Moving beyond case studies: applying social network analysis to study learning-as-participation

Abstract

We argue that social network analysis is a useful methodology to study and to extend scholarly knowledge on learning through legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. We first review work on legitimate peripheral participation and show that research on this topic currently focusses on the adoption of practices. Then we describe the theoretical and methodological foundations of social network analysis and suggest a new perspective on legitimate peripheral participation, focussing on the increasing relations of newcomers in communities of practice. We present examples of studies that use social network analysis to study legitimate peripheral participation. We conclude that social network analysis can enable us to make inferences about legitimate peripheral participation across specific settings and communities. For the future, the challenge is to advance this methodology to relate dynamically changing patterns of legitimate peripheral participation to emerging and changing epistemic practices of a community.