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ICT and Societal Challenges, call for papers for a MIS Quarterly special issue

For this special issue, authors should examine the role of ICT in enabling or inhibiting complex social problems and their solutions. The Guest Editors are Ann Majchrzak, University of Southern California ([email protected]), M. Lynne Markus, Bentley University ([email protected]), and Jonathan Wareham, ESADE – Ramon Lull University ([email protected]). The submission deadline is March 31, 2014.

Summary

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been recognized as an important catalyst for national progress and social transformation, an insight that motivated early 20th century telecom regulations ensuring universal access for all citizens. More recently, we have witnessed how governments, nongovernmental organizations, and organic social movements can use ICT to create increased participation, transparency, and accountability for previously voiceless people in the developing nations of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. But, as Rob Kling (1996) reminded us, ICT’s consequences are not universally positive: ICT can contribute to unemployment and increased economic disparity, as well as labor and financial market instability and a host of other social problems. 
The time has come to assess the evidence about ICT’s social consequences and to develop better theories about the precise nature of the role of ICT in complex social problems and the ecosystems that perpetuate the problems. Toward this aim, we invite papers that examine the role of ICT in complex social problems. This role may be
• Enabling—augmenting, catalyzing, or supporting solutions for complex social problems, or
• Constraining—worsening existing social problems, creating new problems, or diverting attention and resources from needed social change.
 
By complex social problems, we mean social challenges that are shaped by dynamic and interdependent factors; that cannot be “solved” by simple interventions; about which little evidence or agreement about effective solutions exists; and that change unpredictably in response to policy interventions, often beyond the political life spans of policy makers (Gardner 2011). Solving these problems typically requires the support of coalitions of political and financial advocates, execution by skilled and pragmatic actors, and an enabling ICT infrastructure (Shen et al. 2007). Examples include unemployment, financial exploitation, pollution and climate change, poverty, homelessness, illiteracy, crime, corruption, and addiction (Wareham and Sonne 2008).
 
For this special issue, authors should examine the role of ICT in enabling or inhibiting complex social problems and their solutions. This examination should have particular characteristics. First, we are particularly interested in novel affordances and constraints of ICT (Gibson 1977; Leonardi 2011; Majchrzak and Markus 2013; Zammuto et al 2007 ). Thus, the focus should not primarily be on the features of ICT but rather on the uses of ICT that are afforded or constrained by those features. Second, the social context of use within the social problem, including the range of users and other stakeholders, should be considered (Markus et al. 2002). Third, we particularly encourage research with a focus expanded beyond a simple two-party system of service deliverer and recipient to include aspects of the social and institutional environments that affect the social problem. The role of ICT in promoting participation, enabling new discourse and discussion, and increasing transparency are all of interest in this special issue, along with the role of ICT in problem creation or maintenance. While no paper needs to take all of these issues into account, too much abstraction risks oversimplifying the affording and constraining roles of ICT.
 
Possible topics for the special issue include, but are not limited to
• Affordances and constraints of ICT that create or worsen complex social problems
• Ethical dilemmas in the development and deployment of ICT
• Applications of ICT for managing or disrupting the tensions, contradictions and paradox in complex social problems
• Applications of ICT to promote citizen participation or democratization
• ICT’s role in social or economic exploitation and marginalization 
• ICT-enabled business models for social entrepreneurship and social problems 
• Societal, behavioral, and ecoomic consequences of ICT use
• How ICT-enabled platforms help NGOs complete social missions
• Responsible innovation with ICT and implications for IS design science
• National ICT policies and how they shape the societal environment for ICT acceptance and diffusion

 

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