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Challenges in Bridging Social Semantics and Formal Semantics on the Web Read chapter Read first chapter

2014 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

On the ‘Impossibility’ of Critical and Emancipatory Design Science Research

Author : J. Marcel Heusinger

Published in: Enterprise Information Systems

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Popper’s [1] ‘piecemeal social change’ is an approach manifesting itself in science as critical and emancipatory (C&E) research. It is concerned with incrementally removing manifested inequalities to achieve a ‘better’ world. Although design science research in information systems seems to be a prime candidate for such endeavors, respective projects are clearly underrepresented. This can be attributed to the demand of justifying research ex post by an evaluation in practical settings. From the perspective of C&E research it is questionable if powerful actors grant access to their organization and support projects which ultimately challenge their position. Within the present inquiry it is argued that the idea of Lewis’s [2] ‘possible worlds’ can be leveraged as basis for C&E design science research. It is suggested that a theoretical approach, based on a synthesis of justificatory knowledge and ‘organizational options’, can complement the practical oriented design science research focus by allowing to design technical systems not only for factually existing contexts, but also for theoretically grounded, more desirable structures.

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Footnotes
1
The terms ‘method’ and ‘methodical’ refer to the general procedure involved in conducting a study, which differs from the concrete ‘research strategy’ or technique, used to collect and analyze data [cf. 25‐27]. In this perspective, the terms ‘methodology’ and ‘methodological’ refer to the theoretical underpinning of methods captured in the disciplinary body of knowledge.
 
2
This application is a summarizing excerpt of the author’s Ph.D. thesis [75], which provides a more comprehensive case.
 
3
An analysis concerned with structural criticism, e.g., the neglect of environmental resource management [see 75], is not pursued here.
 
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Metadata
Title
On the ‘Impossibility’ of Critical and Emancipatory Design Science Research
Author
J. Marcel Heusinger
Copyright Year
2014
Book
Enterprise Information Systems

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09491-5

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-09492-2

Copyright Year: 2014

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09492-2_20

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