Questionning the structurationist approach in IS : a comparison with the Foucauldian approach

Authors

  • Aurélie LECLERCQ-VANDELANNOITTE School of Management de Lille, IESEG

Keywords:

Structuration theory, Anthony Giddens, Michel Foucault, IS-organization-actors interactions

Abstract

This research paper aims at questioning the structurationist perspective in information systems and to establish a parallel with the Foucauldian perspective. Indeed, Anthony Giddens and Michel Foucault share the same critics of essentialism and dualisms, and both question concepts that are crucial in IS research questions. Yet, these perspectives have not received the same attention in IS research. While the structurationist perspective in IS appears as one of the dominant paradigm of IS research, the Foucauldian perspective has long been neglected in French IS research. We thus seek to highlight the limitations of the structurationist perspective in IS, and to show how the Foucauldian perspective could enrich our understanding of the relationships between IS, the organisation and individual members, without falling into the traps raised by the structurationist approach in IS. 

Author Biography

Aurélie LECLERCQ-VANDELANNOITTE, School of Management de Lille, IESEG

Aurélie LECLERCQ est professeur assistante à l’IESEG School of Management. Diplômée d’un doctorat en sciences de gestion de l’Université Paris-Dauphine, ses domaines d’intérêt sont liés à la problématique du contrôle organisationnel et des systèmes d’information mobiles, ainsi qu’à la question du changement technologique et organisationnel. Elle s’intéresse tout particulièrement aux approches structurationniste et foucaldienne du management des systèmes d’information. Elle a récemment obtenu le Prix national de la meilleure thèse en systèmes d’information 2009 (Prix-Fnege AIM Robert Reix), le Prix national de la meilleure thèse transdisciplinaire 2009 (décerné par la FNEGE), ainsi que le Prix Louis Forest en Sciences Economiques et Gestion (Prix solennel de la Chancellerie des Universités de Paris). 

Downloads

Published

2010-02-10

How to Cite

LECLERCQ-VANDELANNOITTE, A. (2010). Questionning the structurationist approach in IS : a comparison with the Foucauldian approach. Systèmes d’Information Et Management (French Journal of Management Information Systems), 15(1), 35–68. Retrieved from https://revuesim.org/index.php/sim/article/view/259

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2010)

Section

Empirical research

License

The author bears the responsibility for checking whether material submitted is subject to copyright or ownership rights (e.g. figures, tables, photographs, illustrations, trade literature and data). The author will need to obtain permission to reproduce any such items, and include these permissions with their final submission.

It is our policy to ask all contributors to transfer for free the copyright in their contribution to the journal owner. There are two broad reasons for this:

  • ownership of copyright by the journal owner facilitates international protection against infringement of copyright, libel or plagiarism;
  • it also ensures that requests by third parties to reprint or reproduce a contribution, or part of it, in either print or electronic form, are handled efficiently in accordance with our general policy which encourages dissemination of knowledge within the framework of copyright.

 

In conformity with the French law, the author keeps the 'moral rights' related to the article:

  • The 'authorship right': It is the author's right to have his name associated with each publication and exploitation of the article.
  • The 'integrity right': It can be claimed by the author if he finds that during an exploitation, his work has been distorted (cutting, reassembly...).