In 1984, Working Group 8.2 of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) threw down the gauntlet at its Manchester conference, challenging the traditionalist orthodoxy with its uncommon research approaches and topics. Manchester 1984, followed by research methods conferences in Copenhagen (1990) and Philadelphia (1997), marked the growing legitimacy of the linguistic and qualitative turns in Information Systems research and played a key role in making qualitative methods a respected part of IS research. As evidenced by the papers in this volume, Working Group 8.2...

In 1984, Working Group 8.2 of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) threw down the gauntlet at its Manchester conference, challenging the traditionalist orthodoxy with its uncommon research approaches and topics. Manchester 1984, followed by research methods conferences in Copenhagen (1990) and Philadelphia (1997), marked the growing legitimacy of the linguistic and qualitative turns in Information Systems research and played a key role in making qualitative methods a respected part of IS research. As evidenced by the papers in this volume, Working Group 8.2...