Flogging a dead horse: the implications of epistemological relativism within information systems methodological practice

F Wilson

European Journal of Information Systems, 1999, vol. 8, issue 3, 161-169

Abstract: 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.

Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000323 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tjisxx:v:8:y:1999:i:3:p:161-169

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tjis20

DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000323

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Information Systems is currently edited by Par Agerfalk

More articles in European Journal of Information Systems from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().