The purpose of this contribution is to explore how a dialectical approach may further Integrational Linguistics into transcending structuralism. The strategy employed is to articulate the biomechanical and macrosocial factors in the communicational infrastructure as neurobiological attractors and social anchors respectively. Hence, the inquiry focuses on the dialectical relation between an individual’s neurobiological structure and her ability to confer signhood onto activity-relevant phenomena in the social environment. This makes it possible to conceive new directions for Integrational Linguistics by rethinking central aspects such as contextuality, indeterminacy, cotemporality, integration, and coordination. Conjectural as these directions may be, I put forward that the dialectical approach provides a promising launchpad for further inquiries into transcending structuralism and beyond.

The purpose of this paper is to renew the sociotechnical perspective as an “axis of cohesion”for the IS field. The renewal departs from the first principle “the individual is the social being”,which means that the individual is seen as a constituent in sociotechnical theorizing; alongside with the social and technical. This principle provides a basis for rethinking these elements as dialectically related and mutually constituting each other. The individual element is conceptualized in terms of neurobiological predispositions for action grounded in Kant’s notion of a-priori categories. The social element is seen as activity systems grounded in Marx’s notion of Praxis. The technical element is theorized as materiality apperceived by individuals as relevant in the activity system. Its philosophical grounding is Ilyenkov’s notion of the Ideal,which concerns the problem of the allegedly non-material in the natural world. When such are thinking is applied to the IS field, a foremost finding is that the IS comes forth as a social phenomenon in the minds of individuals as they struggle to make the IT artifact relevant in the activity system. Consequently, the defining question of the IS discipline may be reformulated as “researching how IT artifacts are efficiently metamorphosed into information systems in IT reliant activity systems”. How these findings may turn out in practice is illustrated by the development of a node in the 3rd generation of mobile systems in the telecom industry. In conclusion, the renewed sociotechnical perspective provides a fresh view of extant IS phenomena, thus advancing the IS field both theoretically and practically.

The purpose of this contribution is to explore the IS field from a position where the individual is considered on par with the social and material in IS theorizing. The exploration is based on the foundational assumption that the individual and the social mutually constitute each other. The social realm is seen as a communal infrastructure, comprised of individual, neurobiological factors and communal, institutionalized factors. These factors enable and constrain individual actions, which in turn modify these factors; a process we refer to as communalization. In such a perspective, information is seen as constituted by the individual from integrating previous experiences and sensations emanating from the environment into an actionable percept. Communalization renders the IT artifact into a community-relevant Information System, comprised of individual factors and the artifact. Consequently, information, the IT artifact, and ISs are seen as dialectically related phenomena – the one cannot be understood without the others. The practical relevance of the approach is demonstrated by the communalization of an IT artifact in the telecom industry. We discuss how mainstream IS research areas such as communication, sociomateriality, digitalization, and the essence of the IS discipline, can be advanced towards the dialectical position. In conclusion, we claim that a dialectical perspective opens up new avenues for advancing IS theorizing. 

In spite of decades of research, the essence of central IS phenomena such as information, the IT artifact, and the Information System, remain unsettled. This aggravates the identification and definition of their neural correlates, which in turn may stymie the future potential of NeuroIS. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to define an intellectual core for the NeuroIS field, which is based on the dialectics between the individual and her social environment. Such a core enables a reconceptualization of information, the IT artifact, and the Information System as distinct ontological phenomena, however dialectically related. Accordingly, their neural correlates can be more distinctly defined, which opens up for alternative research questions. An example of a NeuroIS study addressing such questions is provided. Thus, the paper contributes to the formulation of a foundation for the future advancement of NeuroIS.

