This collection of papers by people centrally concerned with the philosophical aspects of information systems grew out of a symposium held at the University of the West of England in 1993. The authors of the papers all participated in the symposium; the papers are the result of interactions at the symposium and subsequent improvements.
The book is structured into five main sections: “Ethical and Political Issues,” “Language and Meaning,” “Methodology,” “Organizational Issues,” and “Physical Issues.” There is no consensus on how to conduct philosophically based information systems research, so the papers address a wide spectrum of topics. The book is primarily written for final-year undergraduate, graduate, and research students in information systems and related disciplines. The editors hope the material is also accessible and useful to information systems practitioners. Some of the papers are stilted and require concentration to wade through. Each section contains a short overview and review of the papers in that section.
“Ethical and Political Issues” begins with a paper on the philosophy of practical problems of information system development, use, and management. The next paper concerns a philosophical discussion of how best to conceptualize information. Another paper compares the tool perspective on information system design with the representative perspective. The political portion of this section includes a paper that uses an experiential, narrative style to draw attention to important facets of women’s experiences in male-dominated contexts.
“Language and Meaning” begins with a paper on information systems thinking within the concepts of data and information. This is followed by a paper on the confused matter of the discussion of data, information, and meaning in information systems contexts. Another paper employs philosophical arguments to dimensionalize and clarify what the author calls the real-world mapping problem. The author then uses philosophical analysis to solve the problem. The last paper in this section is concerned with understanding the implications of the organic metaphor as applied to organizations.
“Methodology” contains a paper arguing that work in information systems research and practice leads to the need for philosophical reflections about the concepts and issues at the core of the discipline. Another paper discusses using some aspects of philosophy to analyze important issues in information systems. This paper uses software engineering as an example of the application of philosophy to do research analysis. The following paper covers the metaphysical and epistemological assumptions inherent in soft systems methodology. The final paper in this section develops a formal model to enable clarification of the fundamental nature of information systems.
“Organizational Issues” begins with an exploration of the prospects of sustainable information systems in community organizations. A second paper looks toward a market-led, as opposed to a product-led, philosophy of information system development. The final paper in this section is a case study of a project to specify an integrated workstation for use in the neurosciences department of a hospital.
“Physical Issues” includes a paper on some multisensory awareness issues and their roles in information system development; the goal of this work is a more holistic framework for information systems. The final paper argues that the fact that the human being is embodied has been largely ignored in the information systems literature.
This book would be good for a seminar. I found the paper by Frank Gregory, “Mapping Information Systems on to the Real World,” interesting, particularly for the Kafkaesque characterization of information systems. The good bibliography will help readers investigate the subjects, in philosophy or other disciplines, with which they are not familiar. The index is acceptable, but not particularly useful for looking up points from specific papers.
