This paper used phenomenological constructivism to demonstrate and evaluate a mixed method approach for conducting information systems research. It evaluated the implementation and implications of mixed methods approach as an exploratory and inductive research method. A case study which made use of indepth interviews was used to provide the dominant qualitative (QUAL) method. Following this, a questionnaire survey was used to provide the results for the less dominant method which is the quantitative (QUAN) data. The mixed method approach was adopted to enhance the completeness and accuracy of the interpretation of the study. It provided a number of recommendations for the use of mixed methods approach for IS projects.

Key words: case study, information systems, mixed methods, phenomenological constructivism.

In this paper we argue for the possibilities of applying the concept of autopoiesis to the information systems of modern organizations. Modern organizations in today’s rapidly changing, turbulent and complex environment are virtual, open, heterarchic and autopoietic. The main question we try to address in this paper is how to support these organizations with an adequate information system. We show that it is possible to develop autopoietic information systems that should be able to respond to the challenges of modern organizations.

Key words: autopoiesis, information system, organization

The theory of autopoiesis, developed in biology by Maturana and Varela, deprives information of any significant role in self-producing systems, because such systems are organizationally closed. After exploring the rejection of the notion of information, and laying out the main tenets of the theory, this paper considers some of the implications of the theoretical position for the discipline and practice of information systems (IS). The chief consequence is to shift focus from abstraction, representation, and design toward cooperation and use. The paper goes on to discuss different approaches to applying the theory of autopoiesis in IS. Some benefit might, for instance, be had from using the ideas as metaphors. The role of information is seen to be restored in Luhmann’s development of an autopoietic theory for social systems. A more radical use of the theory in IS would be to develop the basic ontology proposed by Maturana and Varela. A start on this is made from a phenomenological perspective.

This paper discusses various suggestions for a philosophical framework for a trans-disciplinary information science or a semiotic doctrine. These are: the mechanical materialistic, the pan-informational, the Luhmanian second order cybernetic approach, Peircian biosemiotics and finally the pan-semiotic approach. The limitations of each are analysed. The conclusion is that we will not have to choose between either a cybernetic-informational or a semiotic approach. A combination of a Peircian-based biosemiotics with autopoiesis theory, second order cybernetics and information science is suggested in a five-levelled cybersemiotic framework. The five levels are 1) a level of Firstness, 2) a level of mechanical matter, energy and force as Secondness, 3) a cybernetic and thermodynamic level of information, 4) a level of sign games and 5) a level of conscious language games. These levels are then used to differentiate levels of information systems, sign and language games in human communication. In our model Maturana and Varela’s description of the logic of the living as autopoietic is accepted and expanded with Luhmann’s generalization of the concept of autopoiesis, to cover also to psychological and socio-communicative systems. Adding a Peircian concept of semiosis to Luhmann’s theory in the framework of biosemiotics enables us to view the interplay of mind and body as a sign play. I have in a previous publication (see list of references) suggested the term “sign play” pertaining to exosemiotics processes between animals in the same species by stretching Wittgenstein’s language concept into the animal world of signs. The new concept of intrasemiotics designates the semiosis of the interpenetration between biological and psychological autopoietic systems as Luhmann defines them in his theory. One could therefore view intrasemiotics as the interplay between Lorenz’ biological defined motivations and Freud’s Id, understood as the psychological aspect of many of the natural drives. In the last years of the development of his theory, Lorenz worked with the idea of how emotional feedback introduced just a little learning through pleasurable feelings into instinctive systems because, as he reasoned, there must be some kind of reward of going through instinctive movements, thus making possible the appetitive searching behaviour for sign stimuli. But he never found an acceptable way of modelling motivation in biological science. I am suggesting a cybersemiotic model to combine these approaches, defining various concepts like thought-semiotics, phenosemiotic and intrasemiotics, combining them with the already known concepts of exosemiotics, ecosemiotics, and endosemiotics into a new view of self-organizing semiotic processes in living systems. Thus a new semiotic level of description is generated, where mind-body interactions can be understood on the same description level.

