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Abstract
As the development of the information society takes place worldwide, individuals, groups and organisations face the challenge of taking advantage of information and communication technologies (ICTs). ‘Digital divides’ are emerging: some sections of society are gaining access to information, knowledge and technologies while others are being excluded. There also seems to be an over-concentration on the use of ICTs for organisational purposes, with traditional information systems (IS) planning approaches largely ignoring the needs and concerns that people express outside formal organisations. One answer to this problem might be to adopt a systems approach to IS planning. At first sight this appears to be a good idea because of the aspiration of systems approaches to comprehensiveness, presumably looking beyond organisational concerns. However, a review of two popular systems methodologies employed in IS planning suggests that there is potential for their scope to be equally limited by organisational boundaries. There is a need to enhance the critical review of the boundaries of IS planning processes, enabling people to consider family, community and other concerns. In this paper, we use the systems theory of boundary critique to derive a set of questions to help practitioners reflect on different possible boundaries for IS planning exercises. These should be seen as complementary to existing systems approaches rather than as a replacement for them, enabling the latter to be practised more critically. We end by presenting our reflections on using these questions in the context of an IS planning project in a Colombian University.
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Notes on contributors
José-Rodrigo Córdoba
José-Rodrigo Córdoba (www.hull.ac.uk/php/sbsjrc) is a lecturer in Management Systems at the Business School, University of Hull (U.K.). His research interests are on the use of systems methodologies, ethics and power in information systems practice. Before coming to the U.K., and after his degree in computer science from the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, he worked as a software programmer, IT project analyst and project administrator. He was also involved in the formulation of policies for the information society in Colombia. In the U.K. he has obtained his MA (with distinction) in Systems and Ph.D. in Management at Hull, followed by an Economic and Social Research Council of the U.K. (ESRC) fellowship and other awards from the Academy of Management and the British Academy. In 2004 he founded a group with colleagues from Latin America and Europe to research the evolution of e-government systems. He has organised several international workshops on information systems and critical research, and is currently a member of the U.K. Operational Research Society and the Academy of Management in the U.S. During 2008 he is writing a book on systems practice in information societies for Routledge.
Gerald Midgley
Gerald Midgley is a Senior Science Leader at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR), New Zealand. He also holds Visiting or Adjunct Professorships at the University of Hull, U.K.; the University of Queensland, Australia; the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has had over 250 papers published in international journals, edited books and practitioner magazines, and has developed his thinking about systemic intervention through engagement in a wide variety of community research and development projects. He has written or edited 10 books including, Systemic Intervention: Philosophy, Methodology, and Practice (Kluwer, 2000); Systems Thinking, Volumes I–IV (Sage, 2003); and Community Operational Research: OR and Systems Thinking for Community Development (Kluwer, 2004).