Studying different concepts related to networking
has really urged me to analyse my current networks in different ways.
Below I will discuss the different concepts which I have looked at
and explore how I feel they may apply to my own individual networks.
I found the following extract by Siemens very useful when coming to
terms with the initial idea of what a network is so I have included
it here to provide a starting point from which to develop.
A network can simply be defined as connections between entities. Computer networks, power grids, and social networks all function on the simple principle that people, groups, systems, nodes, entities can be connected to create an integrated whole. Alterations within a network have a ripple effect on the whole.
(Siemens, 2004, p 3)
Cooperation
The concept of cooperation has close ties to the
Game Theory. This theory has been formulated mostly by mathematicians
as a way to address issues in the areas of sociology, economics,
international relations and biology. Political scientist Robert
Axelrod was a key influential figure in the development of
cooperation as a concept. Below he describes the game Prisoner's
Dilema. This game is of great value in the analysis of cooperation as
it is all focused around the decisions and consequences of deciding
whether to compete or cooperate.
The game allows the players to achieve mutual gains from cooperation, but it also allows for the possibility that one player will exploit the other, or the possibility that neither will cooperate.
(Axelrod, 1984, p vii)
The following extract also helps gain a better
understanding of the game and how it's principles apply to the
contexts of cooperation in the work place.
Among its interesting characteristics are that it is a non-zero-sum game: the best strategy for a given player is often one that increases the pay off to one's partner as well. It has also been shown that there is no single ''best'' strategy : how to maximise one's own pay off depends on the strategy adopted by one's partner.
(Serendip, 2013
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/playground/pdref.html )
In the context of a small ballet company like I am
working in, I think that cooperation has a great deal of importance,
both for the company as a whole and the individual within it. For
example, in order for a good performance to take place, every dancer
must be focused on their own dancing, but they must also be clued in
to everyone else performing on that stage so that there are no
collisions, as very often there are passages of choreography,
especially in the ballet I have been involves in Little Red Riding
Hood, where we are all dancing rapidly on the stage at the same
time and it is easy for people to accidentally kick or hit each
other. Also as dancers, we must be clued into the work of the
technical crew too, always respecting their need to prepare the stage
before we can use it. During a performance we must all be prepared
for any eventuality. For instance last night in Romeo and Juliet
there was a problem with the breaks on the bed and it began to
move. One of the dancers crawled onto the stage and repositioned the
bed and secured the breaks during one of the half blackouts.
Being a small company we all have a number of
costume changes during the course of a show and some of them are
extremely fast. We are all responsible for helping out depending on
who is on and off stage. Therefore, we must cooperate with one
another and always be considering others as well as our own roles.
Ultimately by the end of the performance, if the right cooperation
has taken place the company will have gained as well as us as
individuals.
Cooperation in the rehearsal studio is also an
essential element, as without it the rehearsal studio can be a
disrupted one. The studying of this concept has highlighted how, in a
ballet company there is always a leader and director and how
important this person is. They must be fully respected and listened
to in order for good cooperation to take place. The nature of the
profession is to always do as you are told, however some people find
this quite hard because their personality might be to question
authority and to want to discuss aspect in order to make improvements
to the work place. This is an area which I think can be difficult to
approach and I feel like this concept has broadened my analysis of
the drawbacks of cooperation. The notion that one must always
cooperate in every aspect may not result in change which is sometimes
necessary.
Cooperation is essential when working with a ballet company
Photo by Sian Trenberth
Affiliation
The concept of affiliation seeks to explain the
ways in which we communicate with each other socially and how each
one of us as individuals has a different desired level of
communication. It looks at the ways in which we form relationships
with one another and why, exploring the psychological factors
surrounding the choices people make when they affiliate with others.
Crisp and Turner explore how psychological factors
can influence and alter our desired levels of affiliation over the
course of time by introducing some related theories in the extract
below:
The privacy regulation theory (Altman, 1975) argues that our ideal level of privacy (versus affiliation) can vary from being open to others or closed off to others, even in the space of a few hours. We also operate by an optimization Principle, where we try to align our desired level of contact with our actual level of contact with others. If we have too little contact, we feel isolated, but if we have too much contact we feel crowded.
(Crisp and Turner, 2007, p 323)
Within the work place affiliation plays an
important role. Again particularly within the context of the network
of my company, as we are with each other all the time. We begin
rehearsing at 9am in the morning and finish at about 6pm at night. We
travel together in the minibus, share twin rooms on tour, eat
together and usually go out for the evening together. I consider
myself extremely lucky to be part of such a sociable group of people
as on the whole there have been very few difficulties which have
arose. However, the concept of affiliation and the idea of everyone's
need for affiliation being different lead me to view the
relationships between members of the company in a different way.
