Are We Discovering or Making Concepts? Performativity in Concept Defining
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Article in conference proceedings › Research › peer-review
Authors
Alongside the emergence of new technologies and management trends, new concepts such as Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity appear. Once introduced, scholars debate these concepts’ definitions. Often, a uniform definition remains elusive in these debates but several different - sometimes conflicting - definitions result. In this short paper, we take a philosophical perspective to concept defining and ask why is it that we end up in these situations where a plurality of definitions exists? We outline two perspectives to concept defining: 1) concept-discovery; and 2) concept-making. We argue that concept defining is largely ill-conceived as an activity of concept-discovery according to which concepts are mirrors of the outside world. In contrast, we argue that viewing concept defining as an act of concept-making will sensitize IS researchers on the practices and processes which make concepts and their ethical as well as political implications.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | PACIS 2022 proceedings |
Number of pages | 9 |
Publisher | AIS eLibrary |
Publication date | 07.2022 |
Article number | 1853 |
ISBN (electronic) | 978-1-958200-01-8 |
Publication status | Published - 07.2022 |
Event | Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems - PACIS 2022: AI-IS-ASIA (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS, IN PACIFIC ASIA) - Virtual, Taipei and Sydney, Taiwan, Province of China Duration: 05.07.2022 → 09.07.2022 https://pacis2022.aisconferences.org/ |
- Business informatics - IS philosophy, concepts, definitions, Agential realism, performativity, representationalism, digital transformation, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence