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Chapter 6 - Information Technology and Power

from Part I - Philosophical, Epistemological and Theoretical Considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2023

By
Boyka Simeonova  and
M. N. Ravishankar
Edited by
Boyka Simeonova  and
Robert D. Galliers
Boyka Simeonova
Affiliation:
University of Leicester
Robert D. Galliers
Affiliation:
Bentley University, Massachusetts and Warwick Business School
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Summary

The exponential development of information technologies (IT) which has been described as the digital revolution has led to different IT outcomes at individual, organizational and societal levels. The chapter theorizes these different IT outcomes as digitally led emancipation and digitally led exploitation. The chapter postulates that the attainment of the outcomes depends on different power mechanisms and their associated fault lines. Power mechanisms and IT are theorized to create a framework explicating these dynamics. Power mechanisms are outlined as episodic power and digitally led emancipation (collective action, participation), episodic power and digitally led exploitation (manipulation, information asymmetries), systemic power and digitally led emancipation (empowerment, inclusion) and systemic power and digitally led exploitation (surveillance/monitoring, automation/algorithmification). The chapter concludes with a research agenda to understand these power mechanisms, which may enable digitally led emancipation and digitally led exploitation.

Keywords

power mechanismsepisodic powersystemic powerinformation technologydigitally led emancipationdigitally led exploitationframeworktheorization
Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Qualitative Digital Research , pp. 77 - 88
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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