Locating information systems in the freedom of information process

Abstract

United States federal and state freedom of information (FOI) laws dictate how citizens may obtain access to government records and how records should be provided in response to requests. Yet, the information systems implicated in making and fulfilling FOI requests have received little attention in research. Given the ubiquity of information systems in government recordkeeping and increasingly, in citizen-government interaction, this is a marked oversight. This exploratory, mixed methods study adopts a sociomaterial lens to examine how information systems may be consequential for the outputs and outcomes of the FOI process. We draw on evidence from 132 requests submitted to a sample of municipal governments in two states and interviews with 15 municipal employees of the sampled governments to observe how material and human agency around information systems is reflected in the outputs of requests. Our findings highlight the variety and scope of information systems used in the FOI process and the prevalence of dedicated FOI portals. Stemming from these findings, we propose three contributions: first, the description of how information systems and material agency across the entirety of the FOI process shape its outputs and outcomes; second, the recognition of a customer service paradigm in relevant municipal work and information systems that shifts the primary object of interest from the record to the interaction; and third, an opportunity to conceptualize compliance and transparency in relation to their enactment in sociomaterial routines.