On Problematizing IS Research: A Critical Reading of the KMIS SOLOMO Research Agenda

In this essay, we problematize the problematics of the KMIS SOLOMO research agenda. We propose that the SOLOMO agenda is a conditioned product of the various assumptions, biases, premises, and presuppositions that the field of IS collectively succumbs to and shares, and thus needs to be problematized to arrive at a new set of research questions for the field. The problematization begins with the ontology that underlies the agenda. We argue that the agenda is largely drawn from a dichotomic, deep ontology of Human vs. Technology. While such ontology is neither right nor wrong in its own right, we suggest it is what underlies and influences the field's whole mode of inquiry including its research agenda. We propose an alternative ontology, the Actor-Network Theory (ANT), which as a flat ontology provides a radically different set of research questions for the field. Next we take issue with the teleology of the SOLOMO agenda, and suggest that the telos of the agenda, and of the field of IS and the whole of Management discipline together, are anchored upon the capitalist episteme so that it creates a significant hole in its teleological scape. While not in any sense calling for an ideological demagogue, we propose that the field of IS should open itself to an alternative teleology including a leftist perspective. We draw upon the Critical Management Studies (CMS) to explore how further problematization can be made on the SOLOMO agenda, generating questions about its performativity, denaturalization, and reflexivity. As a result of the discussions, a list of new problematized research questions for the SOLOMO agenda is generated. In the end we state the motivation of the essay and call for a critical refurbishing of the field of IS.