Global and Organizational Discourse about Information Technology

Over the past 20 years, the field of information systems has grown dramatically in theoretical diversity and global reach. This growth is reflected in the language that policy makers and organizational stakeholders use when they talk about their IT plans. As information technology penetrates further into organizational and global life, it becomes ever more important to articulate assumptions embedded in the discourse. This will help to clarify the complex and yet conceptually improvised or pasted-up worldview that becomes embodied in systems. The assumptions point to particular domains of discourse. The discourse sets up conventions and boundaries. It thus shapes what can or cannot legitimately be talked about, researched, addressed, or solved within the scope of IT.

A number of practical and theoretical topics are discussed in detail, including:
*Globalization, development, and space;
*Mobilization of power;
*ERP systems;
*IS planning and projects;
*Critical research and the study of discourse;
*Public institutions;
*Analytical frameworks.

This book contains the selected proceedings of the Working Conference on Global and Organizational Discourse About Information Technology, sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Barcelona, Spain in December 2002.

Inhalt
1 Placing Language in the Foreground: Themes and Methods in Information Technology Discourse.- 1: Keynotes.- 2 Talking the IS Innovation Walk.- 3 Figuring Service in Discourses of ICT: The Case of Software Agents.- 2: Analytical Frameworks.- 4 Transitioning Toward an Internet Culture: An Interorganizational Analysis of Identity Construction from Online Services to Intranets.- 5 Discourse on E-Mail in Use.- 6 When Does a Computer Speak the Truth? The Problem of IT and Validity Claims.- 7 Conceptualizing Information Technology in the Study of Information Systems: Trends and Issues.- 8 A Research Note on Capturing Technology: Toward Moments of Interest.- 9 The Phenomenology of Information Systems Evaluation: Overcoming the Subject/Object Dualism.- 3: Critical Research.- 10 Organizational Discourse as a Social Defense: Taming the Tiger of Electronic Government.- 11 The Discourse of Learning Technology in Canada: Understanding Communication Distortions and Their Implications for Decision Making.- 4: Mobilization of Power.- 12 Rhetoric of Enrollment and Acts of Resistance: Information Technology as Text.- 13 The Discourse of a Large Scale Organizational Transformation: The Reengineering of IBM, 19891994.- 14 The Digital Divide at Work and Home: The Discourse about Power and Underrepresented Groups in the Information Society.- 5: IS Planning and Projects.- 15 Arguing for Information Systems Project Definition.- 16 The Nature and Role of Generative Systemic Metaphor Within Information Systems Planning and Development.- 6: Globalization, Development, and Space.- 17 ICT, Power, and Developmental Discourse: A Critical Analysis.- 18 The Importance of Being Nearest: Nearshore Software Outsourcing and Globalization Discourse.- 7: Enterprise Resource Planning.- 19 Discourse,Management Fashions, and ERP Systems.- 20 Interconnecting Information Systems Narrative Research: An End-to-End Approach for Process-Oriented Field Studies.- 21 Dominant Technological Discourses in Action: Paradigmatic Shifts in Sense Making in the Implementation of an ERP System.- 8: Public Institutions.- 22 Knowledge Work in Hospitals.- 23 In a Mood to Make Sense of Technology: A Longitudinal Study of Discursive Practices at the London Ambulance Service.- 24 ERP Adoption: Selling the System.- 9: Panels.- 25 Visual Elements in the Discourse on Information Technology.- 26 Discourse and Organizational Transformation in Information Systems Research.- 27 New Words and Old Books: Challenging Conventional Discourses About Domain and Theory in Information Systems Research.- Index of Contributors.