The Hypernormalisation of Information Systems Research

Abstract

The Information Systems research discipline claims to build a cumulative Knowledge Base to inform practice, yet it is organised around a closed loop of self-referential simulation. We diagnose this state as hypernormalisation-a late-Soviet condition in which official rituals are meticulously performed despite a widespread recognition that they no longer map reliably onto lived reality. We identify four escalating mechanisms that sustain this institutional order: the Simulation of Accumulation, in which the journal article functions as a proof-of-work token; the Simulation of Relevance, in which "Implications for Practice" operate as rituals of displacement; the Simulation of Problem Solving, in which Design Science Research produces perpetual prototypes; and the Simulation of the Scholar, in which researchers inhabit a split subjectivity (Living Vnye). We argue that Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) constitutes the discipline's Glasnost moment. By automating the generation of methodologically fluent, theoretically compliant text at near-zero marginal cost, GenAI precipitates the collapse of the proof-of-work signalling economy not by attacking its institutions, but by exposing their performative nature. It renders the underlying logic visible, stripping the journal article of its value as a proxy for cognitive labour. Instead of offering renewal, this transparency forces a structural reweighting of epistemic authority: away from the mechanical production of form (Episteme), now inexpensive and abundant, toward judgment grounded in direct contact with reality (Phronesis) and exposure to consequence-a signal that cannot be sustained without the friction of the world.