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Doing critical IS research: the question of methodology

INTRODUCTION Critical information systems (IS) research denotes a critical process of inquiry that seeks to achieve emancipatory social change by going beyond the apparent to reveal hidden agendas, concealed inequalities and tacit manipulation involved in a complex relationship between IS and their social, political and organisational contexts. It has its philosophical and theoretical roots in critical social theory (Held, 1980; Fay, 1987; Morrow and Brown, 1994). As a critical social researcher studies the social life of people in order to help them change conditions and improve their lives, so too does a critical IS researcher. By demystifying technological imperatives and managerial rationalism justifying a particular information system design, the critical IS researcher helps both IS practitioners and users understand its social consequences, envisage desirable alternatives and take action. Like interpretive approaches to IS research, critical theory-informed approaches came along as a reaction to positivism. While interpretive researchers aim to understand and describe “the context of the information system, and the process whereby the information system influences and is influenced by its context” (Walsham, 1993),