design science and critical realism some methodological issue greg hill, monash university cbidsr...
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Design Science and Critical Realism Some Methodological Issue
Greg Hill, Monash University
CBIDSR Workshop, 20/10/05
Overview
Historical Development and Rationale
Structure of Design Science Research
Evaluation in Design Science
Guidelines for Assessment
Overview
Philosophy of Design Science Research
Ideas from Critical Realism
Critical Realist Evaluation
Implications for Information Systems
Historical Development
– Natural versus artificial sciences
• truth, necessity, analysis, descriptive, predictive
• utility, contingency, synthesis, prescriptive
– Focus on artefacts, goals and environment
– Simulation and Imitation
– Design distinguishes professions
Historical Development
“… the natural sciences have almost driven the sciences of the artificial from professional school curricula ...”
“ … Engineering schools have become schools of physics and mathematics …”
“… professional schools … hanker after respectability …” (Simon, 1969)
– Engineering, Business and Medicine
– Law, Journalism and Library Science
– (Computer Science and Management Science)
Structure of Research
Process View Vaishnavi, V. and Kuechler, W. (2004/5). “Design Research in Information Systems” URL: http://www.isworld.org/Researchdesign/drisISworld.htm
Structure of Research
Knowledge View (Hevner et al, MISQ, 2004)
Evaluation Methods
– Observational
• case study, field study
– Analytical
• static, architecture, optimisation, dynamic
– Experimental
• controlled experiment, simulation
Evaluation Methods
– Testing
• black box, white box
– Descriptive
• informed argument, scenarios
Guidelines for Assessment
– Design as an Artefact
– Problem Relevance
– Design Evaluation
– Research Contribution
Guidelines for Assessment
– Research Rigour
– Design as Search
– Design as Communication
Philosophy of Design Science
– Essentially instrumentalist and pragmatist
• accepts “natural sciences” as law-generator
• claims to knowledge assessed on usefulness
– But spans socio-technical systems
• aeroplanes, computers, mobile phones ...
• organisations, markets, families … ?
Philosophy of Design Science
– Key question for design of socio-technical
systems (like information systems):
Can the philosophies and methods of
logical positivism work for “social science”
• Do reasons have causal powers?
• Does poverty cause crime?
Ideas from Critical Realism
– Kicked off by Roy Bhaskar (1975)
• “Transcendental Realism” - attempts to unify
positivism and interpretivism
• Naturalism - the idea the social and natural
phenomena can be studied the same way
• Proposes three ontological domains:
– real
– actual
– empirical
Ideas from Critical Realism
• Rejects “social atomism” / “methodological
individualism” - a form of social reductionism
• Rejects Durkheim (agency -> structure)
• Rejects Weber (structure -> agency)
• Proposes an interplay (structure <-> agency)
Ideas from Critical Realism
“He found God. Worst of all it was a very down market
god, nothing more than your common or garden New
Age variety, the type readily available at any incense
saturated shop frequented by a Shirley MacLaine or
Nancy Reagan.” Gary MacLennan.
Ideas from Critical Realism
“Put very simply, a central feature of
realism is its attempt to preserve a
‘scientific’ attitude towards social analysis
at the same time as recognising the
importance of actors´ meanings and in
some way incorporating them in research.”
(Layder, 1993)
Ideas from Critical Realism
– Analogy and metaphor
• hypothesis formulation
– Patterns and triggers
• demi-regularities, enablers/disablers
– C-M-O configurations
• Context - Mechanism - Outcomes
Ideas from Critical Realism
“ … outcomes cannot be explained in isolation;
rather, they can only be explained in the sense of a
mechanism that is introduced to effect change in
constellation of their mechanisms and structure,
embedded in the context of pre-existing historical,
economic, cultural, social and other conditions. This
process of explanation, known as retroduction,
enables the realist inquirer to investigate the potential
causal mechanisms and the conditions under which
certain outcome will or will not be realised.” (Kazi,
2003)
Critical Realist Evaluation in Design Science Research
– Goal of evaluation phase is to understand
the C-M-O configurations (explanatory)
– What works, for whom, in what circumstances?
• Scenarios, case studies, simulations
– “Three boxes” of evaluation
• black, grey and white (clear)
• making the box “greyer”
Implications for IS
– What is the role for IS researchers?
• Business needs?
• Reference disciplines?
• Consultancies?
• Multi-methodology research?
Implications for IS
– What is the role for IS theory?
• CSF -> CMO?
• Design theories?
• Evaluation theories?
Implications for IS
I agree that it works in practice. But how
can we be certain that it will work in
theory? -- Attributed to a professor at
École Normale Supériere.