An actor‐network critique of community in higher education: implications for networked learning

Fox, Steve

doi:10.1080/0307507052000307821

Cited by 84 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The idea of communities of practice has recently come under critical review (Fox, 2002a;Hodgson & Reynolds, 2002). Fox articulates a view of communities of practice as sub-units within wider actor-networks that include both animate and inanimate elements, described as actants.…”

Section: Network Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Networks and learning: communities, practices and the metaphor of networks

Jones¹

2004

Research in Learning Technology

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This article argues that the use of the network metaphor can link together various different aspects of research into the use of advanced learning technologies based on computer networks. The idea of networked learning has become commonplace as an alternative to e-learning that stresses the interaction of learners, tutors and resources through networks. The arguments put in this article are firstly that learning technology needs to take account of the wider debate about networks and secondly that research in this field needs to address the theoretical and practical issues raised by advances in the field of networks. A third point is that the idea of the network acts as a powerful metaphor even if we are able to discount any particular theory generated in its support. The network metaphor can act as a unifying concept allowing us to bring together apparently disparate elements of the field. Networks are an important issue in the study of learning using advanced technologies and they speak to some of the central issues in learning theory such as virtual communities and communities of practice.

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Section: Network Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Networks and learning: communities, practices and the metaphor of networks

Jones¹

2004

Research in Learning Technology

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“…by Callon, 1986) as problematisation (where something tries to establish itself as an 'obligatory passage point' that frames an idea, intermediary or problem and related entities in particular ways); interessement (where selected separate entities are actively connected to this framing and where they negotiate their role in the emerging network); enrolment (the process whereby these entities become engaged in new identities and behaviours and increasingly 'translated' in particular directions by the network relations); and mobilisation (where the network is sufficiently durable that it can be extended to other locations and domains). As Fox (2005) explains, professional competence from an ANT perspective is not a latent attribute of any one element or individual, but a property of some actions rather than others as a network becomes enacted into being. This process of enactment, this interplay of force relations among technology, objects and changes in knowledge at every point in the network, is a continuing struggle -and this struggle is learning.…”

Section: Learning As 'Translation' and Mobilization: Actor Network Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These networks as well as the actors that they create are brought into existence through myriad negotiations among humans and non-human entities. ANT has been particularly helpful in analysing professionals' learning in these networks in studies of management learning (Fox, 2005), learning with ICTs (Edwards and Nicoll, 2006), and teachers' learning (Mulcahy, 2007). In one study using ANT, Gherardi and Nicolini (2000) examine how workers learned safety skills by tracking the negotiations of knowledge at every point as it moved through a system.…”

Section: Learning As 'Translation' and Mobilization: Actor Network Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To interrupt and expand these individualistic, acquisitive, psychologised and mentalist assumptions about learning, some educationists have been exploring socio-material perspectives -showing how practice and knowledge emerges through relations among objects as well as people in joint action (e.g. Davis and Sumara, 2006;Fenwick and Edwards, forthcoming;Fox, 2005;Oberg and Biesta, 2007;Sawchuk et al, 2006). These perspectives conceptualise professional learning as unpredictable, as rooted not in individual heads or bodies but in provisional networks of people, activity, objects and technology, and that is expansive rather than acquisitive.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Making to measure? Reconsidering assessment in professional continuing education

Fenwick

2009

Studies in Continuing Education

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Drawing on studies of teachers, accountants and pharmacists conducted in Canada, this essay examines models for assessing professional learning that currently enjoy widespread use in continuing education. These models include professional growth plans, self-administered tests, and learning logs, and they are often used for regulatory as well as developmental purposes by professional associations. The essay argues what others have critiqued about such self-assessment models: that their assumptions about learning are problematic and limiting in a number of respects, privileging human consciousness and intention, and literally 'making' a particular professional subject that is atomised and conservative. The essay goes on to suggest alternative perspectives that are receiving increasing attention in theorising work-related learning and that may offer fruitful questions for re-considering the nature of professional learning and its assessment. Three perspectives in particular are outlined, all of which shift the focus from the learning subject to practice as material, emergent and systemic: complexity theory, actor-network theory and cultural-historical activity theory. The discussion concludes with possible approaches to assessment of professional practice suggested by these perspectives.

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“…In contrast with approaches which downplay the socio-political aspect of HR, there are increasing calls that practitioners, other stakeholders and commentators should recognise and embrace the socio-political aspect of HR work, and that critical HR studies should seek to help to illuminate it. In management studies this 'turn to practice' is seen for example in communities of practice (Brown and Duguid 1991;2001) social and organizational learning (Fox 2000(Fox , 2005(Fox , 2006. However, while the turn to practice has generally advocated ethnographic longitudinal studies of many different forms of work practice, this literature also draws upon a wide range of theoretical positions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards practice-based studies of HRM: an actor-network and communities of practice informed approach

Vickers

Fox

2010

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

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HRM may have become co-terminus with the new managerialism in the rhetorical orthodoxies of the HRM textbooks and other platforms for its professional claims. However, we have detailed case-study data showing that HR practices can be much more complicated, nuanced and indeed resistive toward management within organizational settings.Our study is based on ethnographic research, informed by actor-network theory and community of practice theory conducted by one of the authors over an eighteen month period. Using actor-network theory in a descriptive and critical way, we analyse practices of managerial resistance, enrolment and counter-enrolment through which an unofficial network of managers used a formal HRM practice to successfully counteract the official strategy of the firm, which was to close parts of a production site. As a consequence, this network of middle managers effectively changed top management strategy and did so through official HRM practices, coupled with other actor-network building processes, arguably for the ultimate benefit of the organization, though against the initial views of the top management.The research reported here, may be characterised as a situated study of HRM-in-practice and we draw conclusions which problematize the concept of HRM in contemporary management literature.

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An actor‐network critique of community in higher education: implications for networked learning

Cited by 84 publications

References 16 publications

Networks and learning: communities, practices and the metaphor of networks

Networks and learning: communities, practices and the metaphor of networks

Making to measure? Reconsidering assessment in professional continuing education

Towards practice-based studies of HRM: an actor-network and communities of practice informed approach

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