A Discourse on Ethnography

Abstract

Ethnography is an approach to social inquiry developed by anthropologists and recently adopted by interpretive information systems researchers. In recent debates in anthropology, radical changes regarding appropriate approaches to ethnography have been presented. This paper looks at those changes and applies the debate to interpretive information systems research. The key assumption in this paper is that information systems is a discipline that is changing within a socio-historical context. Looking at interpretive information systems research as an emergent area in the discipline of information systems, an analysis is conducted of a product of the socio-historical context in order to illustrate the flux of changes which appear to be happening. These changes are related to the debates on ethnography in anthropology.