Dr Paul Kelly
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Email
p.kelly@essex.ac.uk -
Telephone
+44 (0) 1206 873305
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Location
EBS.3.33, Colchester Campus
Profile
Biography
Dr Paul R Kelly specialises in the socio-digital wiring, innovations, gaps, silences and inequalities associated with contemporary information systems, and circulations of digital data and expert knowledge. He focuses on data and knowledge management, impact evaluation and the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), in areas such as global development, non-government organisations (NGOs), and organisations in other sectors more generally. Paul has published at top tier journals and conferences such as the Information Systems Journal (ISJ), Organisation Studies (OS), the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), and the European Group for Organisation Studies Conference (EGOS). He obtained his PhD at the UK Research Council funded HighWire Centre for Doctoral Training at Lancaster University in 2019. His doctoral thesis looked at how data, knowledge, power, politics and participation are mutually entangled in globally distributed development sector impact evaluation practices. Paul’s has over 20 years’ experience in the development sector and the education sector. He has worked with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the British Council, and universities in the UK, Australia, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. He has also collaborated with non-government and not-for-profit organisations who work in various countries, including Laos, Thailand, UK, Nigeria, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, and Uganda. In the 2000s, Paul managed enterprise wide technology projects and services for e-learning and web communications at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). More recently, he has researched participatory governance and helped set up a knowledge platform for Australian aid programs to Papua New Guinea, with the Institute for Human Security and Social Change (IHSSC) at La Trobe University. In late 2019, Paul joined the Organisation Studies and Human Resources Management Group (OSHRM), at the University of Essex Business School in the UK, as a lecturer in organisation studies.
Qualifications
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PhD Digital Innovation (Interdisciplinary across Management, Design & Computing) Lancaster University, (2019)
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Master of Research Digital Innovation Lancaster University, (2013)
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Master of Information and Communication Technologies in Education Institute of Education, University College London, (2002)
Appointments
Other academic
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Honourary Associate, Institute for Human Security and Social Change, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce, La Trobe University (28/10/2019 - 28/10/2023)
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Organisation Studies
Especially "socio-technical" or "socio-digital" innovations and everyday work / mundane practices in global development and higher education.
Information Systems
Exploring how social-organisational factors and digital technologies become intertwined in digitally-mediated work and information systems. This includes digital transformations and socio-technical analysis of organisational contexts.
Impact and Evaluation
Impact evaluation approaches, methods, assumptions, results, silences, power dynamics, and inequalities related to how we frame impact, how we practice evaluations, and who gets included in saying and consuming what impacts can or can't be.
Global Development
I am particularly interested in what I call, following others but expanding the notion, "development 2.0". This is the digitisation of global development, and relates to areas such as Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) and Knowledge Management for Development (KM4D). I take a critical approach and explore what such critiques do in the wilds of development practice. I often work with NGOs in different international contexts on this work.
Approaches to "Power" and "Practice" for research and engagement
Organisational power relations and everyday practice, drawing on approaches to practice (e.g. Activity Theory, Actor Networks), and approaches to power (e.g. expertise, governmentality, developmentality, and datamentality).
Current research
Building critical yet accessible frameworks for responding to power relations in Information Systems, using approaches to social & organisational practice
Impact products, processes and the "impact iceberg" in global development networks
Data/knowledge management, inclusion, and supply chains in diverse organisational contexts
Digital transformation, change, innovation, power, inequalities, and inclusion in educational organisations.
Conferences and presentations
Digital Transformation beyond the hype and doom: The benefits and challenges of using CHAT for evaluating Digital Transformations.
Invited presentation, Developing Activity Theory in Information Studies (DATIS) workshop,, European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Paphos, Cyprus, 16/6/2024
Using CHAT & Supply Chain Theory (SCT) to understand the flow and mediation of intangible assets and processes in Global Value Chains (GVCs)
European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2023, Developing Activity Theory in Infromation Studies (DATIS) Workshop presentation 2023, Kristiansand, Norway, 12/6/2023
Using good ole supply chains to disentangle power, data and knowledge production in a post-truth era
Centre for Work, Organisation and Society (CWOS) Seminar Series, Essex Business School, Colchester, United Kingdom, 22/4/2020
Where is power in information systems research? Towards a framework
International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), San Francisco, United States, 14/12/2018
Open Access publishing and the knowledge supply chain
Open Access Events Week, Melbourne, Australia, 23/10/2018
Cultivating a participatory approach to governance in Papua New Guinea.
