Ontological Assumptions in Techno-Anthropological Explorations of Online Dialogue through Information Systems

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Otrel-Cass ◽  
Kristine Andrule ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Mikhail Bakhtin ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Online Technology ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
Anthropological Research

With the widespread infusion of online technology there has been an increase in various studies investigating the practices in online communities including also philosophical perspectives. What those debates have in common is that they call for more critical thinking about the theory of online communication. Drawing on Techno-Anthropological research perspectives, our interest is placed on exploring and identifying human interactions and technology in intersectional spaces. This article explores information systems that allow for interchanges of different users. We discuss ontological assumptions that focus on understanding the kind of dialogue that can be captured between different expert groups when they utilize information systems. We present the notion of ‘dialogic’ by Mikhail Bakhtin and contextualize it through an analysis of online dialogue. Dialogic or ‘conversation and inquiry’ is discussed as being mediated through human relationships. Acknowledging the existence of at least two voices the underlying differences between dialogue partners are highlighted.

scholarly journals On Frogs, Monkeys, and Execution Memes: Exploring the Humor-Hate Nexus at the Intersection of Neo-Nazi and Alt-Right Movements in Sweden

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-165
Author(s):  
Tina Askanius
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Extreme Right ◽  
Visual Content ◽  
Visual Aesthetics ◽  
Resistance Movement ◽  
Media Practices

This article is based on a case study of the online media practices of the militant neo-Nazi organization the Nordic Resistance Movement, currently the biggest and most active extreme-right actor in Scandinavia. I trace a recent turn to humor, irony, and ambiguity in their online communication and the increasing adaptation of stylistic strategies and visual aesthetics of the Alt-Right inspired by online communities such as 4chan, 8chan, Reddit, and Imgur. Drawing on a visual content analysis of memes ( N = 634) created and circulated by the organization, the analysis explores the place of humor, irony, and ambiguity across these cultural expressions of neo-Nazism and how ideas, symbols, and layers of meaning travel back and forth between neo-Nazi and Alt-right groups within Sweden today.

Ethics and Social Networking

2019 ◽  
pp. 1893-1923
Author(s):  
Ludwig Christian Schaupp ◽  
Lemuria Carter
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Ethical Implications

Thanks to recent technological advancements, social networking has seen unprecedented growth. Services such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have evolved from niche communities to active cyber-societies. In addition to an increase in the diffusion of social media, there has also been an increase in the amount and type of information that participants share in these online environments. In this paper, the authors integrate decision making research from three disciplines -marketing, theology and information systems - to explain information disclosure in online communities. They use these disciplines to provide a comprehensive review of existing literature and present innovative recommendations for research and practice. In particular, the authors recommend Potter's Box as a useful framework for evaluating the ethical implications of online information disclosure.

Culture, Online Technology and Computer-Mediated Technical Documentation

2012 ◽  
pp. 77-90
Author(s):  
Marc Hermeking
Keyword(s):  
Online Communication ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Technical Documentation ◽  
Communication Preferences ◽  
Online Technology ◽  
Diffusion Of Technology ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Global Diffusion

The global diffusion of technology is increasingly accompanied by both computer-mediated and online communication. Several empirical examples for the influence of culture on the usage of online technology and computer-mediated technical documentation are illustrated with relevant theories from the field of intercultural communication (e.g., Edward T. Hall’s model of low-/high-context in particular). Recent developments and national differences in the global diffusion of mobile phones and the Internet are discussed as examples for culture-specific online communication preferences. Similar cultural influences on computer-mediated technical documentation and operational instructions are demonstrated by online manuals from Southeast Asia and by an aviation control system. Beyond the understanding of cultural communication preferences, consequences for construction and design of such technologies are also discussed.

The Influence of the Internet on Relationships Between Consumers and Vendors

2011 ◽  
pp. 115-129
Author(s):  
H. Treiblmaier
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Interaction Process ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Shed Light

In recent years a plethora of scholarly literature from the marketing and the information systems (IS) domain has dealt with the phenomenon of relationships. While during the pre-computer era relationships always implied a social dimension, modern technology tries to mimic this interaction process by learning about customers’ needs and addressing them individually. Interestingly, the central definition of a relationship remains vague in both marketing and IS. Finding the major constituents, therefore, could shed light on the question of whether technology actually could replace “social interactions.” In this chapter, we show how relationships are defined in scholarly literature. Subsequently, consumers define what they perceive to be the crucial attributes of a relationship in general and with an online organization. The results indicate that the notion of relationship has to be redefined for online communication and interaction and offer practical implications for designing the interaction process with online users.

Ideology and Composition Among an Online Crowd: Evidence from Wikipedians

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Greenstein ◽  
Grace Gu ◽  
Feng Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Collective Intelligence ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Two Factors

Online communities bring together participants from diverse backgrounds and often face challenges in aggregating their opinions. We infer lessons from the experience of individual contributors to Wikipedia articles about U.S. politics. We identify two factors that cause a tendency toward moderation in collective opinion: Either biased contributors contribute less, which shifts the composition of participants, or biased contributors moderate their own views. Our findings show that shifts in the composition of participants account for 80%–90% of the moderation in content. Contributors tend to contribute to articles with slants that are opposite their own views. Evidence suggests that encountering extreme contributors with an opposite slant plays an important role in triggering the composition shift and changing views. These findings suggest that collective intelligence becomes more trustworthy when mechanisms encourage confrontation between distinct viewpoints. They also suggest, cautiously, that managers who aspire to produce content “from all sides” should let the most biased contributors leave the collective conversation if they can be replaced with more moderate voices. This paper was accepted by Anandhi Bharadwaj, information systems.

