Why does the distinction of communities and networks matter?
In this post, I would like to cover the concepts of communities and networks by collecting diverse resources for deeper and clear understanding.
When I first thought about the concept of communities, communities of practice was the only concept I could recall. But my understanding has become a little more flexible by reading Rainie and Wellman's book. Rainie and Wellman mainly described phenomena in 'networked society' and I understood that communities are one of the representations of a networked society. I thought that the authors used communities and personal networks in the same meaning.
For checking the technical definitions of the two concepts, I searched Wikipedia and Britannica.
Definitions of Community excerpted from Wikipedia
Definitions of Network excerpted from Britannica
In the definitions of communities, we can find some word such as 'share' and 'common', which means that they deal with some same components as well as relationships with group members in communities. Whereas, interaction or connectedness is an only and obvious point in networks. So, when you watch group practices, decisions on which they are communities or networks can depend on how you defined the communities and networks. Since the groups formed online do not all show one form, empirical research can identify the characteristics of the group to determine whether it has community characteristics or close to the network.
For example, Dennen (2014) identified how a newcomer adjusts in a blog community and figured out that the community had shown characteristics of a Community of Practice. However, Trust (2015) studied and defined a teachers' online group as a professional development network or professional learning network rather than a community of practice because the online network did not appear to be a place having characteristics of a community of practice such as relationship building, networking, or collaborating with others.
In short, depending on definitions and patterns of groups, you can decide the communities and networks. From these exploring activities, I became comfortable to think and classify community and network. I realized that it is my job to identify the unique characteristics of the group and analyze it using the knowledge I know rather than a fixed idea that a group should show some form.
References
Dennen, V. P. (2014). Becoming a blogger: Trajectories, norms, and activities in a community of practice. Computers in Human Behavior, 36, 350-358.
Trust, T. (2015). Deconstructing an online community of practice: teachers’ actions in the edmodo math subject community. Journal of digital learning in teacher education, 31(2), 73-81.
When I first thought about the concept of communities, communities of practice was the only concept I could recall. But my understanding has become a little more flexible by reading Rainie and Wellman's book. Rainie and Wellman mainly described phenomena in 'networked society' and I understood that communities are one of the representations of a networked society. I thought that the authors used communities and personal networks in the same meaning.
For checking the technical definitions of the two concepts, I searched Wikipedia and Britannica.
Definitions of Community excerpted from Wikipedia
- A community is a small or large social unit (a group of living things) that has something in common, such as norms, religion, values, or identity. Communities often share a sense of place that is situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, town, or neighborhood) or in virtual space through communication platforms.
- A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a craft or a profession. The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger in their 1991 book Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Wenger then significantly expanded on the concept in his 1998 book Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1998).
Definitions of Network excerpted from Britannica
- Network, in social science, refers to a group of interdependent actors and the relationships between them.
In the definitions of communities, we can find some word such as 'share' and 'common', which means that they deal with some same components as well as relationships with group members in communities. Whereas, interaction or connectedness is an only and obvious point in networks. So, when you watch group practices, decisions on which they are communities or networks can depend on how you defined the communities and networks. Since the groups formed online do not all show one form, empirical research can identify the characteristics of the group to determine whether it has community characteristics or close to the network.
For example, Dennen (2014) identified how a newcomer adjusts in a blog community and figured out that the community had shown characteristics of a Community of Practice. However, Trust (2015) studied and defined a teachers' online group as a professional development network or professional learning network rather than a community of practice because the online network did not appear to be a place having characteristics of a community of practice such as relationship building, networking, or collaborating with others.
In short, depending on definitions and patterns of groups, you can decide the communities and networks. From these exploring activities, I became comfortable to think and classify community and network. I realized that it is my job to identify the unique characteristics of the group and analyze it using the knowledge I know rather than a fixed idea that a group should show some form.
References
Dennen, V. P. (2014). Becoming a blogger: Trajectories, norms, and activities in a community of practice. Computers in Human Behavior, 36, 350-358.
Trust, T. (2015). Deconstructing an online community of practice: teachers’ actions in the edmodo math subject community. Journal of digital learning in teacher education, 31(2), 73-81.
Comments
Post a Comment