"Information Systems Between Action and Reflection: Socio-Technical Change, Human-Centric AI, and Digital Sustainability " par Peter SABA

Abstract:

This habilitation manuscript presents a research program grounded in the dual commitment to academic rigor and professional engagement, developed through a sustained career across both academic and consulting domains. The work is situated within the field of Information Systems (IS) and explores the conditions under which scholarly inquiry can remain theoretically robust while engaging with situated, often unpredictable, organizational realities. Central to this approach is a deliberately pragmatic epistemological stance, shaped by a transition from positivist origins toward a constructivist and reflexive posture. This evolution enables the mobilization of diverse methodological instruments: Canonical Action Research (CAR), econometrics, and Design Science Research (DSR), each aligned with distinct but complementary modes of inquiry. The originality of the research lies in its capacity to bridge theory and practice without subordinating one to the other. Empirical investigations address conflict contagion in IT deployments, recursive knowledge augmentation in AI systems, and the socio-technical dimensions of digital sustainability. Across these domains, the work formulates concepts, designs interventions, and proposes frameworks that are informed by professional immersion and made analytically durable through scholarly abstraction. Rather than treating practice as a source of data or illustration, the research positions it as a co-constitutive site of knowledge production. By formalizing a reflective research posture that operates between action and analysis, this thesis contributes to a broader redefinition of IS as an engaged discipline, capable of addressing organizational complexity, normative questions, and methodological diversity with intellectual coherence and institutional responsibility.