Shifting boundaries between individual and personal information systems: the case of parental caregiving[Aux frontières du système d'information individuel et personnel : le cas de l'aidance parentale]

Information systems research has long focused on the individual. Yet it has not clarified the boundaries between an individual information system and a personal information system. These boundaries have become increasingly porous as technologies connect spheres that organizations and individuals once kept separate. This porosity raises major conceptual and practical issues. The case of parental caregiving in an extreme setting, pediatric cancer, illustrates it clearly. Drawing on thirty-seven semi-structured interviews and boundary theory, the article examines the dynamics between institutional and personal spheres. The findings show that boundaries between individual information systems and personal information systems undergo recomposition. They vary across permeability, flexibility, and segmentation. Peer interactions, which we describe as "peermeability," reshape these boundaries. This process sheds light on the sociomaterial nature of information systems. This research advances boundary theory by highlighting the role of peers and other actors in this boundary reconfiguration.