Embracing Absence: Researching What is Not There

In the absence of light, we find means to push back the darkness; when data is sparse, we find surrogates measures or extrapolate from existing data. Absences play a role in how we respond to the world. Here, we seek to better understand engagement with absences relationally initiating a productive research pathway for engaging with absences in Information Systems (IS) research. We argue the existence of absences can be considered, their implications can be examined, and their unique importance within different contexts can be demonstrated through careful articulation in reflexive research. Through an exploration of absence in selected literature we outline a variety of ways absences are interpreted and shape the world. Further, using examples of the intersection of IS and “care” we demonstrate the impact of absences in context. Doing so we build a path forward for IS scholars to imaginatively engage with absences in the future