Reading Group Oct 7th 2004

CITO Reading Group: J. Mingers (April 2004), "Real-izing information systems: critical realism as an underpinning philosophy for information systems", Information and organization, Vol. 14, Issue 2, Pages 87-103. ABSTRACT: The paper begins by pointing out the diversity of philosophical positions within IS, and the range of reactions to this diversity. It then discusses problems within the underlying philosophies of science—particularly positivism and interpretivism. With this as a background, the paper proposes critical realism as an underpinning philosophy that has the potential to overcome both sets of difficulties. The theoretical arguments are practically illustrated by critiques of (positivist) statistical analysis and (interpretivist) soft systems methodology.