French theories; Information Systems Research; Actor-network theory;

Monod, Emmanuel

English

Research Papers in Economics

Monod    French Theories in IS research 
French theories in IS research :  
An exploratory study on ICIS, AMCIS and MISQ 
 
Emmanuel Monod 
CRGNA LAGON, Paris Dauphine University (CREPA)  
and University of Nantes, France 
Emmanuel.monod@dauphine.fr 
ABSTRACT 
This paper claims that theories from the French-speaking world have an influence on current thinking in IS research, 
including at the American and at the international levels. French theories are first defined and classified in 10 trends that 
correspond to 10 main authors. The frequency of their quotation is then measured in American and international conference 
in IS and in MISQ. The result is that Habermas is the most quoted philosopher in the conferences and in MISQ. However, 
Piaget and Latour are more often quoted than Giddens in MISQ. In the conferences, there are more papers quoting Latour 
than Heidegger. The most quoted French theories in IS are actor-network theory, constructivism, post-structuralism, 
hermeneutics and discourse analysis.  
Keywords 
French theories, IS research, actor-network theory, constructivism, post-structuralism, hermeneutics and discourse analysis. 
INTRODUCTION 
French theories had and still have an important influence in sociology, psychology, linguistic, history and philosophy. In each 
of these disciplines, they brought particular approaches, such as for instance actor network theory, structuralism, post-
modernism but also originally, positivism and rationalism. In IS, Philosophical foundations come from diverse cultural 
traditions. Among these traditions, European philosophies and theories play a role in contemporary IS research. These 
traditions are usually considered as German and British. The most important German theories in IS are usually the theory of 
communicative action of Habermas (1984), the phenomenology of Heidegger (1962) and the hermeneutics of Gadamer (1975 
; 1976). The most important influence of British theories is usually considered to be the Structuration theory of Giddens 
(1984). This paper claims that theories from the French-speaking world however have an influence on current thinking in IS 
research. The stake is that a much wider diversity of approaches could be included in our discipline, and therefore to improve 
our body of knowledge. 
The attribute “French” does not refer to a political country but to language communities. It especially includes Switzerland, 
Belgium and Québec. This paper question the influence of French theories not in Europe, but at the American and 
International level. In a first part, the concept of “French theory” will be discussed in order to propose a methodology for 
testing this idea of influence on IS research. In a third part, this methodology will be on the American Conference in IS 
(AMCIS), the international conferences on IS (ICIS),  and on MIS Quarterly. A fourth part will discuss these results and 
propose theoretical and methodological enhancements of this preliminary study. 
FRENCH THEORIES 
There are many ways to describe theories. Insights from other disciplines where French theories have an important influence 
might appear as the most obvious way to compare to their influence in IS. We will call it the comparative point of view. The 
second point of view is to wonder if these French theories have consequences in the research methods that we use in IS. This 
will be the methodological point of view. A third is to start from the improvements that these French theories had in other 
disciplines such as sociology or psychology and to make a recommendation about how they could improve IS research. We 
will call it the normative point of view. Finally, a very simple point of view is to wonder the reality of the use of these 
theories in the nowadays IS research. This is the descriptive point of view. 
The comparative point of view 
From a comparative point of view the focus on French theories invites comparison with other disciplines. For example, in 
