Reblogging this really helpful blog post from the lovely Andrew Middleton – some interesting thoughts and useful references that will be soooo helpful for my own research 🙂
Why do I explore ideas like being, belonging and becoming in relation to networks, but I hardly talk about communities any more? In this post I will look at why networks and affinity spaces more than communities have come to dominate my thinking. My professional context is as educational developer and innovator – that means I think about staff development and the spaces we devise for learning in equal measure. However, my outlook is shaped more by my own history of being a musician in bands and an artist in studios – these settings have attuned me to the significance of creating co-operative spaces for creativity. Learning is the ultimate, unifying act of creativity – we all continually experience, struggle, resolve and learn independently in a social context.
The concept of Communities of Practice (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002; Lave and Wenger 1991; Wenger 1998)…
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Debs Open Learning Journey 
Glad this helped Deb. I need to explore the literature further on networked learning and community of practices theory – and the extent to which they conflict and/or complement each other. Affinity spaces were really helpful for my own research.
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