Social Study of Information Systems

The Social Study of Information Systems is interested in people developing and using technology and the "culture" of those people.

SSIS studies these phenomena by drawing on and using "lenses" provided by social sciences, including: Philosophy, Sociology, Social Psychology, Organisational Theory, Political Science.

Key universities

Key Universities involved in SSIS are: the London School of Economics (LSE), Lancaster University, University of Warwick, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Salford, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Cambridge, Edinburgh University, Harvard University, and Peking University.

Key people

High profile people in the field are Chrisanthi Avgerou, Tony Cornford, Edgar Whitley and Shirin Madon (LSE), Wanda Orlikowski (MIT), Shoshana Zuboff (Harvard), Lucas Introna & Lucy Suchman (Lancaster), Joe Nandhakumar (Warwick), Wendy Currie (Warwick), Geoff Walsham (Cambridge), Richard Boland (Case Western), Kalle Lyytinen (Case Western), Claudio Ciborra (LSE), Rob Kling (Indiana University), Nancy Pouloudi (Athens University), and Qiu Zeqi (PKU).

Key publications

• Walsham, G. (1993) Interpreting information systems in organizations, John Wiley, Chichester.
• Zuboff, S. (1988) In the age of the smart machine: The future of work and power, Heinemann Professional, Oxford.

References

• WJ Orlikowski, JJ Baroudi (1991) 'Studying Information Technology in Organizations: Research Approaches and Assumptions', Information Systems Research, 1991
• Avgerou C, (2000) ‘Information systems: what sort of science is it?’ Omega, vol 28, pp 567–579

External links

• http://ccs.mit.edu/Wanda.html
• http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/informationSystems/research/researchFoci/Default.htm

See also

• Formative Context