Kreps, D., & Bass, J., (2019) ‘Southern Theories in ICT4D’, in Nielsen, Petter, Kimaro, Honest Christopher (Eds.) (2019) Information and Communication Technologies for Development. Strengthening Southern-Driven Cooperation as a Catalyst for ICT4D 15th IFIP WG 9.4 International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, ICT4D 2019, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, May 1–3, 2019, Proceedings. Rahy, S., Kreps, D., Bass, J., Gaber, T., and Ardo, A., (2020) ‘A Post-colonial Analysis of Agile Software Development Methods in ICT4D’. in Julian M. Bass and P.J. Wall (eds) 16th IFIP WG 9.4 International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, ICT4D 2020, Manchester, UK, June 10–11, 2020, Proceedings. (IFIPAICT, volume 587) Springer: Cham. Switzerland.

1. University
ofGalway.ie
p h i l osop h i ca l a p p roa ch e s i n
In f orma tion Systems:
p roce ssu a l a n d sou th e rn
David Kreps

2. University
ofGalway.ie
agenda
• philosophical approaches in Information Systems
• process philosophy
• process philosophy and some non-western/non-Global North
approaches to ontological questions
• broader sympathy for ICT4D and interest in solutions from the
Global South

3. University
ofGalway.ie
University
ofGalway.ie
deeper
questions
• The philosophical roots of positivism
• How should we understand interpretivism after
the development of critical IS?
• What philosophical grounding is most
appropriate for critical IS?
• Philosophical support for the reality of
subjectivity

4. University
ofGalway.ie
• Descartes (1596-1650): thought and theology vs scientific
materialism. Information derived from sensory experience,
giving empirical findings, is deemed to be the exclusive source
of evidential knowledge: Cartesian dualism- mind/body :
subject/object
• Comte (1798-1857) described this derived knowledge as
‘positive’ knowledge, giving birth to ‘positivism’ (Comte 1865).
• Positivism rejects all introspective or intuitive knowledge, and
all metaphysics, as effectively theological (Russell 1914).
Scientism/Positivism
• Nature, therefore, is defined, by this scientific positivist approach, as something that does
not include us: meaning not our bodies or brains, but the persons who observe, and
experience the sensations we label ‘empirical.’

5. philosophical critique
• Long history of critique of this position, particularly from the late 19th
century on, including American philosopher William James, and
European thinkers like Husserl, Wittgenstein, Heidegger and others.
• Focus here on three philosophical critiques of the specific claims of
scientism to determine exclusively the nature of Nature
• Thomas Nagel - contemporary US philosopher
• Henri Bergson - 1859-1941 France
• Alfred North Whitehead - 1861-1947 Britain / US

6. “The subjectivity of consciousness is an irreducible
feature of reality – without which we couldn’t do
physics or anything else – and it must occupy as
fundamental a place in any credible world view as
matter, energy, space, time and numbers”
The View from Nowhere (1986:7-8).
Thomas Nagel
What is it like
to be a bat?

7. Our psychical life, while bound to its motor
accompaniment, is not governed by it
Matter and Memory
(Bergson 1908:83)
Henri Bergson
Durée reélle

8. ‘a duration’ is “a concrete slab of nature
limited by simultaneity which is an essential
factor disclosed in sense-awareness”
The Concept of Nature (1920:53)
Alfred North
Whitehead
Panpsychism

9. BUDDHISM
Many aspects of ‘The Way’ are more in sympathy
with a process view of existence
DAO
Both Lao-Zhuang Daoist Philosophy and the more
mystical Huang-Lao Daoism focus more on process
than on things
ANIMISM
Shinto, Bantu, Native American Medicine, and other
more animist or ‘nature religion’ approaches to a
living world display many of the characteristics of an
event ontology as opposed to a thing ontology,
focussing on dynamism, life, and a panpsychic
understanding of consciousness
PROCESS
PHILOSOPHY AND
THE GLOBAL SOUTH

10. University
ofGalway.ie
University
ofGalway.ie
Positivist IS
“Generally speaking, IS research can be
classified as positivist if there is evidence of
formal propositions, quantifiable measures
of variables, hypothesis testing, and the
drawing of inferences about a phenomenon
from a representative sample to a stated
population” (Klein and Myers 1999:69).

11. Interpretive IS research is concerned with
“human thought and action in social and
organizational contexts,” Klein and Myers
(1999:67),
interpretivist is

12. University
ofGalway.ie
“can be classified as critical if the
main task is seen as being one of
social critique, whereby the
restrictive and alienating
conditions of the status quo are
brought to light” (Klein and Myers
1999:69)
critical is

13. University
ofGalway.ie
University
ofGalway.ie
‘SOUTHERN’ IS
“a sense of relationality, context,
and contingency as foundational
conditions of possibility for self-
concept in ways those of us
brought up in the context of the
West’s ‘autonomous individuality’
find quite difficult to conceive”
(KREPS and BASS 2019:5)

14. Next for ICT4D?
Investigate, discover,
represent, encourage,
enable, support, develop:
Southern IS

15. Dr David Kreps
http://david.kreps.org/
david.kreps@universityofgalway.ie
• Kreps, D., & Bass, J., (2019) ‘Southern Theories in ICT4D’, in Nielsen, Petter, Kimaro,
Honest Christopher (Eds.) (2019) Information and Communication Technologies for
Development. Strengthening Southern-Driven Cooperation as a Catalyst for ICT4D 15th
IFIP WG 9.4 International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing
Countries, ICT4D 2019, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, May 1–3, 2019, Proceedings.
• Rahy, S., Kreps, D., Bass, J., Gaber, T., and Ardo, A., (2020) ‘A Post-colonial Analysis of
Agile Software Development Methods in ICT4D’. in Julian M. Bass and P.J. Wall (eds)
16th IFIP WG 9.4 International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in
Developing Countries, ICT4D 2020, Manchester, UK, June 10–11, 2020, Proceedings.
(IFIPAICT, volume 587) Springer: Cham. Switzerland.
Thanks