{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,2]],"date-time":"2025-08-02T18:07:57Z","timestamp":1754158077042,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2002,3,1]],"date-time":"2002-03-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1014940800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2002,3,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The debate about the emerging discipline of IS has been continuing at least since Banville and Landry questioned the possibility of \u201cdisciplining\u201d MIS in 1989. Recent papers such as those in the book by Mingers and Stowell introduce fresh viewpoints and reopen the discussion along a new frontier. It would appear that an ontological framework to define a discipline could assist in making sense of what it is that information systems are all about. To this end, we develop a framework which derives from Heidegger\u2019s concept of a regional ontology informed by the fundamental ontology of Dasein. This framework draws from Heidegger\u2019s work and contends that a discipline also has Dasein\u2019s kind of being. Following Heidegger, we arrive at a static model of a discipline in which the two constitutive parts are the cultural structure and the context of significance. A discipline is a totality, which emerges from and integrates these two components which are simultaneously irreducible to one another, and nonseparable in the whole. We then utilise Heidegger\u2019s four ways of being, to show how change in a discipline can be incorporated in the framework. Finally, we reflect on how the framework could contribute towards the understanding of the discipline of information systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1108\/09593840210423217","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2002,7,28]],"date-time":"2002-07-28T18:52:06Z","timestamp":1027882326000},"page":"26-41","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["A framework for understanding the emerging discipline of information systems"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Brian","family":"O\u2019Donovan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Dewald","family":"Roode","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022021320095420100_b1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Avison, D., Fitzgerald, G. and Powell, P. (2001), \u201cReflections on information systems practice, education and research: 10 years of the Information Systems Journal\u201d, Information Systems Journal, Vol. 11, pp. 3\u201022.","DOI":"10.1046\/j.1365-2575.2001.00096.x"},{"key":"key2022021320095420100_b2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Banville, C. and Landry, M. (1989), \u201cCan the field of MIS be disciplined?\u201d, CACM,  Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 48\u201060.","DOI":"10.1145\/63238.63241"},{"key":"key2022021320095420100_b3","unstructured":"Checkland, P. and Holwell, S. (1998), Information, Systems and Information Systems: Making Sense of the Field, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester."},{"key":"key2022021320095420100_b4","unstructured":"Ciborra, C. (1996), \u201cImprovisation and information technology in organizations\u201d, Proceedings of the 17th ICIS, Cleveland, OH, pp. 369\u201080."},{"key":"key2022021320095420100_b5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ciborra, C. 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(Eds) (1991), IS Research: Contemporary Approaches and Emergent Traditions, North\u2010Holland, Amsterdam."},{"key":"key2022021320095420100_b21","unstructured":"O\u2019Donovan, B.C. (1998), \u201cTowards a framework for understanding the adoption and diffusion of IS in organisations\u201d, unpublished DCom thesis, Department of Informatics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria."},{"key":"key2022021320095420100_b22","unstructured":"Probert, S. (1997), \u201cThe actuality of information systems\u201d , in Mingers, J. and Stowell, F. (Eds), IS: An Emerging Discipline?, McGraw\u2010Hill, London"},{"key":"key2022021320095420100_b23","unstructured":"QAA (2000), Subject Benchmark Statements, The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, Gloucester."},{"key":"key2022021320095420100_b24","unstructured":"Senge, P.M. (1990), The Fifth Discipline, Currency Doubleday, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022021320095420100_b25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Swanson, E.B. and Ramiller, N. 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