Dr Neil McBride

Job: Reader in IT Management

Faculty: Computing, Engineering and Media

School/department: School of Computer Science and Informatics

Research group(s): Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH, United Kingdom

T: +44 (0)116 207 8500

Research group affiliations

Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility (CCSR)

Publications and outputs

Reflexivity in the field encounter in qualitative research: learning from Gadamer
dc.title: Reflexivity in the field encounter in qualitative research: learning from Gadamer dc.contributor.author: McBride, Neil dc.description.abstract: Purpose Reflexivity involves critical reflection by the qualitative researcher as to the influence of the researcher's culture, history and belief on the conduct and outcome of the research. It is often seen as a practice exercised in the analysis of results in order to attempt to objectify the research. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the value of reflexivity is located in its practice in the field encounter as a means of recognising and embracing subjectivity. In order to widen reflexivity as hermeneutics, the paper draws on Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics as developed in “Truth and Method”. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper which distils critical themes from Gadamer's truth and method and applies them to the concept of reflexivity as applied in the field. Findings The paper suggests that reflexivity is an important component in the field encounter. Immersion in the language and terms of the field is critical to understanding meaning; who I am, my past, my lived experience are essential inputs to my research; the researcher's opinions, ideas and outspoken statements are part of the fabric of qualitative research; qualitative interpretation as a creative exercise; qualitative research should bring insight and understanding that can be applied to catalyse change. Practical implications Understanding and applying reflexivity in the field will provide innovative insights which can be carried through to the data analysis. Originality/value This study uniquely applies Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics to reflexivity and the field encounter.
Artificial intelligence and assisted reproductive technology: Applying a reproductive justice lens
dc.title: Artificial intelligence and assisted reproductive technology: Applying a reproductive justice lens dc.contributor.author: Homanen, Riikka; McBride, Neil; Hudson, Nicky dc.description.abstract: In recent years, health-data-driven artificial intelligence and machine learning applications have been introduced to many areas of medicine. In the field of assisted reproduction, artificial intelligence and machine learning applications and related technologies have been hailed as (potentially) significant and ground-breaking, not least because they promise standardisation and automation in in-vitro fertilisation clinics – a precondition for scaling up and branching out in the fertility bioindustry. Artificial intelligence data-driven algorithms promise time- and cost-effective selection of ‘high-quality’ reproductive cells and successful personalised treatments. In this essay, we aim to critically discuss artificial intelligence as a technological clinical practice, which is currently moving from bench to bedside internationally. Through an analytic framework of reproductive justice, we propose that introducing artificial intelligence into this already stratified context threatens to black-box health disparities and to generate what we refer to as ‘hyper-stratifications’ of reproduction in the context of rising health and social disparities in the European context. As feminist, social science and bioethics scholars, we are all too aware of how reproductive technologies reinforce normativities rather than unravel them. We cannot presume that artificial intelligence is an ethical technological agent or user of health data but, instead, need to keep a critical eye on the moral ambivalence of emerging and evolving artificial intelligence-assisted reproduction technologies practices and their gendered consequences. Given the current hype around artificial intelligence, but also with concerns around the fast development and deployment of artificial intelligence generally and in artificial intelligence-assisted reproduction technologies particularly in mind, there is an urgent need to engage in critical feminist discussion of such developments. dc.description: open access article
The Digital Network of Networks: Regulatory Risk and Policy Challenges of Vaccine Passports
dc.title: The Digital Network of Networks: Regulatory Risk and Policy Challenges of Vaccine Passports dc.contributor.author: Wilford, S.; McBride, Neil; Brooks, Laurence; Eke, Damian; Akintoye, Sinmisola; Owoseni, Adebowale; Leach, Tonii; Flick, Catherine; Fisk, Malcolm; Stacey, Martin dc.description.abstract: The extensive disruption to and digital transformation of travel administration across borders largely due to COVID-19 mean that digital vaccine passports are being developed to resume international travel and kick-start the global economy. Currently, a wide range of actors are using a variety of different approaches and technologies to develop such a system. This paper considers the techno-ethical issues raised by the digital nature of vaccine passports and the application of leading-edge technologies such as blockchain in developing and deploying them. We briefly analyse four of the most advanced systems – IBM’s Digital Health Passport “Common Pass,” the International Air Transport Association’s Travel Pass, the Linux Foundation Public Health’s COVID-19 Credentials Initiative and the Vaccination Credential Initiative (Microsoft and Oracle) – and then consider the approach being taken for the EU Digital COVID Certificate. Each of these raises a range of issues, particularly relating to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the need for standards and due diligence in the application of innovative technologies (eg blockchain) that will directly challenge policymakers when attempting to regulate within the network of networks. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
Human in the Loop
dc.title: Human in the Loop dc.contributor.author: McBride, Neil dc.description.abstract: This is a comment on the paper by Siponen and Klaarvuniemi concerning the natural sciences. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
Robot Enhanced Therapy for Autistic Children: An Ethical Analysis.
