[AISWorld] Transdisciplinary Wisdom in IS

Tue Dec 20 05:07:13 EST 2011

CALL FOR PAPERS

18th Americas Conference on Information Systems

Seattle, Washington, August 9-12, 2012

TRACK: Philosophical Perspectives in IS
MINI-TRACK: Transdisciplinary Wisdom in IS

In today's troubled world ridden with alarming crises of all kinds, the
importance of wisdom cannot be underestimated.  If there is anything the
world needs, it is wisdom. Without it, I exaggerate not at all in saying
that very soon, there may be no world warns Robert J. Sternberg,
eminent wisdom researcher and 2003 President of the American Psychological
Association (Sternberg, 2003). Being at the pinnacle of the
data-information-knowledge-
wisdom pyramid (Ackoff, 1989; Zeleny, 1987),
wisdom is an important goal of information systems. The IS field, with its
interdisciplinary focus on the relationship between information
technologies and diverse individual, organizational, and societal issues,
is well-positioned to advance wisdom computing research. Wisdom is both an
end and a means in IS research. Wisdom is inextricably connected with
knowledge, decision support, inquiry, inquiring systems (Churchman, 1971),
inquiring organizations (Courtney, Haynes, and Paradice, 2005), systems
thinking, business thinking (Mitroff, 1993), and learning organizations
(Senge, 1990) among other topics of interest to IS researchers. Transforming
data, information, and knowledge ultimately to wisdom is seen as a
necessary and critical goal by leading IS researchers past (e.g., Ackoff,
1989) and present. Transdisciplinary wisdom is a means to IS research as
the diversity enriching IS goes further than the social sciences and may
include the humanities as well (Kroeze, 2010; Kroeze et al., 2011).
Historical, philosophical and linguistic fields are only three humanities
disciplines that are relevant for IS.

While wisdom defies conventional definitions and there are many theoretical
perspectives on the nature of wisdom, in a sense, wisdom is concerned with
inquiry on what is of true value toward the individual and collective good.
Wisdom arises in a person-context interaction but can also be conceived in
terms of organizations, communities, and nations. According to Sternberg's
balance theory (2003), wisdom is the application of intelligence,
creativity and knowledge for the common good by balancing intrapersonal,
interpersonal and extrapersonal (institutional and other larger) interests.
Wisdom has been related to cognitive, reflective, and affective personality
characteristics including multiple perspectives and insight (Ardelt, 2004)
and to self-actualization and beyond (Maslow, 1971).

This minitrack will provides a platform to reflect on transdisciplinary
wisdom as an end and means of IS research through the application of social
science and the humanities. Three main approaches are possible:
multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary.
Multidisciplinarity refers to the study of a phenomenon from divergent
angles, with little or no integration. Interdisciplinarity amalgamates two
or more perspectives, and transdisciplinarity is a holistic, blended
approach transversing disciplinary limits (Van Biljon, 2011).

Potential themes/topics include but are not limited to the following:

*         Understanding wisdom as a goal for IS and its operational
definitions and dimensions

*         Exploring present and potential contributions of the humanities
(Linguistics, History, Art, Philosophy, Theology, Law, etc.) to IS

*         Reflecting on multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary approaches in
IS theory and practice

*         Reflections on bridging divisions between diverse methodologies,
assumptions, and communities of practice in IS research

*         Applications of diverse wisdom philosophic perspectives (e.g.
Eastern, Western, African, Native American, etc.) to IS

*         Reflections on the role of IS in producing, sharing, impacting,
and supporting wisdom at the level of the individual, organization,
community (real and virtual), society, culture, nation, nation-bloc, and
globe

*         Implications of wisdom computing research for IS as a discipline

References:

Ackoff, R.L. (1989) From data to wisdom, Journal of Applied Systems
Analysis, Vol. 16, pp.3-9.

Ardelt, M. (2004) Wisdom as expert knowledge system: A critical review of
a contemporary operationalization of an ancient concept, Human Development,
Vol. 47, pp.257-285.

Churchman, C. West. (1971) The Design of Inquiring Systems: Basic Concepts
of Systems and Organization, Basic Books, New York.

Courtney, J.F., Haynes, J. and Paradice, D.P. (2005) Inquiring
Organizations: Moving From Knowledge Management To Wisdom, IGI Global.

Kroeze, J.H. (2010) The mutualistic relationship between Information
Systems and the Humanities (full paper, edited version of inaugural
lecture), Proceedings of the 15th International Business Information
Management Association Conference (15th IBIMA), 6 - 7 November 2010,
Cairo, Egypt, pp. 915-927.

Kroeze, J.H., Lotriet, H.H., Mavetera, N., Pfaff, M.S., Postma, D.J.V.R.,
Sewchurran, K. & Topi, H. (2011) ECIS 2010 panel report:
Humanities-enriched Information Systems, Communications of the
Association for Information Systems (CAIS), Vol. 28, No. 1, Article 24,
pp.373-392. Available: http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol28/iss1/24 and
http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/4651

Maslow, A.H. (1971) Chpt 3, Self-actualizing and beyond, in The farther
reaches of human nature, Penguin Compass, New York.

Mitroff, I. and Linstone, H.A., The Unbounded Mind: Breaking the Chains of
Traditional Business Thinking, Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 1993.

Sternberg, Robert J. (2003) Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity
Synthesized, Cambridge University Press, New York.

Van Biljon, J. (2011) A critical review on the reporting of surveys in
transdisciplinary research: A case study in Information Systems, The
Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, Vol. 7, Issue
2, pp. 337-350. Available:
http://search.sabinet.co.za/WebZ/Authorize?sessionid=0&next=ej/ej_content_transd.html&bad=error/authofail.html

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W.M. (2002) Cultivating communities
of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business
School Press.

Zeleny, M. (1987) Management support systems: towards integrated knowledge
management, Human Systems Management, Vol. 7, No. 1 pp. 59-70.

Mini-track chairs:

Nik Dalal
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078
nik at okstate.edu
(405) 744-8618

Jan H. Kroeze

University of South Africa

Muckleneuk, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa

kroezjh at unisa.ac.za

+27-12-429-6976

Submission Procedure:

Submit your manuscript using the manuscript central system at:
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/amcis2012<
https://email.okstate.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=b0787b438f4442bc95161e907622cd9d&URL=http%3a%2f%2fmc.manuscriptcentral.com%2famcis2012
>

Submit the manuscript using the AMCIS2012 Paper
Template<http://amcis2012.aisnet.org/images/amcis2012_paper_template.doc>

For more information, see
http://amcis2012.aisnet.org/index.php/program/call-for-papers

Important Dates

January 3, 2012: Manuscript Central will start accepting paper
submissions

March 1, 2012: (11:59 PM Pacific time zone): Deadline for paper
submissions

April 6, 20012: Authors will be notified of acceptances on or about
this date

April 25, 2012: (11:59 PM Pacific time zone): For accepted papers,
camera ready copy due

-- 

Sincerely
Jan H. Kroeze
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