Abstract-StudyingGreenIS-Ijab

=Studying Green Information Systems as Practice (Green IS-as-practice)=

Mohamad Taha Ijab, Alemayehu Molla, Say Yen Teoh RMIT University

Abstract
In the last few decades, IS and IT have changed human behavior profoundly and therefore can be seen as having the potential to support the shift to a sustainable society. As a result, the role and contribution of IS in eco-sustainability has become the concern of many IS researchers. We posit that the Greenness of IS can be seen in the practice of inscribing, appropriating, and enacting Green intentions and goals, together referred to as Green values in IS. Thus we argue that Green IS can be studied from the practice perspective drawing from the Theory of Practice (Bourdieu, 1977). A practice perspective provides powerful and relevant constructs such as habitus, capital, field, strategy, symbolic power and doxa to understand both the causes and outcomes of Green IS. Armed with these constructs (which can be employed in trio (habitus, capital and field) or in piecemeal), IS researchers can pursue rich and diverse Green IS research agenda. For example, by taking a wholesome approach, Green IS can be studied as an institutionally grounded practice that emerge as a result of interactions among different group’s habitus, and capitals as well as the position (either dominant or dominated) of the group’s fields. A practice perspective helps to identify the various mechanisms of green practices in IS, that are the Green values inscribed during the design and development stage of IS; or are the values only emerge as a function of users’ faithful (or unfaithful) appropriation of an IS during use, or are the values emerge post-use during the evaluation of IS use stage?. Taking a piecemeal approach, the construct of field can be used to investigate the issue of how information systems help to construct the “Green field” within organisations, or how do information systems help to organise and stratify the organisation’s “Green field”. IS researchers can use the notion of capital to explore how the configuration of capitals influence the use of information systems for greening objectives and what circumstances can lead Green IS to become a form of capital. The notion of habitus can be used as a tool to probe into how the introduction of Green values to information systems change the habitus of IS professionals and how the introduction of Green IS affects the ways of thinking, speaking and acting within a particular space change. To push the envelope further, the researcher can also probe whether these practices do become inscribed on a body. Using the strategy construct, research agendas can be set to investigate how information systems is used in the attempt to change power relations within the sustainability field, how do less influential participants work within and around Green IS (where strategies are used in the struggle for capitals), and finally, how is a “feel for the game”, a metaphor commonly used by Bourdieu (1990) is formed and developed in the context of Green IS-as-practice.