper puts forward the basis for an alternative orientation, locating e-government against a background of profound social changes

Re-Grounding Grounded Theory

IS researchers are now far more likely to consider using qualitative approaches than may have been the case a few years ago. Publication outlets such as JITTA, Information & Organization, and IFIP Working Group 8.2 have helped to establish a firm basis for non-quantitative IS research. One method that is gaining increasing popularity is the Grounded Theory Method originated by Glaser and Strauss. There are some profound problems with this approach; in particular the unproblematic conceptualization of data, and a level of methodological flexibility that can degenerate into methodological indifference and result in superficial and ambiguous conclusions. This paper argues that the method is not indelibly stamped with these failings and inconsistencies; although they are indeed failings, despite the views of many users of the method. If these faults are remedied, however, the method is particularly suited to IS research, particularly where it proceeds from an antipositivist orientation that sees truth as socially constructed and sustained, and where representation is viewed as a distributed, systems phenomenon

The Metropolis and Digital Life

In his landmark essay The Metropolis and Mental Life, Georg Simmel drew the distinction between two “different, yet corresponding” aspects of modernity, which become embodied in the metropolis “as one of those great historical formations in which opposing streams which enclose life unfold, as well as join one another with equal right.” Raymond Williams termed these individuality, which “stresses both a unique person and his (indivisible) membership of a group,” and individualism, “a theory not only of abstract individuals but of the primacy of individual states and interests,” the former being something that diminishes in the metropolis, while the latter is intensified. With the emergence of “digital life,” including new spheres of virtual interaction, these forces take on new forms and characteristics which need to be articulated and understood more widely if plans for the ‘digital city’ and ‘urban transformation’ are to be open, accessible, and generally beneficial. In what follows Simmel’s insights are developed with consideration of work by Williams, Zygmunt Bauman, Erving Goffman, and Richard Sennett, leading to an outline of the paradoxical, ambivalent, and complex nature of the digital metropolis

A constructive/ist response to Glaser's "Constructivist Grounded Theory?"

"Recent articles on the Grounded Theory Method (GTM) have started to analyze its conceptual and philosophical foundations. In particular it has been argued that the early characterizations by GLASER and STRAUSS exhibit a scientistic and positivist orientation that is no longer tenable. In her recent contribution to the GTM literature, CHARMAZ distinguished between objectivist GTM and constructivist GTM. This drew a response from Barney GLASER. What follows is a rejoinder to GLASER, offering some clarification of developments in people's understanding of this important and widely-used qualitative approach." (author's abstract

Information Systems: A Discipline in Search of a Community; or Vice-Versa?

This paper takes issue with those who seek disciplinary certainty for IS, and uses the ideas ofBauman and Foucault to argue that such assurances are both delusory and futile. The recent article byBenbasat and Zmud is specifically targeted since they seek to present some definitive statement ofidentity for the IS discipline, and do so from a central position within the institutional sites of IS. Thepaper develops the argument that any such attempt at disciplining – with its Foucauldian resonances ofpolicing, control and constraint – is bound to be ineffectual in the long term, but paradoxically may behelpful in generating a wide-ranging response and the development of abnormal discourses