“HOW DOES YOUR COLLAR SUIT ME?”: THE HUMAN ANIMAL IN THE RSPCA'S ANIMAL WORLD AND BAND OF MERCY

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 247-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Flegel
Keyword(s):  
Animal Rights ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Shared Experience ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
And Control ◽  
Cruelty To Animals ◽  
Animal World ◽  
As If

There is a central contradiction in human relationships with animals: as Erica Fudge notes, “We live with animals, we recognize them, we even name some of them, but at the same time we use them as if they were inanimate, as if they were objects” (8). Such a contradiction is also, of course, present in human interactions, in which power relations allow for the objectification of one human being by another. In an analysis of images and texts produced by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in the nineteenth-century, I want to examine the overlap in representations of animals and humans as subject to objectification and control. One common way of critiquing human treatment of animals within the RSPCA's journals, Animal World and Band of Mercy, was to have humans trade places with animals: having boys fantastically shrunk to the size of the animals they tortured, for example, or imagining the horrors of vivisection when experienced by humans. Such imaginative exercises were meant to defamiliarize animal usage by implying a shared experience of suffering: what was wrong for a human was clearly just as wrong for an animal. However, I argue that some of the images employed by the society suggest the opposite; instead of constructing animal cruelty in a new light, these images instead work to underline the shared proximity of particular humans with animals. In texts that focus specifically upon humans wearing animal bonds – reins, collars, and muzzles – the RSPCA's anti-cruelty discourse both critiqued the tools of bondage and, I suggest, invited the audience to see deep connections between animals and the humans taking their place. Such connections ultimately weaken the force of the animal/human reversal as an animal rights strategy, suggesting as they do that humans themselves often have use value in economies of labor, affect, and are subject to the same power relations that produce an animal as “animal.”

What does it Mean to be ‘Critical’ in is Research?

2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Brooke
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
The State ◽  
Preliminary Review ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
Critical Research ◽  
Is Research ◽  
Over Time

This paper undertakes a preliminary review of the state of critical thinking in the fields of information systems and organizational analysis. It begins by addressing the question ‘what is critical research?’ showing how the definition has changed and broadened over time. Two key themes emerge from this discussion: our understanding of emancipation and the nature of unequal power relations in the workplace. The paper then goes on to identify a recent emerging tendency towards the use of Habermas in the specific area of critical IS inquiry. It considers some of the reasons for this apparent trend and warns against becoming locked into a particular discourse. The paper concludes with some thoughts on how we can continue to broaden our frameworks of thinking, illustrating this with reference to the work of Foucault.

A Review of IT Governance: A Taxonomy to Inform Accounting Information Systems

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla L. Wilkin ◽  
Robert H. Chenhall
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Accounting Information ◽  
Strategic Alignment ◽  
It Governance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Accounting Information Systems ◽  
Technology Governance ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
Information Technology Governance ◽  
And Performance

ABSTRACT: This paper reviews Information Systems (IS) literature that is relevant to Information Technology Governance (ITG) and examines how it informs Accounting Information Systems (AIS). We present a taxonomy of research encompassing the focus areas identified by the IT Governance Institute (ITGI), namely Strategic Alignment (SA), Risk Management (RK), Resource Management (RM), Value Delivery (VD) and Performance Measurement (PM). Based upon 496 papers in ten IS/AIS and two Management Accounting journals over the period 1998–2008, we discuss research perspectives and identify avenues for future research. Results revealed a lack of integration between focus areas, with little about ITG as a whole.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Yunn-Yu Sun
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Real World ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Identity ◽  
Philosophical View ◽  
The Real ◽  
Is Research ◽  
Construction Of Identity

This paper explores the construction of identity in online communities and websites for social purposes, and its consequences in terms of how one’s online identity may be utilized to such an extent that one’s real-world identity is either enforced or eroded. It does so by investigating the very nature of Identify, coming predominantly from a cultural studies research and philosophical view, although it also cites some parallel findings in Information Systems (IS) research. In the Section Something Old, the author investigates the concept of identity in the real world, then investigates it in the online world in the Section Something New. Section Something Borrowed examines how an individual positions oneself including who one associates with and why one flags it so to others. And finally this paper looks at some consequences unfolding in our time (in Section: Something Blue), citing several pointed examples for illustration purposes, where values that have been migrated from the real world are amplified via the Internet, causing all sorts of actions and consequences both online and offline. These issues and actions revolve around control and disclosure of ones identity that has consequences upon reputation and trust, and how responsibility needs to be brought forward into how one: positions oneself, manages ones own identity, and acts appropriately in and beyond the Internet. Above all of these, the author concludes, is the responsibility of understanding the nature of identity itself.

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