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Abstract
To advance the understanding and use of 'information' and 'information system', two key concepts for Information Systems (IS).
To date these two concepts remain fuzzy, contradictory or arbitrarily defined. However, being fundamental to the IS field, they require continuing attention and insightful discourse, which have so far been missing. This thesis follows a call expressed by several IS academics over the past decades to engage with these concepts.
Several hundred publications engaging with information at a conceptual and theoretical level from a wide range of disciplines, as well as dozens of definitions of IS from within IS are reviewed. These publications were critically analyzed regarding their underlying epistemological and ontological assumptions, as well as their strengths and limitations. This critical engagement with the literature provided a basis for further theoretical development.
(Chapter 2) A taxonomy of five different views of information: the material, engineering, objectivist, subjectivist and inter-subjective view. (Chapter 3) A facet based approach to information identifying 15 aspects associated with the semiological dimensions of information, namely its physical inscription, the rules of sign systems, meaning, and usage. (Chapter 4) Five views of IS are critically investigated: technological, social, socio-technical, modelling, and process oriented; in addition a sixth view is developed understanding IS as ongoing sociomaterial entanglement.
(1) The taxonomy of approaches to information identifies and critically reflects on different views on information, thus enabling conceptual clarity to the question of what is information and how information is seen differently. Moreover, shifting between views enables the generation of new ways of looking at existing research
problems. (2) The facet view approaches information from a Wittgensein'ian perspective using description rather than definition. This enables researchers as well as practitioners to appreciate and appropriate various social and technical facets of information simultaneously and integratively in a meaningful way. (3) The review of 'information
system' contributes to critical theoretical debate in IS, with the proposed sociomaterial understanding providing a solid ontological footing for approaching and investigating the entanglement of seven aspects associated with IS: practices, social actors, technology, data, information, development, and organizations.