Flogging a dead horse: the implications of epistemological relativism within information systems methodological practice
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1999 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved 0960-085X/99 $15.00 http://www.stockton-press.co.uk/ejis
Flogging a dead horse: the implications of epistemological relativism within information systems methodological practice F Wilson The Information Systems Research Centre, University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT, UK The supporters of the realist principles of information system methodological development argue, that what makes our theories and beliefs about information systems design true or false is the way they stand in relation to reality and not just the way reality is ‘constructed’ in accordance with a particular cultural world-view, descriptive scheme or belief system. In contrast are the views of the anti-realists and epistemological relativists for whom such an argument is nonsensical—involving as it does the appeal to truths outside or beyond our best current knowledge. In this paper, using recent work from within the area, the realist and relativist models of information systems research and methodological design are identified. Following this an analysis is presented which debates whether relativism in information systems design, as a model of epistemology, provides practitioners and researchers with directions for achieving the epistemological state it describes. Finally, the tenet that practitioners and researchers are able to learn and adhere to the principles of relativism and from this will be able to provide an improved methodology for information systems design is questioned.
Introduction In examining information systems theory at the most general level it is possible to identify two basic forms which conform to the realist and relativist epistemologies. The success of realist practice as a basis for the development of information systems design methodologies may be seen to rest upon the development of positivistic, ‘hard’ methodologies over the last thirty years and the success of this project may be regarded as a microcosm of the enlightenment legacy and the claim of scientific enterprise to be able to emancipate humanity from the shackles of custom and dogma. The basis of the assumptions of hard methodological development is that an increase in scientific, natural and social knowledge would enable an increase of control by men and women over their own fate. Thus the basis of positivistic realism in information systems development is identifiable in the attempt to ground inquiry, communication and design in a manner which excludes any reliance upon mere belief or unexamined practice. The first twenty years of information systems design reflected this perspective in terms of the production of a number of structured design methodologies. In the last decade however, information systems theorists and practitioners have become aware of the failure of many of the social systems to which they apply their methodologies, to respond to the traditional positivist prescription: i.e. more knowledge equals more control. In this regard
designer and theoretician interest has moved towards attempt
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