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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYAND THE GOOD LIFE
Erik Stolterman
Anna Croon ForsUmeÂ UniversityAbstract

The ongoing development of information technology creates new andimmenselycomplex environments. Our lifeworld is drastically influenced by thesedevelopments. The way information technology is intertwined in our daily
life raises new issues concerning the possibility of understanding these newconfigurations.

This paper is about the ways in which IS research can contribute to a deeper understanding oftechnology and the ongoing transformations of our lifeworld. As such, thepaper is a conceptual exploration driven by a sincere and authentic desire to
make a real difference in the way research on how technology influences
our society is carried out. The article is based on the assumption that there
are some foundational decisions forming research: the question ofmethodology, the question of object of study, and, most importantly, thequestion of being in service. In the paper we explore and propose a research
position by taking a critical stance against unreflective acceptance ofinformation technology and instead acknowledge peopleís life world as acore focus of inquiry. The position is also framed around an empi rical andtheoretical understanding of the evolving technology that we label thedigital transformation in which an appreciation of aesthetic experience isregarded to be a focal methodological concept.

Keywords:

Information systems research, critical theory, aesthetic experiences, digitaltransformation, device paradigm, information technology

1 IN SERVICE OF THE GOOD LIFE
The ultimate concern for most people is to have the opportunity and capacity tolive a ìgood life.î What might constitute a good life is, of course, as difficult define as
it is to characterize basic human needs and desires. Nevertheless, in this paper weargue that information systems research should, as at least one of its intentions, createand

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688 Part 7: Panels and Position Papers
formulate knowledge that can help people understand and reflect on their place andsituation in the midst of an ongoing technological revolution. We argue that one
purpose of IS research should be to explore, experiment, test, analyze, examine,explain, and reflect on how information technology can be in service of the good life.
Such a purpose, even if vague, would strongly influence the way research is carriedout.
An information systems researcher is always in service to someone or something.
Ideally, as a researcher, you should be in service to the truth, and you should do thisby producing true knowledge. Our contemporary research environment is, however,more complicated due to a long and intricate questioning of truth as the only
objective and final goal. So, to have truth as the client has, over time, been
complemented with other potential clients, leading to objectives such asorganizational and/or personal efficiency and improvement, or detailed technologicalsolutions to more specific and narrow, real or imagined problems.
We argue that a neglect of the ìbigî issues leads to a situation where people
cannot get enough help in their everyday struggle to understand and make meaning of
their rapidly changing lifeworld. Also, it seems as though people assume information
technology to be the solution for prosperity and continuous development, while at thesame time they hold technological artifacts to be a bearer of something that
contradicts what they see as the core of a good life. So, while there is a strong general
acceptance of information technology, there is also a fear that it will force us into a
way of living that we cannot handle or do not really want.
This is a real challenge for IS research. It is a challenge that demands a creative
design of the very foundation for information systems research. Such a design can beunderstood as a research position. In this paper we propose such a research position
based on a critical stance against unreflective acceptance of information technology.
We also propose, based on that position, the notion of the digital transformation as away of framing a suitable object of study, and the idea of aesthetic experience as abase for a methodological approach.

