http://www.diva-portal.org This is the published version of a paper presented at 6th Pre-ICIS SIGPhil Workshop, Dublin, Ireland, December 11, 2016. Citation for the original published paper: Lakew, N., Hedström, K. (2016) In Search for a Coherent Meta-Theoretical Structure: A Literature Review of Philosophy of Design. In: Proceedings of the Twenty-First SIGPhil Workshop, Dublin, Ireland, December 2016 N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published paper. Permanent link to this version: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-53980 Philosophy of design – theoretical structure and review In Search for a Coherent Meta-Theoretical Structure: A Literature Review of Philosophy of Design Completed Research Paper Nathan Lakew Karin Hedström Mid Sweden University Örebro University
[email protected] [email protected] Abstract This paper explores the possibility of building a coherent knowledge base for philosophy of design in IS research. After identifying and categorizing what is considered as design issues in the IS field, we propose a taxonomy of design abstractions in the form of a meta- theoretical structure. Based on the proposed hierarchical taxonomy, we have conducted a concept-centric literature review on four leading IS research journals published between January 2011 and July 2016. Our result shows that the IS field struggles with misalignment of philosophy of design issues, including constructing design theory, research positioning, and an inconsistent knowledge base in design subject areas such as ethics and aesthetics. It is suggested that integrating philosophy of design into IS research could contribute to the development of a coherent body of design knowledge.