Information Systems: A Discipline in Search of a Community; or Vice-Versa?

Antony Bryant Leeds Metropolitan University, United Kingdom

Abstract
This paper takes issue with those who seek disciplinary certainty for IS, and uses the ideas of Bauman and Foucault to argue that such assurances are both delusory and futile. The recent article by Benbasat and Zmud is specifically targeted since they seek to present some definitive statement of identity for the IS discipline, and do so from a central position within the institutional sites of IS. The paper develops the argument that any such attempt at disciplining – with its Foucauldian resonances of policing, control and constraint – is bound to be ineffectual in the long term, but paradoxically may be helpful in generating a wide-ranging response and the development of abnormal discourses.

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Reference:	Bryant, A. (2004). "Information Systems: A Discipline in Search of a Community; or Vice-Versa?," University of Amsterdam, Netherlands . Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Systems, 4(15). http://sprouts.aisnet.org/4-15
Keywords:	IS discipline, Zygmunt Bauman, Michel Foucault,disciplinarity
Item Type:	Article - Volume 4 Article 15 (2004)
Language:	English
Email:	Antony Bryant (a.bryant@leedsmet.ac.uk)

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