Relevant dates

Deadlines for submission: 15 March 2019

Notification of acceptance: 15 April 2019

Date of the workshop: 11 June 2019 

Submission details and dates

Submission of short paper (500 words): March 15 2019

Short papers should be e-mailed to Stan Karanasios stan.karanasios@rmit.edu.au, with the words ‘DATIS Workshop’ in the title.

Short papers will be circulated prior to the workshop.

Short paper submission is not required for attendance at the workshop.

Description

The purpose of the fourth Developing Activity Theory in Information Studies (DATIS) workshop is to continue to provide a forum for IS scholars using Activity Theory. Over the last two decades the use of activity Theory has developed within the field of information systems (IS) (Allen et al., 2013; Karanasios 2018; Malaurent and Avison 2015; Simeonova, 2018), as well as related fields such as Human Computer Interaction (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2006; Kuutti, 1996; Nardi, 1996), information studies (Allen et al., 2011; Spasser, 1999; Wilson, 2008), organisation studies (Engeström 2000; Jazrabkowski 2003) and communications (Spinuzzi, 2012). Building on this interest the aim of the workshop is threefold:

1. Strengthen and build the community of scholars within IS using Activity Theory.

2. Provide an opportunity for scholars to reflect and gain feedback on work in progress or gain fresh perspectives.

3. Provide support for researchers that are starting to explore Activity Theory.

The workshop will provide a unique opportunity to bring together early career researchers and more established researchers to discuss issues of interest and share research work. It also brings together scholars that may be working in separate areas of IS (e.g. small firms and IT, IT and development, IT design), but have a shared interest in developing Activity Theory.

The previous three iterations of the DATIS workshops (2016-2018) were well attended and proved to be a useful platform for discussing diverse IS studies utilising Activity Theory as well as critiquing and expanding it and have led to interest in running the event on a yearly basis.

Workshop Organisers

Dr Stan Karanasios stan.karanasios@rmit.edu.au

Dr Karanasios is a Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University. His research focuses on the interaction of technology and organizations and society and is heavily influenced by Activity Theory. His work has been published in MIS Quarterly, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Information Systems Journal and other leading Information Systems outlets.

Dr Boyka Simeonova b.simeonova@lboro.ac.uk

Dr Simeonova is a Lecturer in Information Management at Loughborough University. Her research focuses on technology and knowledge management and utilises Activity Theory. Her work has been published in Information Systems Journal, Journal of Information Management and the International Conference on Information Systems. 

Professor David Allen da2@lubs.leeds.ac.uk

Professor David Allen is a Professor of Information Management at the University of Leeds. He is also Director of the AIMTech Research Centre. His research has informed government and organisations on the use of new technology. His research has been published in MIS Quarterly, European Journal of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal and other leading Information Systems outlets.

Dr Jyoti Mishra j.l.mishra1@bradford.ac.uk

Dr Jyoti Mishra is a lecturer of Logistics, Supply Chain and Technology Management at School of Management at Bradford University. Her research focuses on the supply chains, information management, emergency management and developing countries. Her research has been published in Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology and other leading outlets.

Programme Committee

Dr Alistair Norman, University of Leeds, UK

Dr Zlatko Bodrozic, University of Leeds, UK

Dr Paul Kelly, La Trobe University, Australia

Professor Bonnie Nardi, University of California Irvine, USA

Associate Professor Wei Zhang, UMass Boston, USA

Associate Professor Raquel Benbunan-Fich, City University New York

References

Allen, D., Karanasios, S., & Slavova, M. (2011). Working with activity theory: Context, technology, and information behavior. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(4), 776-788.

Allen, D. K., Brown, A., Karanasios, S., & Norman, A. (2013). How should technology-mediated organizational change be explained? A comparison of the contributions of critical realism and activity theory. MIS Quarterly, 37(3), 835-854.

Engeström, Y. (2000). Activity Theory and the Social Construction of Knowledge: A Story of Four Umpires. Organization 7(2): 301-310.

Jarzabkowski, P. (2003). Strategic practices: An activity theory perspective on continuity and change." Journal of Management Studies 40(1): 23-56.

Kaptelinin, V., & Nardi, B. (2006). Acting with technology: Activity theory and interaction design: The MIT Press.

Karanasios, S. (2018). Toward a Unified View of Technology and Activity: The Contribution of Activity Theory to Information Systems Research. Information Technology & People 31(1)134-155.

Kuutti, K. (1996). Activity Theory as a Potential Framework for Human-Computer Interaction Research. In B. A. Nardi (Ed.), Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 17-44). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Malaurent, J. and Avison, D. (2015). Reconciling global and local needs: a canonical action research project to deal with workarounds. Information Systems Journal 26(3): 227–257.

Nardi, B. A. (1996). Activity theory and human computer interaction In B. A. Nardi (Ed.), Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 1-8). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Simeonova, B. (2018). Transactive memory systems and Web 2.0 in knowledge sharing: A conceptual model based on activity theory and critical realism. Information Systems Journal, 28(4), 592-611.

Spasser, M. A. (1999). Informing information science: The case for activity theory. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 50(12), 1136-1138.

Spinuzzi, C. (2012). Working Alone Together: Coworking as Emergent Collaborative Activity. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 26(4), 399-441.

Wilson, T. D. (2008). Activity theory and information seeking. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 42, 119-161.