Meeting the methodological challenges of context and subjectivity in information systems research

Abstract

Information systems research in developing countries is limited by the absence of adequate frameworks to characterize their contexts, leading to preoccupation with IS project failure. A critical realist framework based on Archers social realism – the Morphogenetic approach – integrated with potential mechanisms for emergence derived from Complexity theory, is investigated as a framework to understand e-Governance change processes in Kenya. The complex discursive environment for ICT is characterized with Q methodology for triangulation to factor in operant subjectivity in the domain. Philosophically, the approach avoids positivist – interpretive biases, and is essentially abductive, calling for researchers to re-evaluate philosophical commitments in complex contexts.