Biomechanical factors are evolutionary developed, neurobiological predispositions, which enables an individual to act in the world. Macrosocial factors are macrosocially relevant practices in a social setting like a community. Biomechanical and macrosocial factors are seen as dialectically constituted in action. This kind of thinking is outlined in a theoretical perspective I call the Activity Domain Theory. This volume is a collection of papers, which try to positioned the Activity Domain Theory on the boundary between information systems, neurobiology, and Integrationism – a new development in the theory of communication emerging from the work of a group of linguists at Oxford during the 1980s

Socio-technical Systems theory sees an organizational work system as comprised of two distinct subsystems – a technical and a social one – that influence each other. Together, these subsystems determine the performance of the work system. Alternative socio-technical trends, such as sociomateriality, understand the social and material as non-existent before they are related. A problematic feature of both approaches is the downplaying of the individual, which is either subsumed under the social or only cursorily treated. To this end, an alternative approach for socio-technical systems thinking is proposed, based on the premise that the individual and social are distinct phenomena, however dialectically constituting each other in everyday activities. We illustrate the central idea of the approach with an example from the telecom industry. Further, we discuss theoretical and practical implications of the approach to be elaborated in future research. In conclusion, we provide a theoretical foundation for advancing socio-technical systems thinking in which the individual is on par with the social and the technical.

Sociotechnical Systems theory sees an organizational work system as comprised of two distinct subsystems – a technical and a social one – that influ-ence each other. Together, these subsystems determine the performance of the work system. However, it is far from clear how to define them. Alternative trends, such as the sociomaterial one, focus entirely on the relation between the social and the material. A problematic feature of both approaches is the conflation of the individual and the social. We propose an alternative approach for sociotech-nical systems thinking, based on the premise that the individual and social are distinct, however dialectically constituting each other in everyday activities.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a new conceptualization of coordination in the Information Systems (IS) domain. The conceptualization is based on neurobiological predispositions for coordinating actions. We assume that human evolution has led to the development of a neurobiological substrate enabling coordination of everyday actions. A discussion of six activity modalities (contextualization, objectivation, spatialization, temporalization, stabilization, and transition) constitutes the core of this article. Specifically, we discuss that collective functioning of these modalities is essential for successful coordination. This finding is illustrated based on application of our conceptualization in important IS research areas, including project management and interface design. Generally, our new conceptualization holds value for coordination research on all four levels of analysis which we identified based on a review of the IS literature (i.e., group, intra-organization, inter-organization, and IT artifact). In this way, our new approach, grounded in neurobiological findings, provides a high-level theory to explain coordination success, or coordination failure, and hence is independent from a specific level of analysis. From a practitioner’s perspective, the conceptualization provides a guideline for the design of organizational interventions and IT artifacts. Since social initiatives are essential in multiple IS domains (e.g., software development, implementation of enterprise systems), and because the design of collaborative software tools is an important IS topic, this paper contributes to a fundamental phenomenon in the IS domain, and does so from a new conceptual perspective.

The Socio-Technical Systems approach assumes that an organizational work system can be seen as two independent but tightly correlated systems – a technical one and a social one. Together, these systems determine the performance of the work system. However, in spite of decades of research efforts, it is far from clear how to define these systems. Without a firm basis, analytical and constructive initiatives are bound to become either fragmented or ad-hoc. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to suggest a neurobiological perspective on Socio-Technical Systems. The reason for this seemingly odd point of departure is quite simple: any conceptualization of Socio-Technical Systems must ultimately take stock of the sine qua non of our existence as biological creatures. A fundamental prerequisite for survival is coordination – without coordination, acting in the world is inhibited. Based on many years of coordinating complex system development tasks in industry, I have proposed the construct of activity modalities – objectivation, contextualization, spatialization, temporalization, stabilization, and transition – as intrinsic neural predispositions enabling coordination. This position is elaborated into a particular kind of work system, called the activity domain. In the activity domain, individual lines of actions are fit together using means such as IT artifacts and common identifiers to achieve a common goal. Actions are manifested internally as changed brain structures in individuals, and externally as various artifacts reflecting the modalities. In conclusion, I claim that this approach indicates a paradigm shift, which may provide a solid ground for further inquiries into the analysis and construction of Socio-Technical Systems.