Feyerabend and information systems development: against methods

Abstract

This paper outlines a critique, based on Feyerabend’s view of science, of the current state of development and use of information systems. We suggest that, as Feyerabend claims for science, the development of information systems needs at times to be pragmatic, with a practice unbounded both by fixed, predetermined methods, tools and languages, and by the rational, logical approach and world-view which tend to underlie them. We also suggest that the use of computer-based information systems may inhibit progress in the social systems in which they are embedded by, with their rigidity, preventing necessary illogical and anarchistic behaviour by their users.