dc.title: Robot Enhanced Therapy for Autistic Children: An Ethical Analysis. dc.contributor.author: McBride, Neil dc.description.abstract: The use of social robots has been proposed for the delivery of therapy to autistic children. The aim of such projects, of which the DREAM project is an example, is to replace therapists by robots, operating in sensory environments which enable them to detect and respond to feedback from the child. This paper considers the ethical concerns of autonomy, community, transparency, identity, value and empathy to evaluate the ethics of such deployment of robots. In doing so it provides a response to Richardson et al article in IEEE Technology and Society [20]. It concludes that deployment of robots to control the behaviour of autistic children is ethically suspect and should be questioned. The use of robots with children should be evaluated on the basic of the purpose of and process by which it is deployed, rather than the technology itself. Particularly important is the robotist’s empathy with the user of the robot and gaining an understanding of the individual child. The paper suggests how an understanding of the autistic child might lead to sensitive deployment of a robot to help the child manage social environments through supporting the regulation of emotions. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
Developing Socially-Inspired Robotics through the Application of Human Analogy: Capabilities and Social Practice
dc.title: Developing Socially-Inspired Robotics through the Application of Human Analogy: Capabilities and Social Practice dc.contributor.author: McBride, Neil dc.description.abstract: Socially-inspired robotics involves drawing on the observation and study of human social interactions in order to apply them to the design of sociable robots. As there is increasing expectation that robots may participate in social care and provide some relief for the increasing shortage of human care workers, social interaction with robots becomes of increasing importance. This paper demonstrates the potential of socially-inspired robotics through the exploration of a case study of the interaction of a partially-sighted social worker with a support worker. This is framed within the Capability Approach in which the interaction of a human and a sociable robot is understood as resulting in a collaborative capability which is grounded the relationship between the human and the robot rather than the autonomous capabilities of the robot. The implications of applying the case study as an analogy for human-robot interaction are expressed through a discussion of capabilities and social practice and policy. The study is attenuated by a discussion of the technical limits of robots and the extensive complexity of the social context in which it is envisaged sociable robots may be employed. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
Is Information Systems a Science? Rejoinder to Five Commentaries
dc.title: Is Information Systems a Science? Rejoinder to Five Commentaries dc.contributor.author: McBride, Neil dc.description.abstract: This paper concludes the debate on the nature of the information systems discipline and its academic practice. I initiated the debate in a paper which I questioned the view of information systems as a scientific discipline. Ten information systems academics responded to this initial paper over five separate papers. In this final rejoinder, I critique and respond to those five papers. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
Is Information Systems a Science?
dc.title: Is Information Systems a Science? dc.contributor.author: McBride, Neil dc.description.abstract: The information systems discipline has been compared with the physical and biological sciences, suggesting that information systems sits in the same academic space as physical and natural sciences. This suggestion supported by the language and perception expressed in journals such as the Transactions for Replication Research, which refer to “scientific consensus” and the involvement of information systems researchers in “the quest for scientific advancement”. This paper suggests that the view that information systems is a science in which general laws can be developed through the application of statistical surveys, laboratory experiments run and expressed as mathematical equations has negatively affected the development of information systems. It is argued that the nature of information systems is such that it cannot be pitched as a science. Following a brief discussion of the motivation and philosophy that might underlie the perception of information systems as a science, an alternative view of information systems is offered as a deep, complex and multi-layered discipline within the humanities. Dance studies is proposed as an appropriate discipline to twin with information systems. The paper ends with a call for the remobilising of information systems, the positioning of information systems as a social humanity. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version
Business Intelligence in Magazine Distribution
dc.title: Business Intelligence in Magazine Distribution dc.contributor.author: McBride, Neil dc.description.abstract: This case discusses the use of business intelligence systems in the running and optimisation of magazine distribution by a UK company. The company collects a wide range of data to help it monitor and optimise a supply chain involving subcontractors. The case study raises a number of issues which are discussed. It illustrates the variety of forces which are driving companies to adopt business intelligence systems. It demonstrates how business intelligence systems can help run business processes. It explores the problems and issues with sourcing, collecting and cleaning data. Issues around anonymisation and the concept of a ‘single version of the truth’ are discussed and ethical issues highlighted. It concludes that an understanding of the role of interpretation in data collection, collation and subsequent decision making is critical to business intelligence and calls for more research in this area. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
The Ethics of Software Engineering should be an Ethics for the Client
dc.title: The Ethics of Software Engineering should be an Ethics for the Client dc.contributor.author: McBride, Neil dc.description.abstract: The developing nature of software engineering requires not a revision of an ailing code but a revolution in ethical thinking that acknowledges the purpose and practice of software engineering. Computer systems are designed and implemented to support human purposeful activity. Whether the software is concerned with student enrollment, customer relationship management, or hospital administration, its success lies in the extent to which it enables others to engage in activities directed toward a goal. T

