What Role Has Scandinavian IS Tradition in eGovernment Implementations

The aim of this paper is to take part in the discussions on how the Scandinavian IS research tradition in information system research may contribute to eGovernment developments and implementations. Although this tradition does not represent a coherent set of principles and methods for system development, they share some common ideas and goals related to user involvement, participatory design and democracy at the work place. Even if some of the most basic ideas are inherent in our understanding of the IS field to day, many of the lessons from the past may have been forgotten. Some do also claim that the dominant understanding of eGovernment nicely conforms to the perspectives and goals of the New Public Management paradigm. I will rather argue that advanced development and use of ICT can support the ideals and goals of the Scandinavian approaches to IS; we should not least have a greater focus on studying the consequences of various approaches to system design, implementation and use.