Key words: Cybersemiotics, cybernetics, semiotics, information, self-organisation

The term autopoiesis was coined to describe the regenerating and self-maintaining chemical systems of cells. The term has subsequently been applied to many different fields, including sociology, systems theory and information systems. This theory postulates that an autopoietic unity (cell, machine) is an organised network of processes that exists in a delimited space, which produces components which in turn continuously regenerate and create the network of processes that produced them. The Santiago Theory of Cognition grew from the Theory of Allopoiesis stating that all living systems are cognitive systems, and the process of living is a process of cognition. Cognition is the ability to adapt to a certain environment and cognition emerges because of a continuous bilateral interaction between the system and its environment. The resultant complexity seen in living systems is caused by this interaction between the system and its environment. Autopoiesis and cognition are however opposing concepts because cognition can only exist when the system is open and not closed as autopoiesis suggests. It is also difficult to see how autopoietic systems could originate if they are closed and how the continuous change which we see in evolution can be explained if life consists of autopoietic systems. It is postulated that cells and organisms are in fact open systems relating genetically to ancestors before them and their ever-changing descendants after them and the flow of molecules and energy through an ever-changing ecology.

This contribution offers reflections about Chilean Cybersyn, 50 years ago. In recent years, Cybersyn, has received significant attention. It was the brainchild of Stafford Beer, who conceived it to support the transformation of the Chilean economy from its bureaucratic history to hopefully create a vibrant and modern society, driven by cybernetic tools. These aspects have received much attention in recent times; however, in this contribution, I want to discuss how working in Cybersyn influenced my work after the coup of 1973. Perhaps, for me, its major influence was in the management of complexity, through what I refer here as variety engineering and through the Viable System Model VSM as a paradigm to the management of relationships with implications to enterprises, society and the economy. After the 1973 coup major interest was in technological aspects of Cybersyn such as real-time management and its contribution to decision support and executive information systems. In the late 70s I was personally influenced by information management, but by the early 1980s my work moved towards methodological aspects of how to use the VSM. By 1989 I had created the VIPLAN method (Espejo, 1989). Key questions I attempted to answer were, how to model the complexity of enterprises and their interactions with environmental agents. Later on, in the 1990s and 2000s, the main direction of my work was epistemological, ontological and methodological towards second-order cybernetics and relationships. Only in recent decades the political transformations proposed by Cybersyn have captured the imagination of many commentators. The confluence of social and cultural changes with information technology, data models, artificial intelligence, algorithms and several additional technological developments have challenged the excesses of capitalism, particularly after the banking crisis of 2008–2009. The purpose in this paper is discussing this evolution in the light of those early days in Chile.

Purpose: Studies aspects of Heinz von Foerster’s work that are of particular importance for cognitive science and artificial intelligence. Design/methodology/approach – Kohonen’s self-organizing map is presented as one method that may be useful in implementing some of Von Foerster’s ideas The main foci are the distinction between trivial and non-trivial machines and the concept of constructive learning. The self-organizing map is also presented as a potential tool for alleviating the participatory crisis discussed by von Foerster. Findings: The participatory crisis in society is discussed and the concept of change is handled within the framework of information systems development. Originality/value – Considers the importance of considering change in information systems development.

Key words: artificial intelligence, cybernetics, cognition, democracy, information systems, social systems.

The relation between organizational change and information systems has received much attention in the information systems literature. Much of this research has concentrated on the effects of organizational change on information systems and vice versa. Such research has generated rich insights in the facilitating as well as constraining role of information systems in the process of organizational change. Many analyses assume a distinction between the system and its environment, the organization. Information systems are seen as being relatively stable entities while the environment is a source of change and uncertainty. Such a perspective stresses the need for a continuous adaptation of the information system to its dynamic environment.

Excerpt: This final chapter of applications will look at two related areas: computer-based information systems (IS), and cognitive science and artificial intelligence. Within IS, autopoietic ideas have so far had only a limited influence, largely through the work of Winograd and Flores, who have produced a critique of both information systems design and artificial intelligence. This is covered in Section 11.2. More significantly, Varela has concentrated, in recent years, on cognitive science and has developed a new framework, the enactive approach, based partly on earlier cognitive theories and the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty. This is the subject of Section 11.3.

The discipline within which I work is generally known as management science. It aims to assist the management of organisations using a broadly-defined scientific approach. Within management science, I have worked particularly in operational research (OR) and information systems (IS). My work is generally informed by a systems approach. Historically, management science developed with a very positivistic view of science [1]. OR, for example, was concerned largely to develop mathematical and computer-based models of the quantifiable aspects of problem situations in order that these might be “optimised”, while systems methodologies were based on “hard”, engineering principles.