Editorial
This volume of Information Technology & People sees a number of changes to the editorial board of the journal, to MCB/Emerald and even a new front cover. Despite these changes, however, the journal intends to maintain its leading position as a communication medium for academics and practitioners concerned with social and organisational issues in the design and use of information technology. In this editorial, we wish to introduce the changes to the editorial board and recap on the particular strengths we see in the journal. We will also introduce the papers in this issue and show how they illustrate the particular strengths of the journal.
Edgar Whitley, from the Department of Information Systems at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK, is now the co-editor of the journal. He brings to the journal a strong tradition of research based on social science perspectives on information technology (he was previously editor of the Information Technology & People special issue on Heidegger and Information Technology with Lucas Introna) and strong connections with the community of information systems researchers in Europe. He will also provide an administrative home for the journal's reviewing process.
Other changes to the editorial board include Kevin Crowston's appointment as an associate editor and the introduction of Eileen Trauth and Sandra Sieber as members of the editorial board.
Each of these people has particular strengths in understanding the international, interdisciplinary perspectives needed to understand the complex,problematic social and organisational contexts of information systems. They will help the journal maintain its unique strengths as an important resource for understanding the uses and theories of information technology that affect organisational communications, change processes and work practices, and which reflect the varying societal and infrastructural conditions in which IT is deployed. It examines ways in which people collectively conceptualise, invent,adapt, define and use technology, as well as how they are constrained by features of it in the organisational setting. These studies are undertaken in a diverse set of theoretical approaches, that draw on the need to understand the implications of new technologies both in theory and in practice throughout the world.
The papers in this issue reflect these strengths. The international scope of the journal is highlighted by the paper by Leiser Silva and Eugenio Figueroa B. which also emphasises that the object of study need not be the organisational unit common to many studies of information and communication technologies. They consider the case of Chile as indicative of technology adoption throughout Latin America and seek to understand the particular characteristics of the Chilean experience by applying a theoretical framework of institutional interventions developed by King et al. for the North American context. The authors draw on their use of this framework to make recommendations for policy makers in their formulation of technology policies.
The next paper in this issue is by Brian O'Donovan and Dewald Roode. This paper looks at the theoretical underpinnings of the information systems discipline with a perspective taken from the work of Martin Heidegger. By using this framework, the authors make an important contribution to the debate about whether information systems is, can or should be simply a compendium of reference disciplines and as such this paper should stimulate discussion and promote reflection within the IS community.
The global focus of Information Technology & People is also found in the paper by Robert Davison and Maris Martinsons, although the focus of their study is organisational. They present a study of the implementation of a new group support system to an organisation based in Hong Kong. The customs and practices in this organisation differ from many of those that have tried to implement this technology elsewhere and the paper highlights the important implications of established culturally based practices. The paper also draws on an action-research agenda for understanding the interventions of the researchers in this context.
A very different research approach is adopted by Mike Metcalfe in the final paper who provides a theoretically informed discussion of the role of argumentation and argumentation structures for the design of computer based systems. In so doing, he raises important questions about the questioning and argumentation that takes place throughout the systems design process, providing a theoretical alternative to the design rationale approach found in software development.
This issue also contains two reviews of books by or about authors who have made important contributions to our understanding of the relationship between technology and society. Manuel Castells' work is reviewed by considering what he chooses to bracket off and what he keeps in the main text. This simple analytical device of considering parentheses can change the whole way you read texts while the review of organized worlds may introduce the important work of Robert Cooper on technology and organizations, and provide useful insights into his work.
The Internet Review by Kevin Crowston presents some Web resources related to a paper that looks at ways of envisioning the use of information and communications technology.
