Business & Management Research Centre: Raffaele Ciriello

Raffaele Ciriello

University of Sydney Business School

Dialectical Inquiry in IS Research: Principles and Composition

Date: Friday, April 26, 2024
Time: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm EDT
Location: Bronfman Building, Room 046

Abstract:

Amid the pervasive digitalization of society, dialectical inquiry offers timely and timeless methodological principles to study sociotechnical change as driven by the interplay of oppositional forces. Information systems (IS) scholars have composed dialectical inquiry by selectively and sporadically drawing on these principles, however, without explicating the principles and where they come from, and without guidance on how to combine and adapt them to suit the sociotechnical phenomena they study. This has complicated the use of dialectical inquiry in IS, limited the methodological comparability of studies, and presented challenges for editors and reviewers evaluating them. In response, this seminar introduces a framework with structured guidance for composition of dialectical inquiry in IS. Drawing on foundational works in dialectics and 63 IS studies, the framework offers six oppositional principles that can guide IS researchers in composing dialectical inquiry by iteratively considering 1) relations to examine how phenomena constitute through interrelated sociotechnical opposites, 2) construction of the sociotechnical phenomenon in response to these oppositional forces, and 3) time in accounting for how the oppositional forces translate into sociotechnical change. By offering a coherent methodology for examining sociotechnical change, the framework enhances the rigor by which authors, reviewers, and editors can compose and evaluate dialectical inquiry.