philosophy and sociology, the reference to post-modernism and post-structuralism became almost unavoidable. While 
François Lyotard has launched the word “post-modernism”, the word “post-structuralism” is attributed to Foucault (1972), 
Proceedings of the Tenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, New York, New York, August 2004    4174Monod    French Theories in IS research 
Deleuze and Derrida, especially after their conference at the John Hopkins University. The paradox is that these authors are 
sometimes much more studied in the USA than they are in France. 
The methodological point of view 
From a methodological point of view, the substantial contributions of French theories to the developments of positivist 
approaches in IS research become apparent. Auguste Comte (1995)coined the word “positivism”: posé, in French, means 
based, i.e. relying on evidences, and especially on data and we owe the strong reliance on “method” to Rene Descartes’ 
(1637) insistence on the importance of systemic, reproducible procedures for distinguish truth from falsehood.  Of course, 
this is not to deny the seminal thinking of John Locke to the empiricist side of positivism, which came from the other side of 
the British Channel. However, the importance of positivist qualitative methods in IS, especially cases studies, demonstrate 
that, beside empiricism, two other important influences within positivism are rationalism and functionalism. The two 
prominent founders of rationalism are the English James Bacon along with the French René Descartes. The primary creator 
of functionalism is the French Emile Durkheim (1968) who inspired Talcott Parsons (1968). It is then obvious that French 
theories have had a decisive influence on IS research through positivism, rationalism and functionalism. 
The normative point of view 
From a normative point of view, papers are invited to question what could be, or should be the influence of French theories 
on IS Research. For example, there is a growing trend in France for young IS researchers to associate themselves with 
constructivism in the sense as the French-speaking, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1967)developed it. French sociologists 
often associate themselves with the sociology of action (Touraine, 1965)) or Crozier’s (1977) interactionism. 
The descriptive point of view 
However, the point of view adopted in this research will be descriptive. Indeed, the use of French theories in the IS field has 
become a practice, not only in the IS conferences, but also in a growing number of publications in Europe. the Actor Network 
Theory of Bruno Latour (1982), have captured the interest of a generation of IS scholars (Baskerville & Myers, 2002; 
Walsham, 1997). On of the most successful is especially in Scandinavian conference like IRIS. In human and social sciences, 
the names of Piaget, Foucault or Ricoeur (1981) are well-known, but what is the situation in IS research in America and at 
the international level?  
METHODOLOGY 
The first step of the proposed methodology is to establish a reduced number of theories and to relate them to the main author. 
The difficulty is here to select authors that represent each of the 4 points of view. Foucault seems to us the most 
representative of the comparative point of view because of his famous post-structuralist approaches in sociology. Amont the 
authors that had a methodological influence in the human sciences, the names of  Descartes, Comte and Durkheim appear to 
be the most important. From our knowledge of their theoretical influence, we select Piaget for constructivism, Crozier for 
interactionnism and Touraine for sociology of action. Finally, the French authors the most quoted in IFIP 8.2 were Latour, 
Ricoeur and Bourdieu (Jones, 2000). Therefore, they will be hereby used in order to represent the descriptive point of view. 
Table 1 provides the list of the theories selected. 
Proceedings of the Tenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, New York, New York, August 2004    4175Monod    French Theories in IS research 
 
