Combining Postmodernism and Critical Theory in the Study of IS in the Middle East - Some Methodological Considerations

This paper will discuss whether it is possible to combine postmodern and critical theory and thereby derive a workable methodology for critical research. The background of the paper is a piece of research which investigated the empowering potential of ICT and its realisation in Egypt. One of the issues arising was that there was a direct link between national policy on ICT and organisational use of the technology. It was therefore desirable to have a methodology that would allow the concurrent examination of the meta-level discourse of national ICT policy as well as the micro-level organisational practice. It was decided that a Habermasian framework would be suitable to analyse the national policy and that a Foucauldian viewpoint would provide a good theoretical lens to investigate social reality on the micro level. The paper will briefly present the two different theoretical approaches by concentrating on the term "discourse". It will be argued that there is some overlap between Foucault and Habermas which allows a fruitful combination of these "postmodern" and "critical" viewpoints. The paper will then continue to develop a methodology that facilitates the investigation and allows the comparison of empowering rhetoric and social reality. The paper will very briefly touch on the findings of the research and will end with a reflection of the issues involved.