The information systems discipline in Australia's capital

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is the seat of Australia’s federal government. The three universities studied—the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA), The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Canberra (UC)—are all located in the nation’s capital city, Canberra. Each group has a distinctive background that reflects this setting. The UNSW@ADFA is essentially a private university for the Australian Defence Organisation; the ANU was set up to be a national research institution; and the UC group for many years focused on meeting the training needs for computing professionals for the federal government. Despite these distinguishing characteristics, the information systems (IS) groups studied have some commonalities. Pedagogical approaches, epistemological approaches and research topics are all recognisably within the bounds of what is regarded as legitimate for the IS discipline. There is also a degree of commonality in the core knowledge topics offered to students. There are, however, also aspects that detract from the degree to which IS has developed as a discipline. Our field is not regarded as socially prestigious and there are few signs of mechanisms of control. A unique symbol set does not exist to exclude outsiders. The placement of the organisational units within the universities is a result of local contingencies, as is, to some extent, the nature of research undertaken.