Discussing The Foundations for Interpretivist Digital Government Research

As the research domain of digital government continues to develop itself as an important body of scholarly research, and it continues to grow in terms of researchers, publications, research funding, and other related indicators, it is important to understand the core theoretical and philosophical basis of the discipline. However, there is currently a lack of critical discussion about the concrete role of research philosophy for digital government research; which is one of the biggest current criticisms against the domain. This paper makes a first step in addressing this criticism by presenting arguments and discussion in favor of the importance of an interpretivist research philosophy for the domain of digital government. The paper provides a comprehensive overview of an interpretivist ontology and epistemology for digital government, discusses relevant theories and methods, and concludes with an overview of what is essential for conducting and carrying out interpretivist digital government research. This paper’s contribution represents one of the first concentrated efforts to lay out some initial foundations for the role of interpretivism, and research philosophy more generally, for the field.