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

Abstract

The article provides an actor‐network critique of ideas on community that are influential in higher education and draws implications for networked learning theory and practice. Networked learning is examined as an educational movement which contains alternative models of learning but which offers to create a sense of virtual community within the structures of mass higher education. Benedict Anderson’s work is drawn upon to understand the notion of community and to examine ‘the nation’ as a prototypical community. Aspects of actor‐network theory are discussed and illustrated, from which a critique of the idea of community in higher education is developed.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the unnamed reviewers, the editors of this journal special issue, and Elaine Swan for helpful and constructive comments on earlier drafts of this article. Thanks are also due to Ingvil Hellstrand for her comments on the nature of networked learning in relation to virtual communities and identities.