[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 bstahl@dmu.ac.uk 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/

Jeremy Hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu) Words are things; and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. --Byron