[AISWorld] CfP AMCIS 2013: Socio-Technical Aspects of Information Systems

[Laurence Brooks]

19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS'13) (http://amcis2013.aisnet.org/) Chicago, Illinois, USA August 15-17, 2013.

Mini-track title: Socio-Technical Aspects of Information Systems
Track: IS Philosophy (SIGPhilosophy)

Mini-track Chair(s):

Laurence Brooks
Email: Laurence.Brooks at brunel.ac.uk
School of Information Systems Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, UK 
Phone: +44 (0) 1895 266010

David Wainwright
Email: david.wainwright at northumbria.ac.uk
School of Computing, Engineering & Information Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne UK
Phone: +44 (0) 191 2437634

You are invited to submit a paper to the Socio-Technical Aspects of Information Systems Mini-Track, which is part of the IS Philosophy (SIGPhilosophy) track at AMCIS 2013.

Description:

The traditional view of information systems (IS) and their development (ISD) has progressed significantly since the early information systems developed under the technology-centric view; the hardware and its 'user'. There is growing acceptance that it is not solely the technical issues which are the major factor in their successful development and use, but the other relevant (non-technical) human and social factors. These combine with technologies to create the informated contexts in which IS are developed and operate; effectively or otherwise. Within the IS field the 'socio-technical' movement (Mumford, {1995, 2003}) can be seen to provide insights into this complex relationship between the technological artefact and the social aspects in which they are situated (Avgerou et. al., 2004). As such they may be understood independently of the actors that produced them in the first place but intimately situated within their contemporary contexts. In doing so these technologies and their functionality may be seen to combine with humans and their actions to constitute informated 'socio-technical ensemble' (Bijker and Law 1995) that exhibit a concerted agency.  How such ensembles may be effectively created, maintained and changed - locally and globally- incrementally and radically - is the subject of this mini-track.

Suggested topics:
*	Social informatics
*	The application of social theory to information systems (eg. Structuration Theory, Actor-Network Theory, StructurANTion Theory) 
*	Human and organisational aspects of information systems
*	Balancing of social and technical factors in information systems development and information systems
*	Critiques of the socio-technical approach
*	Case studies of socio-technical analysis of information systems
*	Socio-materiality and its implications for our understanding of information systems
*	Comparative studies (ie. between sectors, countries, cultures, etc.) of socio-technical analyses of information systems
*	Comparative analyses of socio-technical change and information systems
*	Global/local (or 'glocal') balance of information systems within a socio-technical context

Important Dates:

Jan 4, 2013      Paper submissions open on Bepress system (new for AMCIS)

Feb 22, 2013    Paper submissions deadline 11:59 p.m. Central Time

April 17-19, 2013   Notification of paper acceptance

May 9, 2013         Camera-ready copy of accepted papers due


Submission Site:

Instructions for authors and more information about the conference is forthcoming on the conference website at http://amcis2013.aisnet.org/.