Are we making a better world with ICTs? Reflections on a future agenda for the IS field

Abstract

Dramatic changes in context have occurred over the last 25 years for those of us working in the information systems (IS) field, with ICTs becoming pervasive in many areas of human activity and in all countries of the world. It is ironic that the success of ICTs has led to concerns that the distinct research contribution of the IS field could become lost and that the field itself may decline. The literature over the last decade or so has offered different and sometimes opposing suggestions as to how the field should respond to these concerns. In this paper, I discuss these debates and I use the discussion as a basis for putting forward a skeleton future agenda for the IS field as a whole. This agenda emphasises the need for a focus on ethical goals, increased use of critical approaches, welcoming other disciplines with open arms, widening our field of study to many non-traditional settings and rejecting a dominant methodological paradigm. © 2012 JIT Palgrave Macmillan All rights reserved.