Everyone gets on well but the enormous amount of pressure which our
job involves can at times create frictions between people, especially
as people start getting tired towards the end of the season. Those
who develop ways of managing their different moods are not as likely
to disrupt their professional networks. Words can travel fast and it
is not nice to have any bad feeling as a result of one day when
someone is not feeling so good. Being close to those which you work
with outside of work can have benefits and draw backs as although it
makes you work more closely as a team, it means that if there is ever
a difficulty which arises outside of work it is hard to separate it
from the work place or vies versa. I think mutual respect and empathy
are key factors which should always be employed when considering
colleagues personally desired levels of affiliation.
With some of the members of the company after a show
The Theory of Connectivity
The three aspects which make up the
theory of connectivity are social constructionism, connectivism and
communities of practice. I will look into these in some more detail
below.
Social
Constructionism
This is a concept takes the angle of looking at
the world and seeing all knowledge as being constructed by human
practices. It takes the opposite view to objectivism which states
that meanings are seen in objects themselves and human consciousness
does not alter these meanings.
Crotty describes contructionism is the extract
below:
It is the view that all knowledge, and therefore meaningful reality as such, is contingent upon human practices, being constructed in and out of interaction between human beings and their world, and developed and transmitted within an essentially social context.
(Crotty, 2005, p 42)
I personally feel that the notion of
constructionism is quite a liberating one. It helps me to feel in
control of my life and my experiences. I find it to be especially
important in my work because ballet is not something that one can
progress in unless there is application and a lot of self management.
If I want to achieve something I know that I am in control of making
it happen. As Crotty says:
''in the constructionists view, as the word
suggests, meaning is not discovered but constructed.'' (Crotty, 2005,
p 42)
Connectivism
Connectivism seeks to explore the organisation of
learning and the notion that there are new ways to learn which
involve a broader network than simply a student and teacher. It is
also connected to the computer science derived concept the 'network
theory'. The following quote by Siemens describes the theory well.
Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self- organisation theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside ourselves (within an organisation or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing.
(Siemens, 2004, p 3)
In order to understand the theory better I
analysed each principle of connectivism as stated by Siemens and
discovered that in my work, I can see each of these principles coming
into play. My analysis showed me that I am learning in a different
way from when I was at school, as usually there was a teacher and
your learning was very much from one source of authority in each
class. Now, although obviously my director is the main source of
authority, I realise that I am in fact learning from the other
dancers and in many more diverse ways. Sometimes I will feel as
though I am not learning anything and it will only be in retrospect,
sometimes months later that I will discover just how much knowledge I
did acquire and this is usually because I was learning from a
different source other than the usual one such as a teacher. Now that
I know about this concept I am hoping that it will make me more tuned
in to these more varied ways of learning.
The principles as stated by Siemens are listed
below:
- Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
- Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
- Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
- Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
- Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
- Ability to see connections between fields, ideas and concepts is a core skill.
- Currency (accurate, up to date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
- Decision making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting our decision.(Siemens, 2004, pp 3-4)
Communities
of Practice
This concept was developed by social scientists to
explore how we learn through engaging in social relationships as
opposed to individually assimilating knowledge. Through the idea of a
community of practice, the term 'situated learning' came about. This
is the idea that you learn from different situations in which you are
participating with others. Lave and Wenger's description is very
clear below:
A community of practice is a set of relations among persons, activity, and world, over time and in relation with other tangential and overlapping communities of practice.
( Lave and Wenger, 1991, p 98)
I think that this approach to learning is
extremely beneficial as it encourages learning from a more varied and
diverse range of sources. Lave and Wenger state that:
Rather than learning by replicating the performances of others or by acquiring knowledge transmitted in instruction, we suggest that learning occurs through centripetal participation in the learning curriculum of the ambient community.
(Lave and Wenger, 1991, p 100)
This theory is most definitely of use to me in my
professional practice as the ballet world is made up of communities
of practice. I learn from the community of my ballet company, always
drawing on others experiences and seeing how I might approach similar
situations. In the broader picture, one company is linked to another
and through my network I can connect and learn from many interlinking
communities of practice. Perhaps I am not yet as connected as I could
be in this respect, so this is an area of knowledge which I have
identified I can learn more from. Therefore I am applying the
principle of the capacity to no more being more important than what
is currently known, as seen in the theory of connectivism.
The dancers of Ballet Cymru a 'community of practice'
Bibliography
Axelrod, 1984, The Evolution of cooperation.
London: Penguin
Crisp and Turner, 2007, Essential social
psychology. London: Sage
Crotty, M (2005) The foundations of social
research : meaning and perspectives in the research process,
London: Sage
Sociology guide (no date) Cooperation (online)
available from:
http://www.sociologyguide.com/basic-concepts/Cooperation.php
last accessed 10th Dec 2016
Lave, J and Wenger E (1991) Situated learning,
Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge: University of
Cambridge Press
Serendip (2013) available from:
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/playground/pdref.html
Accessed 12th Dec 2016
Siemens, G (2004) Connectivism: A learning
theory for the digital age
Accessed 12th Dec 2016
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