TOWARDS A CRITICAL REALIST EPISTEMOLOGY FOR RESEARCH INTO E-GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS

摘要

Many governments all over the world are focusing on the transformative potential of ICT-enabled E-Government systems. It is now generally accepted that governments that adopt some form of e-government system tend to gain. As an object of inquiry within Information Systems (IS), the phenomenon of E-Government in developing countries is still quite nascent with no clear guidelines as to the appropriate epistemology for conducting research in E-Government. The objective of this paper is to discuss the object of E-Government in the context of the three predominant research paradigms: positivism, critical theory and interpretive research. The objective is to try and align research in E-Government to the main research paradigms. The paper will also aim at proposing the most suitable research paradigm for research in E-Government systems. Analysis of the literature reveals that a number of IS researchers are refocusing on the concept of realism as an alternative for positivistic research. In particular, critical realism has been advocated for. The proposition in this paper is that E-Government is better researched using a pragmatic approach involving the use of critical theory and critical realism.