Papua New Guinea Update Conference, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 15/6/2018
New ways of organising in collaborative knowledge sharing: examining the effects of power
Colloquium of the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), Tallinn, Estonia, 6/6/2018
Impact knowledge supply chains and activity theory: A story of power, knowledge, a philanthropy and a small NGO
Colloquium of the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS),, Naples, Italy, 9/7/2016
Using activity theory to understand the design patterns visible in circulations of knowledge and data in the 3rd sector
Invited presentation, Centre for Research on Activity, Development and Learning (CRADLE), Helsinki, Finland, 23/4/2016
Quick and Dirty M&E: co-designing and co-evolving for engaged impact
Youth | Participation | Impact Conference, Manchester, United Kingdom, 3/9/2015
Evaluating impact, or the impact of evaluations? NGOs, donors and ontological politics in an activity theory study of power dynamics in international development
Colloquium of the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), Athens, Greece, 3/7/2015
CHAT & Governmentality: The uniform in the management and activities of migrant workers
European Group for Organisation Studies Conference (EGOS), Rotterdam, Netherlands, 4/7/2014
The Dimensions of Software Engineering Success
International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), Hyderabad, India, 3/6/2014
Performing Impact Assessment in the Development Sector: The Case of Imagine Foundation
Latin American and European Management and Organisation Studies Group (LAEMOS), Havana, Cuba, 3/4/2014
Impact Assessment in the Development Sector and Sociomaterial Rankings
Invited presentation, London, United Kingdom, 4/3/2014
Altrubox – Taming Altruism: a digital platform for taming altruism through social networks
Centre for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education C-Care Conference, Stanford, United States, 13/12/2013
Trans-mission
Invited presentation, BBC Innovation and Sustainability Seminar, London, United Kingdom, 10/3/2013
An Arts Centre Goes Digital: What large organisations can learn from an SME
Lancaster Sociology Conference, Lancaster, United Kingdom, 8/1/2013
Web Triangles - A College, IT Team & Communications Unit's Views on a Successful Web CMS Project
SunGard Middle East User Group Conference (SMEUG), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 16/12/2008
Web Content Management: Tools & Ecologies
SunGard Middle East User Group Conference (SMEUG), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 13/12/2006
Media, Education and Multimodality
Keynote presentation, UAE University Professional Development Conference, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, 10/6/2006
“Implications for Blended Learning from an Evaluation of Student Approaches to Learning and Studying
Fourth European Conference on e-Learning, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 10/11/2005
Digital Video for Delivering Curricula Content
TESOL Arabia Conference, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 20/6/2004
Widening Access & Success: eAccess and eSuccess Projects
Forum for the Advancement of Continuing Education (FACE) Conference, Stirling, United Kingdom, 3/7/2003
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Leadership in Organisations (BE420)
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Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (BE467)
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Leading Change (BE493)
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Professional and Academic Development (Management and Marketing) (BE909)
Current supervision
Publications
Journal articles (3)
Simeonova, B., Kelly, PR., Karanasios, S. and Galliers, R., (2024). Power as Present-in-Actions in mundane information systems work. Journal of the Association of Information Systems. 24 (4), 867-889
Hayes, N., Introna, LD. and Kelly, P., (2018). Institutionalizing Inequality: Calculative Practices and Regimes of Inequality in International Development. Organization Studies. 39 (9), 1203-1226
Kelly, PR., (2018). An activity theory study of data, knowledge, and power in the design of an international development NGO impact evaluation. Information Systems Journal. 28 (3), 465-488
Books (1)
Tucker, D., Cirella, S. and Kelly, P., (2024). Organizational Change Management Inclusion, Collaboration and Digital Change in Practice. Sage Publications Limited. 152979224X. 9781529792249
Conferences (2)
Simeonova, B., Karanasios, S., Galliers, RD., Kelly, PR. and Mishra, J., (2018). Where is power in information systems research? Towards a framework
Ralph, P. and Kelly, P., (2014). The dimensions of software engineering success
Thesis dissertation (1)
Kelly, P., (2019). Power, data and knowledge in development sector impact evaluation activities: critically engaging with the impact iceberg. PhD Thesis
Other (2)
Kelly, P., Using good ole supply chains to disentangle power, data and knowledge production in a post-truth era
Kelly, P., (2015).Our need to talk about power & knowledge in evaluation & policy cultures. Politics & Ideas - a thinknet, http://www.politicsandideas.org/?p=2771
Grants and funding
2024
Decolonizing International aid through re-imagining structures of partnerships between NGOs in Global South and Global North
University of Essex (Research England - ODA)
2023
To develop the capability to measure and enhance the impact of the Frogmore Mill visitor experience, enabling our visitors to engage with the Mill's sustainability heritage, which will encourage them to adopt long-lasting behaviour change with regards to the environment and climate change.
Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board)
