Blended Stakeholder Participation for Responsible Information Systems Research

Researchers often conduct information systems (IS) research under the assumption that technology use leads to positive outcomes for different stakeholders. However, many IS studies demonstrate limited evidence of having engaged with the stakeholders that they claim benefit and speak on behalf of. Therefore, we can unsurprisingly find many examples in which technology use failed to make the world a better place or, worse still, contributed towards unintended negative outcomes. Given these concerns, calls have recently emerged for responsible research and innovation (RRI) studies in IS to understand how different stakeholder groups can have a voice in complex socio-technical issues. In this paper, we take steps towards addressing this call by presenting case study findings from a responsible IS research project that combined “blended” face-to-face and online participatory techniques. The case study relates to a large-scale consultation in a 24-month European project that involved 30 countries. The project engaged over 1,500 stakeholders in co-creating future research agendas for the European Union. We discuss case study findings using Stilgoe, Owen, and Macnaghten’s (2013) framework and reflect on lessons learned for responsible IS research going forward