Grounded Theory and Pragmatism: The Curious Case of Anselm Strauss

Las historias de Sir Arthur CONAN DOYLE acerca de Sherlock Holmes son realmente famosas alrededor del mundo. En Las memorias de Sherlock Holmes (1993), en una historia titulada Resplandor de plata, se encuentra un intercambio entre Holmes y un detective de Scotland Yard: Gregorio (detective de Scotland Yard): "¿Hay otro punto sobre el cual desearía usted llamar mi atención?" Holmes: "El incidente curioso del perro al anochecer." Gregory: "El perro no hizo nada al anochecer." Holmes: "Ese fue el incidente curioso." En forma similar deseo llamar la atención sobre el curioso caso de Anselm STRAUSS: Actualmente hay una buena cantidad de trabajo que destaca las continuidades entre el método de teoría fundamentada (MTF) y el pragmatismo de John DEWEY y Charles PEIRCE. Lo que ha sido frecuentemente enfocado es Anselm STRAUSS y su educación en Chicago influenciada por el pragmatismo, aunque STRAUSS mismo nunca articuló la manera en la cual el pragmatismo influyó o pudo influir en el método, tal cual se desarrolló desde la década de los 1960s a nuestros días. Este artículo argumenta que gran parte de los temas en debate alrededor del MTF se pueden resolver si se entienden en el contexto de algunos de los principios centrales del pragmatismo, particularmente de aquellos sobre los que algunos pragmatistas contemporáneos como Richard RORTY han recuperado como foco de atención. Al hacerlo así, surge la pregunta de por qué, dada su educación y formación intelectual, Anselm STRAUSS hizo tan poco para llevar las ideas pragmáticas al MTF en sus incorporaciones posteriores y amplias afirmaciones. Este es el "incidente curioso" sobre el que se llama la atención en varios puntos en lo que sigue; permanece en la perplejidad, sin solución convincente, en contraste con el misterio de Sherlock Holmes enunciado al principio. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs090325Die Erzählungen von Sir Arthur CONAN DOYLE über Sherlock Holmes sind weltweit bekannt. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1993) enthalten in einer Geschichte – Silver Blaze – den folgenden Wortwechsel zwischen Holmes und einem Kommissar von Scotland Yard: Gregory (Scotland Yard): "Gibt es noch irgendetwas anderes, worauf Sie mich aufmerksam machen wollen?" Holmes: "Ja: auf das eigenartige nächtliche Ereignis mit dem Hund." Gregory: "Aber der Hund hat nachts nichts getan." Holmes: "Das genau war das eigenartige Ereignis." In ganz ähnlicher Weise möchte ich die Aufmerksamkeit der Leser/innen auf den eigenartigen Fall des Anselm STRAUSS lenken: Es gibt bereits einige Arbeiten zu Bezügen zwischen der GTM und dem Pragmatismus von John DEWEY und Charles PEIRCE, und diese haben üblicherweise Anselm STRAUSS mit seinem durch die Chicagoer Schule beeinflussten Hintergrund in den Blick genommen. Es bleibt allerdings ein Rätsel, warum STRAUSS zu diesem Einfluss des Pragmatismus und zu dessen Potenzialen für die seit den 1960er Jahren sukzessive entwickelte Methodologie nie ausführlicher Stellung genommen hat. Ich versuche in diesem Beitrag zu zeigen, dass einige der umstrittensten Aspekte der GTM lösbar wären, würden sie im Lichte einiger Hauptgrundsätze des Pragmatismus rekapituliert, insbesondere wenn neuere Lesarten wie die von Richard RORTY hinzugezogen würden. Die Frage, die den Beitrag durchzieht, ist, warum STRAUSS trotz seines eigenen intellektuellen Hintergrunds so wenig versucht hat, Pragmatismus für die Weiterentwicklung der GTM zu nutzen. Das ist das "eigenartige Ereignis", dem immer wieder Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt werden wird, und das am Ende eventuell keine überzeugende Antwort findet, anders als das "Geheimnis", das Sherlock Holmes oben angesprochen hat. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs090325Sir Arthur CONAN DOYLE's stories featuring Sherlock Holmes are justly famous the world over. In The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1993) one story entitled Silver Blaze contains an exchange between Holmes and a Scotland Yard detective as follows: Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?" Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time." Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time." Holmes: "That was the curious incident." In similar fashion I wish to draw attention to the curious case of Anselm STRAUSS: There is already a good deal of work pointing to the continuities between the Grounded Theory Method (GTM) and the Pragmatism of John DEWEY and Charles PEIRCE. This has usually focused on Anselm STRAUSS with his Chicago-influenced Pragmatist background, although STRAUSS himself never articulated the way in which Pragmatism informed or could be brought to bear on the method as it evolved from the 1960s onwards. This paper argues that many of the contentious issues surrounding GTM can be resolved if they are understood against the context of some of the core tenets of Pragmatism, particularly the ways in which some of the more recent Pragmatists such as Richard RORTY have brought them back as a focus of attention. In so doing is raises the question of why, given his intellectual background and formation, Anselm STRAUSS did so little to bring Pragmatist ideas into GTM in its later embodiments and extended statements. That is the "curious incident" to which specific attention is drawn at several points in what follows; it remains a perplexing one, with perhaps no convincing solution, unlike the Sherlock Holmes mystery alluded to above. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs09032

The Role of the Information Architect: Conquering CognitiveParochialism

The architectural metaphor has played an important role in many aspects of IS/ICT since the1970s. One key influence in this has been Zachman’s ISA, first introduced in 1987. This isnow a pivotal aspect of the domain, but it has developed in a lop-sided fashion with thestructural features of the architectural trope effacing the cognitive ones. This paper focusesattention back on the neglected aspects of the architectural metaphor, arguing that a morecomprehensive and accomplished conception of the role of the information architect and thenature of information architecture are critical for current IS/ICT practices