Critical IS research

Critical information systems research challenges the status quo and reveals opportunities for emancipation, i.e., the overcoming of constraints such that conditions improve for an individual, group, organization, or society. Foundational critical research focuses on defining and justifying critical approaches to information systems research. Moving forward, researchers have an opportunity to build on that foundation through radical approaches that develop novel perspectives. This chapter provides an overview of relevant theoretical concepts and discusses guidelines for when to apply critical methods, including critical discourse analysis, critical ethnography, critical hermeneutics, deconstruction (reconstruction), emancipatory data science, emancipatory design science, emancipatory focus groups, and participatory action research. Drawing on a review of the information systems literature on emancipation, this chapter provides a critique of the status quo of critical information systems research. This critique reveals opportunities for researchers to move beyond 1. reliance on Western schools of thought, 2. singular perspectives, 3. negativism, 4. abstraction, and 5. a focus on the immediate context. This chapter concludes with a call for information systems researchers to seize opportunities to promote emancipation through critical research, embrace methodological pluralism, and support the inclusion of diverse researchers and diverse research perspectives.