Co-Creating Higher Education Reform with Actor-Network Theory: Experiences from Involving a Variety of Actors in the Processes of Knowledge Creation

Abstract

The chapter provides the reader with a critical, conceptual framework for further independent exploration of actor-network theory (ANT) when applied to higher education reform. First, it introduces briefly the potentials of ANT as a means of questioning, and eventually escaping, the formal policy level as the “natural” point of departure for studying policy reform. Second, by pointing to my experiences from an on-going study on a Danish subset of the European Bologna process, in which I invited relevant actors to participate in formulating the research questions, it concretizes – and critically reviews – how ANT may feed new insights as well as challenges into the research process.

Citation

Sarauw, L.L. (2016), "Co-Creating Higher Education Reform with Actor-Network Theory: Experiences from Involving a Variety of Actors in the Processes of Knowledge Creation", Theory and Method in Higher Education Research (Theory and Method in Higher Education Research, Vol. 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 177-198. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2056-375220160000002009