A Theoretic Basis for IS? The Contribution of ANT

<body> <table width="100%"> <tr> <td align="center"> This page requires frames. <a href="http://dl.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/article/viewPDFInterstitial/449/407">Click here</a> for the non-frames version. <p>Non-frames version <a href="http://dl.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/article/viewPDFInterstitial/449/407">available</a>.</p> </td> </tr> </table> <h1>A Theoretic Basis for IS? The Contribution of ANT</h1> <h2><i>Jim Underwood</i></h2> <h3>Australasian Journal of Information Systems</h3> <h4>Abstract</h4> <div>Representation is a key issue of IS design and operation that is often ignored. Actor-network theory (ANT), a semiotic theory of stakeholders, provides a way of dealing with representation. Combining aspects of ANT and Foucault's discourse theory allows us to include concepts as actors and promises a flexible and durable foundation for IS practice, but ANT itself indicates that the search for a purely theoretical foundation for IS is misguided.</div> </body>