Are We Discovering or Making Concepts? Performativity in Concept Defining
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Article in conference proceedings › Research › peer-review
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PACIS 2022 proceedings. AIS eLibrary, 2022. 1853.
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Article in conference proceedings › Research › peer-review
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TY - CHAP
T1 - Are We Discovering or Making Concepts? Performativity in Concept Defining
AU - Niemimaa, Marko
AU - Zimmer, Markus Philipp
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Business informatics
KW - IS philosophy
KW - concepts
KW - definitions
KW - Agential realism
KW - performativity
KW - representationalism
KW - digital transformation
KW - cybersecurity
KW - artificial intelligence
UR - https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2022/97/
UR - https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2022/
M3 - Article in conference proceedings
BT - PACIS 2022 proceedings
PB - AIS eLibrary
T2 - Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems - PACIS 2022
Y2 - 5 July 2022 through 9 July 2022
ER -