2 ESTABLISHING A RESEARCH POSITION
Recently there has been an intensified debate on the status and future ofinformation systems as an academic research discipline (Benbasat and Weber 1996;
Benbasat and Zmud 2003; Holmstrˆm and Truex 2003; Orlikowski and Iacono 2001;
Walsham 1993; Weber 2003).
In this debate, two of the most discussed issues are the question of methodology
and the question of what constitutes the object of study. In this paper we also addressa third assumptionóthe question of serviceóas mentioned in the introduction.
It has lately been advocated that being in service constitutes a distinct kind ofrelationship (Nelson and Stolterman 2003). If such a relationship is taken seriously,
any decision of who is the major client establishes a clear position for IS research, aposition that makes it possible to see what the purpose of the research is as well as
governs what should be studied, why it should be studied, and, perhaps mostimportant, brings a value system from which the research outcome is measured andjudged as valid or not.
When a researcher decides on how to relate to the three foundationsó
methodology, object of study, and serviceóa unique research position is created. Even
though there are several kinds of positions in IS research today, we claim that thepossibilities of positions are far from being fully explored.
The basic idea in our proposal is that the most crucial challenge for IS research
today is the study of the overall effects of the ongoing digital transformation ofsociety. The digital transformation can be understood as the changes that the digitaltechnology causes or influences in all aspects of human life. This research challengehas to be accepted on behalf of humans, not in their role as users, customers, leaders,or any other role, but as humans living a life. In this respect we argue that IS researchmust accept the challenge to overcome the predominating ìone-dimensionalityî in theunderstanding of information technology (Marcuse 1964). The position we argue foris based on the assumption that the digital transformation is the core object of study
for IS research. As such, IS researchers should, instead of examining information
technologies as separable and as defined along one single dimension, consider themas being a part of a greater whole. This is also expressed in some recent theories
framing technological develop ment as information ecologies, collective intelligence,and actor networks, which are more sensitive to the various ways in which
information technology is entering our lives (Feenberg 1999; Latour 1993; Levy
1997; Nardi and OíDay 1999).
The suggested position is also based on the assumption that the way to study thedigital transformation demands a methodology capable of reflecting the relatednessof information technology to such a larger whole. We propose an approach influenced
by critical theory with the notions of the device paradigm and aesthetic experience asfocal concepts.

3 THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND ITSCRITICAL BASE
A central aspect of information systems research is the underlying technology
providing the basis and ground for any information system. We all experience in oureveryday lives that information technology becomes more common and present inalmost every part of our doings. We find ourselves using IT artifacts at work, in ourhomes, and when we exercise our hobbies. The technology is not only manifesting
itself through individual IT artifacts (such as computers, software applications, PDAs,
mobile phones, etc.); it also blends itself into most other artifacts. As such,information technologies are increasingly becoming embedded in all other objects.
This leads to a world that is increasingly experienced with, through, and by infor
mation technology. What we are witnessing is an ongoing radical digitaltransformation. One of the most important changes that come with the digitaltransformation is that our reality by and through information technologies slowly
becomes more blended and tied together. Designed objects will be parts of systems
and networks where they will, or at least can, be in constant communication with allother parts and objects. These new realities, new systems, are of course designed but,at another level, they can be seen as evolving entities, where local designs contributeto systemic changes in a larger network. The notion that every design adds a new partto our reality will have a new and truer meaning.
New artifacts are not just adding to what already exists; they are also becoming
indistinguishable from the whole. An increasing problem is knowing where one
context and/or design begins and another ends. The digital transformation leads inthat sense to a world where everything is connected, almost in a way that is common
in many spiritual understandings of our reality.
Yet another important aspect of the transformation appears as digital objects
become the basic materials in our physical reality. When this is the case the physicalreality will to some degree become intelligent. Designed objects will have the power
to inform themselves and the network they belong to about changes and the status of
their environment and actions taken upon them by humans and other objects. Thisadds a new dimension to the notion of the reflexivity of information technologies.
The way humans experience their lifeworld, largely influenced by digital technology,
is not as separate entities that might be user-friendly or not, but as a lifeworld, as awhole. x
At the same time, the device paradigm, portrayed by Borgmann (1984, 1999),
pushes us to an understanding of technology as providers of commodities, designed
to grant our wishes without demanding any patience, skill, or effort. Rather, the worldis taken up in an instrumental and effective fashion by technological artifacts andsystems that are not designed to be experienced in an active and signifying way. Thedevice paradigm leaves us focused on the outcomes that technology provides rather
than make us concerned with the way we experience reality as a whole. Information
technology and the digital transformation seem to be the perfect tools for the device
paradigm to be manifested.
In such a paradigm, according to Borgmann, there are important concerns andvalues that are being threatened, concerns that are necessary in order for people tolive a good life. Experiences of what it means to live a good life are, of course, bothinfinite and complex. They are also experiences that are analog to their character inthat the world is experienced as one and in a continuum. In such experiences,
information tech nologies are not separated from anything else but seamlesslyinterwoven in a complex and complete web of meaning. To researchers with theambition to understand the ways in which people create meaning of their realities andhow information technologies transforms this process, this creates several challenges
and opportunities.
One challenge inherent in the digital transformation is that information systems
researchers today need to develop approaches, methods, and techniques to the studyof information technology that are not based on an analytic and reductionistic stance.
Another challenge, as a consequence of the device paradigm, is to take an active
stance against a development leading to an everyday reality dominated bycommodities, i.e., technological artifacts as described in the device paradigm.
In the attempt to take up this challenge we advocate the notion of aesthetic
experiences as one possible conceptual candidate to further advance. While
traditional approaches are suffering from the fact that the more complex reality
becomes, the more time is needed for analysis, an approach based on the notion of theaesthetics experience makes it possible to take the whole and the immediate intoaccount and to deal with complexity and meaning-making at another level. Since
information technology is part of peopleís experienced life, their lifeworld, theaesthetic experience becomes a way to measure their understanding of their life inrelation to the good life.
Stolterman & Fors/IT and the Good Life 691
The critical stance expressed in the use of the notion of aesthetic experience is acreative and radical approach, aiming for the inherent potentiality of information tech
nology (Marcuse 1964). We believe that a focus on the aesthetic experience is one
way to find and explore creative abstractions that reveal reality in new ways. As
Marcuse writes,
Such abstraction which refuses to accept the given universe of facts as thefinal context of validation, such ì transcendingî analysis of the facts in thelight of their arrested and denied possibilities, pertains to the very structureof social theory.
If we accept the challenge that we as information systems researchers have to grasp
the way information technology changes peopleís lifeworld, we need conceptual toolsthat have the necessary scope and strength. We believe that the concept of aesthetic
exper ience, as developed within the philosophical traditions of critical theory andpragmatism among others, is a suitable candidate. Of course, it has to be further
developed as a theoretical tool, but this may be more as a fundamental
methodological approach. This work is not done and will be a major task in thedevelopment of the research position we are suggesting.

