[Apologies for multiple postings]

Quo Vadis CRIS?
The 3rd International Workshop on Critical Research in Information Systems
to be held on 8th June 2008, prior to the ECIS Conference in Galway,
Ireland.

Critical Research in Information Systems (CRIS) has been relatively
successful in gaining legitimacy as a research approach in IS. A number of
special issues, tracks and book publications bear witness to this.  Critical
research can now be published in most major IS outlets. The most recent
examples of this are the special issues in Information Technology & People
(issue 19:3, 2006)  and a distributed special issue to be published by the
Information Systems Journal in 2008.

There has been much debate about what constitutes a critical approach and
who or what should be counted as critical. A comprehensive definition is not
to be expected anytime soon, but the body of CRIS literature is now
sufficiently extensive and coherent to allow for the identification of
critical work.

This workshop aims to ask questions about what could or should come next in
the development of CRIS. How will CRIS position itself with regards to other
critical disciplines (e.g. critical management studies, critical
ethnography)? What will its role be in the field of IS? Will it be the
alternative to positivist and interpretivist research in IS departments?
Would this mean the development of a canon of criticality in IS? Does/will
CRIS share the radical underpinnings of critical social research? How will
CRIS respond to criticism from postmodernists? Would it aspire to become
'post-postmodern critical'? Will it transcend academic discipline and
inspire further activities, e.g. a political movement, professional
association and regulations, an academic teaching platform?

These and many other questions will be asked about the future of CRIS. The
workshop therefore invites contributions that will help us  seek out the
answers and engage in creating CRIS' future.

Workshop Chairs are currently in negotiation with publishers concerning a
publication of the workshop contributions. Further details will be discussed
at the workshop. 
Call for Papers

The one-day workshop will consist of a mixture of keynote speaker, full and
positional refereed papers and opinion pieces in an Open Forum. We invite
researchers from around the world who are interested Critical Research in IS
to join us in progressing the debate and critically reflecting on the
enactment of a Critical Research tradition in IS.  The following list is
indicative but not exhaustive of workshop topics:

.         Future agendas for CRIS in terms of focus, concerns,
methodologies, actions and implications:
.         In search of meaning of being critical in IS research -
reflections, reactions and redirections
.         Raising the critical voice in the IS discipline - how, where, with
whom?
.         Concerns for IS practice and practical consequences of CRIS
research
.         Experiences, practical and self-reflective accounts of CRIS
scholars in their line of work
.         The relationship of CRIS and other disciplines - how do we see the
critical project in the future within and beyond disciplinary boundaries?
.         Possibilities of networking, widening reach, contributing to the
establishment of CRIS as a valuable and legitimate approach
.         Examples of current CRIS research, empirical or conceptual

We are asking contributors to submit full papers that broadly focus on the
workshop theme and topics, or shorter positional papers that address the
questions raised in the introduction to the workshop call for papers. If you
would like to deliver a 3 minute opinion piece to the Open Forum please
submit a brief outline of the issue you would like to raise.

 
Timeline

Launch of cfp                                                 01 November
2007 

Expression of intention to submit:                   15 January 2008

Deadline for submission:                                15 February2008

Notification of acceptance:                              1 April 2008

Final papers due:                                           1 May 2008

Date of workshop:                                          8 June 2008


Submission of intentions and papers to be made to the workshop chairs at
[log in to unmask] 
Organisation of the workshop:

Chairs
Programme Chairs:
B. Stahl, D. Cecez-Kecmanovic

Workshop Organizing Chairs:
Rachel McLean

Updated information will be provided on the following website:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/cris-2008/web/call-for-papers-cris-2008

I hope to see you in Galway.
Bernd 

Dr. Bernd Carsten Stahl
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~bstahl/