Taboo Breakers, Assumption Shakers, Path Makers: Charting a Course for Post-Orthodox IS Scholarship

This editorial introduces a special CAIS Debate on taboo-breaking in Information Systems (IS) research. As digital infrastructures increasingly shape social, political, and economic life, the epistemic boundaries of the IS discipline demand urgent reconsideration. Drawing on the concept of taboo as a boundary mechanism, the editorial argues that certain topics, logics, and methods remain excluded not for lack of relevance but due to disciplinary norms that reward instrumentalism, neutrality, and legibility. Organised into three clusters (topical, epistemic, and methodological taboos), the contributions break silences and carve out new routes to post-orthodox IS scholarship. The editorial calls for a more pluralistic, reflexive, and responsible IS discipline, willing to confront its own discomforts and the societal consequences of its knowledge practices. It concludes that taboo-breaking is a necessary catalyst for disciplinary renewal.