4 TOWARD A RESEARCH POSITION
One of the assumptions underlying our argumentation has been that there is aneed for a critical stance, a research approach that advances the idea that technology
can be critically examined in the search for the good life. We have defined such a
research position as being manifested by the intentional choice and definition ofmethodology, object of study, and service. Without neglecting other commonly heldpositions, we have proposed one research position as especially needed today when
digital and device transformations are changing the preconditions for our possibilities
to live a good life.
We believe that information systems research is better suited than most other aca
demic disciplines to take on this position. However, as long as research in our field is
not taking this as a serious challenge, the outcomes continue to be an efficient
support of the ongoing device transformation leading us to a place were we might not
want to go.
Our work has been guided by a desire to take on the big issue by taking seriously
the question of being in service of people trying to live a good life. It is, of course,
too grand a project for a single researcher or research group. At the same time, asresearchers, we cannot yield to the important issues because we believe they are notresearchable. The overall issue on how information technology, on a fundamental
level, influences our lives is maybe the most crucial issue today. This paper is anattempt to establish a research position suitable as a starting point for such studies.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Erik Stolterman is a member of the Department of Informatics, UmeÂ University,Sweden. His main work is within information technology and society, information systems
design, philosophy of design, and philosophy of technology. Erik is also one of the founders ofThe Advanced Design Institute. Apart from the academic scholarly work, Eric is engaged incon sulting, seminars, and workshops with organizations and companies. He can be reached at
erik@informatik.umu.se or http://www.informatik.umu.se/~erik/.
Anna Croon Fors is a Ph.D. student and instructor at the Department of Informatics,UmeÂ University, Sweden. In her forthcoming dissertation, Anna analyses the meaning andconse quences of information technology in peopleís everyday life through thephenomenological notion of ìbeing.î Her research interest covers IT use in various social
settings in search of a foundation for critically oriented research beyond the common notions

of either use and design. She can be reached at acroon@informatik.umu.se.