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Research interests/expertise

IT service management

Systems approaches to information systems in organisations

Application of virtue ethics to IT

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) Microbiology

PhD (Microbiology)

CertEd (Distinction)

Courses taught

Social Contexts of ICT

Systems Thinking and Strategy

IT Service Management

Research Methods

Membership of external committees

2010 Advisor to the International Baccalaureate Computer Science curriculum developer. Not Current

2012 Member of the OCR IT and Computing Consultative Forum Current

Conference attendance

McBride, N (2010) ICT Service Quality: Qualitative and Quantitative. Keynote Talk at 7th International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communication Technology, Porto, Portugal, 29th September – 2nd October 2010.

McBride, N. (2010) Understanding Data Transparency: Towards an Interpretation through Hierarchy Theory. Poster Presentation at the UK Systems Society Conference, St Anne’s College, Oxford, August 31- September 2 2010.

McBride,N. (2010) From Compliant IT Service to Virtuous IT Service. Invited talks at Service Desk International day conference on “Create a Best Practice IT Service Centre”, Maple House, Birmingham, 18 August 2010.

McBride,N. (2011) From Social Machine to Social Commodity: Redefining the concept of social machine as a precursor to creating new web development approaches ACM Web Science Conference, Koblenz, June 14-17 2011

McBride, N. (2011) Meltdown Creative Science 2011, Nottingham, July 25-26
Alvarez, I and McBride N. (2011) The Ethics of Speckled Computing. Ethicomp, Sheffield, 14-16 September 2011.

Mittelstadt,B, Fairweather,B, Shaw, M. and McBride, N. (2011) Ethical Issues in Personal Health Monitoring: A Literature Review. Ethicomp, Sheffield, 14-16 September 2011.

McBride, N. (2012) Designing for Society: A Systems Ethics for Speckled Computing 10th Workshop on Speckled Computing University of Edinburgh 18th January.

Professional esteem indicators

Member of the Editorial Review Board of Journal of Global Information Management. 2002 - Present

Member of the Editorial Review Board of the International Journal of Information Technology and the Systems Approach. 2009 – Present

Programme committee for 7th International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communication Technology and Chair of Quality in ICT Service Management Track 2010

Case studies

Quoted on Big Data Insight Group March 5th 2012 : http://www.thebigdatainsightgroup.com/site/article/big-data-talk-001-objective-data-analytics

Computing 11th May 2010 It’s Time for Systems Thinking http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/opinion/1859799/its-systems-thinking