Author theory 
Bourdieu Discourse  analysis 
Comte Positivism 
Crozier Interactionnism 
Descartes Rationalism 
Durkheim Functionalism 
Foucault Post-structuralism 
Latour Actor-network  theory 
Piaget Constructivism 
Ricoeur Hermeneutics 
Touraine Sociology  of  action 
Table 1. Sample of French theories  
In order to compare the influence of the French theories, some of the most quoted German and British theories in IFIP WG 
8.2 transactions (Jones, 2000) have been selected like depicted in Table 2. 
Author Theory 
Gadamer Hermeneutics 
Giddens Actor-network  theory 
Habermas Constructivism 
Heidegger Hermeneutics 
Table 2. Sample of German and British theories  
The frequency of the quotation of the authors through online keyword search have been then measured in the American 
conference AMCIS and in the international conference ICIS. It is also measured in the highest ranked journal in IS : MISQ. 
The selection of these conference and of this journal has been suggested for methodological simplicity : the keyword search 
on the online proceedings or the online release of the Journal.  
RESULTS 
The result in the ICIS and AMCIS conferences given in Table 3. 
Proceedings of the Tenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, New York, New York, August 2004    4176Monod    French Theories in IS research 
 
   ICIS  and 
AMCIS 
Habermas 60
Giddens 43
Latour 35
Heidegger 24
Foucault 21
Gadamer 17
Piaget 15
Bourdieu 13
Ricoeur 9
Descartes 8
Durkheim 7
Crozier 3
Comte 1
Touraine   0
Table 3. Number of papers with quotations of authors in ICIS and AMCIS 
Then, the measurement has been performed on MISQ with a result given in Table 4. 
   MISQ 
Habermas 14
Piaget 9
Latour 8
Giddens 5
Foucault 4
Heidegger 4
Ricoeur 3
Callon 2
Bourdieu 2
Gadamer 2
Durkheim 1
Comte 1
Descartes 0
Crozier 0
Touraine 0
Table 4. Number of papers with quotations of authors in MISQ 
Proceedings of the Tenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, New York, New York, August 2004    4177Monod    French Theories in IS research 
DISCUSSION 
If it is confirmed that Habermas is the most quoted philosopher in the conferences and in MISQ. However, if in the 
conferences he is followed by the British sociologist Giddens. Piaget and Latour have more papers quoting them than 
Giddens in MISQ. In conferences there are more papers quoting Latour than Heidegger. The importance of Piaget in MISQ 
might be especially important for the French community. Indeed, in France, most of the young researchers claim to be non-
positivist. But instead of defining themselves as interpretivist, they rather choose the word constructivist, especially with 
reference to Piaget. As we said, Latour has a very important influence in Scandinavia, but a very limited influence in French 
Speaking IS research. The situation of Foucault, who is more quoted than Gadamer, is also a paradox. It seem that the 
influence of the french sociology at the international level is more important than within the French Speaking IS research. 
May we add that, from a normative point of view, the archaeology of knowledge  and the analysis of power in post-
structuralism might appear as one of the most fruitful way for the human sciences? Finally, the hermeneutics of Ricoeur and 
the discourse analysis of Bourdieu seem to have an influence, even if this influence is limited. The result is that the most 
quoted French theories are actor-network theory, constructivism, post-structuralism, hermeneutics and discourse analysis. 
CONCLUSION 
This paper claims that theories from the French-speaking world however have an influence on current thinking in IS research, 
including at the American and at the international levels. French theories are first discussed according to 4 points of view : 
comparative, methodological,  normative and descriptive, and then classified in 10 trends that correspond to 10 main authors. 
The frequency of their quotation is then measured in American international conference in IS and in MISQ. The result is that 
the most quoted French theories are actor-network theory, constructivism, post-structuralism, hermeneutics and discourse 
analysis. There are many limitations about the methodology of this research. Comparisons could have been made with the 
European Conference ECIS, the French Speaking Conference AIM or some European journals (ISJ, EJIS) or French-
Speaking Journals (SIM). The search by keywords on author names also present weaknesses and other searches by theories 
or concepts could have been performed. The research should also be enlarged to other international and American IS journals 
like ISR, JMIS or Information and Organization. Finally, the influence of American philosophers like pragmatists or 
analytical philosophy could be compared to the French theories. There limitations should be the basis of future research. 
They might be overcome by promoting, through pre-ICIS workshops, AMCIS mini-tracks or special issues in high level 
journals like MISQ, a debate about the French theories in IS. 
   
REFERENCES 
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2.  Bourdieu, P. (1991) Language and Symbolic Power, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. 
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Proceedings of the Tenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, New York, New York, August 2004    4179

Actor Network Theory and IS Research,

and Friedberg

Being and Time,

Epistemology of I.S. Research »

Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences,

Information Systems as a Reference Discipline,

Language and Symbolic Power,

Les règles de la méthode sociologique, Presses Universitaires de France,

Principles of Genetic Epistemology

Research Commentary :

Sociologie de l’Action,

Sociologie de l’action, Le Seuil,

The Archaelogy of Knowledge,

The Constitution of Society : Outline of the Theory of Structure,

The Moving Finger: The Use of Social Theory

The positive philosophy,

The structure of Social Action ,

The Theory of Communicative Action,

Truth and Method, The Continuing Publishing Corp.,

French theories in IS : an exploratory study on ICIS, AMCIS and MISQ.

http://basepub.dauphine.fr/xmlui/bitstream/123456789/2010/3/Monod_french_theories_in_IS.pdf

French theories in IS : an exploratory study on ICIS, AMCIS and MISQ.

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