Social Data Science Center (SoDA) Presents:

Next-Generation Information Systems Theory

Accelerating change, increasing complexity, and the unprecedented availability of data and algorithms for pattern identification have led some to argue for a reduced emphasis on theory in IS research.  However, it is our contention that theorizing is now more critical than ever. Rather than diminishing the value of theory, more complex systems, new forms of data, and emerging machine learning tools provide opportunities to improve theorizing.  Many critiques of theorizing are actually just critiques of old-fashioned views of theorizing that we can move beyond.  We need to adopt fresh approaches to theorizing for the road ahead (for more on these ideas see the Special Issue Editorial).

This Special Issue seeks to inspire the IS community to reaffirm its commitment to developing foundational theories and offer bold new theoretical ideas and approaches to inspire and shape our field’s future. We hope the papers and provocations presented in these sessions and to be published in the Special Issue will fuel and sustain the intellectual engine of our scholarly community at this crucial point in history.  We are inspired by these scholars’ work, and hope you will be too. 

Connecting the Parts with the Whole: Toward an Information Ecology Theory of Digital Innovation Ecosystems
Ping Wang, College of Information Studies, University of Maryland

Avoiding an Oppressive Future of Machine Learning: A Design Theory for Emancipatory Assistants
Gerald C. Kane, Boston College
Amber G. Young, University of Arkansas
Ann Majchrzak, University of Southern California
Sam Ransbotham, Boston College

Scale Matters: Doing Practice-based Studies of Contemporary Digital Phenomena
Michael Barrett, Judge Business School, Cambridge University
Wanda Orlikowski, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Let’s Claim the Authority to Speak out on the Ethics of Smart Information Systems.
Bernd Stahl, de Montfort University
M. Lynne Markus, Bentley University

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