Abstract
The discipline of Information Systems (IS) has been concerned with the nature of digitalization processes since a long time. Currently, there is substantial hype around the opportunities offered by digital technologies. But what can IS expect from an apparently near ‘post-digital’ era, when ‘the digital’ becomes so ubiquitous that it is no longer seen as worthy of separate attention? Our paper summarizes a panel discussion addressing this question at the 2019 OASIS pre-ICIS workshop organized by the Working Group 8.2 of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). Spurred by a deliberatively provocative theme, the panelists discuss the implications of a shifting focus in research and policy from phenomena that become digital to those that are simply being digital. While the panelists agreed that there is no widely accepted vision of what the ‘post-digital’ might entail, they all problematized the digitalization rhetoric from different, complementary perspectives. Their discussion highlights the invisibilities that are surfaced by digitalization initiatives, the socio-ethical consequences of future technologies for work and organizing, and finally questioning the methodological apparatus that IS scholars need to investigate a still largely uncharted terrain. We present the summary of our panel in the hope of eliciting further discussion on these pressing concerns for the IS discipline.
