Designing for Digital Futures: Celebrating the Career and Intellectual Legacy of Professor Richard Boland Jr.

Editors

• Youngjin Yoo, Case Western Reserve University
• Natalia N Levina, New York University

Description

_Information & Organization_ invites submissions for a special issue celebrating the career and intellectual legacy of the journal’s founding editor, Professor Richard Boland Jr., on the occasion of his retirement.

Throughout his distinguished career, Professor Boland is known for his innovative and unconventional approach to understanding the role of technology in organizations and society. He challenged traditional paradigms on technology and management, and urged scholars to embrace a more expansive, humanistic, and design-oriented perspective on information systems. Among other things, he is best known for his groundbreaking work on the role of design as a fundamental way of thinking about the future, contrasting design with traditional decision-making paradigms.

This special issue seeks to honor Professor Boland’s legacy by inspiring submissions that not only build upon his seminal contributions but also push the boundaries of our understanding of technology’s role in shaping the future. Among others, we welcome especially forward-looking contributions that address the profound impact of emerging technologies, such as large language models, blockchain, and augmented reality, across various sectors, including healthcare, finance, manufacturing, sustainability, and education.

In the spirit of Professor Boland’s commitment to active scholarship, we encourage submissions that position IS research as a world-shaping force, rather than merely a reflective lens on recent history. We seek contributions that embody Professor Boland’s spirit of critical inquiry, imaginative exploration, and commitment to human-centeredness. We encourage submissions that challenge dominant techno-centric narratives, propose alternative visions for the future of technology and organization, and engage with the ethical, philosophical, and societal implications of emerging technologies.

We welcome original research papers, theory development, conceptual papers, empirical studies, essays, and other innovative formats. In the spirit of Professor Boland’s openness to new ideas and his generosity towards junior scholars, we particularly encourage submissions from early-career researchers and doctoral students. Join us in celebrating Professor Boland’s enduring contributions and shaping the future of our field through this forward-looking special issue. We look forward to receiving your innovative and thought-provoking submissions.

Potential topics

• Challenge Techno-Centric Narratives: We seek papers that move beyond solution-oriented thinking, instead critically examining the assumptions and values embedded in emerging technologies (such as large language models, blockchain, and augmented reality).
• Center Human Values and Experiences: How can technology prioritize well-being, autonomy, and creativity? We encourage investigations into human-centered design approaches in the face of automation and algorithmic decision-making.
• Explore the Transformative Potential of Design: We invite speculative and participatory design methodologies to envision radically different futures where technology serves humanity, society, and the planet.
• Study how Diverse Perspectives Enable Innovation: How are perspective making and perspective taking combined in technological and technology-enabled innovation? How has digitization through online communities, crowdsourcing, and generative AI tools transformed innovation processes?

Associate editors