Abstract

The research question and problem statement I posed to answer simply has been: what kind of patterns and specific discourses can be identified around the keywords of “information security” and “social construction” in information systems and its related reference fields such as social sciences, management studies, decision sciences extended to psychology. We may start summarizing the conclusions by stating that “information security” and “social construction” in the SCOPUS domain offers a wide range of literature in the social sciences and related subject areas; the initial search resulted in 406 article hits, whose basic bibliographic parameters with keywords and abstracts were downloaded. I categorized this sample according to the journals H-index, the Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) Q1‒Q4 ranking and the individual papers’ citations, into five—socalled structural—clusters. Three papers were identified as the highest referenced and most influential, and analysed separately. The other were clustered as follows: 30 papers were classified into CL1, a high impact cluster due to its high citation and H-index, 122 papers were grouped into CL2, a mature cluster, due to their publishing date and medium referencing, 71 papers fell into CL3, a high potential cluster, due to their high H-index and recent appearance and, finally 152 papers were clustered into CL4, the mainstream of the sample due to their medium impact and wide spread of publishing dates. These clusters were further analysed with basic text mining techniques: word counting, key word analysis, textual clusters and N-Gram analysis, and concordance analysis. I found that clusters are different as far as the academic discourse on information security evolves, and each contain unique added value to the social construction of information security amongst users, institutions, technology and public policy. Finally, conclusion and further research opportunities are presented.

Highlights

  • This contribution is positioned as an integral part of a comprehensive research program executed at the National University of Public Service, which aims to bring together the top down and bottom up dilemmas of information security strategy process. [1] Based on Giddens’ structuration and Venkatraman’s strategic alignment theories we developed arguments for the application of “social construction” as a metaphor both for gaining understanding of the bottom up agencies and emergencies, and for the top-down trickling of strategies through institutions and policies in information security.The objective of this paper is to examine how the notion of information security is viewed through the lens of the Science‒Technology‒Studies program

  • It is important to note, that I excluded in this paper the review of literature in engineering, computer science and natural sciences—references in these subject areas were only taken into consideration in case the outlets have been cross-listed with social sciences or humanities

  • Four papers have outstandingly high citations, these were removed from the sample

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Summary

Introduction

This contribution is positioned as an integral part of a comprehensive research program executed at the National University of Public Service, which aims to bring together the top down and bottom up dilemmas of information security strategy process. [1] Based on Giddens’ structuration and Venkatraman’s strategic alignment theories we developed arguments for the application of “social construction” as a metaphor both for gaining understanding of the bottom up agencies and emergencies, and for the top-down trickling of strategies through institutions and policies in information security.The objective of this paper is to examine how the notion of information security is viewed through the lens of the Science‒Technology‒Studies program (or sometimes referred as Science‒Technology‒Society both resulting in the acronym STS). Information security for individuals, organizations and very importantly to governments is pivotal amongst these challenges, and the reforms and activisms represented by the “broad churches” of STS provide a rich platform to enhance the discourses of scientific and technological knowledge in socio-political contexts. By taking a grounded theory approach within this framework, I present an exploratory analysis of reviewing the available contemporary scientific research in the field of information systems management and its transdisciplinary subject areas. The research question and problem statement I posed to answer has been: what kind of patterns and specific discourses can be identified around the keywords of “information security” and “social construction” in information systems and its related reference fields such as social sciences, management studies, decision sciences extended to psychology. It is important to note, that I excluded in this paper the review of literature in engineering, computer science and natural sciences—references in these subject areas were only taken into consideration in case the outlets have been cross-listed with social sciences or humanities

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