Smart environments? Reflections on the role of metaphors in IS

Abstract

Our cities, landscapes, institutions, and homes are increasingly being equipped with sensors that glean information that is being processed by algorithms and visualized to serve as a basis for decision making. Such Internet of Tings (IoT) infrastructures are shaping our societies in novel ways. Tey also facilitate new ways of engaging with the natural environment. Tis calls for attention to how they are brought into being. In this essay, I will refect on the role of metaphor in developing IoT infrastructures for governance in public sector. Te afnity for metaphor among IS scholars was one of the frst things I noticed as a Ph.D. fellow entering the IS feld from a background in social science and the humanities. I found that metaphors have a prominent role in IS, both as tools for thinking about complex phenomena and as aids for guiding the development of information systems and information infrastructures. Te dual agenda of IS— seeking to understand and explain as well as informing practice—accentuates the importance of attending to metaphor in this domain. Tis insight was the motivation for a discussion about metaphors among IS scholars in the 1980’s, which I will elaborate on below. I will, however, argue that the time is due for rekindling this conversation both because the understanding of the relation between technology and society has evolved and because the objects of IS studies itself has changed considerably, from small information systems to information infrastructures that are near-ubiquitous. I will make two main claims. The frst is that metaphors are analytical devices that help us make sense of the world, but they become normative devices when being used to design and implement new systems and technologies. Therefore, we must refect on the relationship between constructivist and normative aspects of metaphors. The second claim I will make is that many of the metaphors used in IS generate dualistic views of the world. Tis was problematic already in the 1990s when the ‘organization’ was the main analytical entity and is today even more so because of the emergence of IoT infrastructures that increasingly blur the boundaries between public and private, work and leisure, and bodies and machines. I use the metaphor ‘information is intelligence’ in the context of design of IoT infrastructures for public sector governance to show the implications of this, and eventually suggest alternative metaphors. © 2017 Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems