Informatics: One or Multiple?

Abstract

It is no secret that information technology (IT) is going through an identity crisis. A major subject of controversy among experts in this field has been whether it is a single discipline or a conglomerate of distinct fields joined by “the” concept of information. Opinion on this question seems to be split roughly in half. Moreover, the very core of such disciplines, namely the concept of an information system, is the object of unresolved dispute (see, e.g., Beynon-Davies 2010). Let us take part in this debate from the systemic viewpoint expounded in Chap. 3.