Useful Knowledge for Information Systems Practice: The Contribution of the Participatory Paradigm

Abstract

Information systems research has become methodologically pluralistic, not least in the hope of achieving greater relevance of scholarly output to practice. Although interventionist approaches have considerable potential for bridging the theory–practice gap, they are dismissed as unscientific because of the purported absence of a philosophical foundation that would justify the interactive research process and the co-productive relationships between researchers and practitioners that are so defining of this type of inquiry. The intention in this paper is to demonstrate that philosophical foundations for interventionist research strategies do exist. This task is pursued by the introduction of the participatory worldview, as articulated in the fields of sociology, philosophy and organization studies. The paper shows its distinctness to other, non-positivist paradigms, describes the participatory research process, presents participatory inquiry methods and extrapolates the distinctness of the knowledge they produce. The application of its paradigmatic principles is illustrated through an empirical example of a participatory research programme and the challenges that this approach presents for research practice are indicated.… most of our knowledge, and all our primary knowledge, arises as an aspect of activities that have practical, not theoretical objectives; and it is this knowledge, itself an aspect of action, to which all reflective theory must refer.(Macmurray, 1957, p. 12)