The Mode 3 Network University and Design: A New Materialist Perspective

Universities have grown to be complex institutions, networked both inwardly and outwardly within society. This has produced a complex network of humans, technologies, discourses, policy, and diverse and contested path dependent ideas on what a university is and does. Digital technologies have changed many social practices but promises of innovation and revolution in higher education have not in the mainstream materialised. New materialisms provide theoretical perspectives for research and practice within the contemporary Mode 3 Network University. The network from a new materialist perspective brings together human relationships, technologies and collaborative enquiry and action. These perspectives question exclusive human agency to shape and use technologies in simple and instrumental ways to achieve desired ends. Many actors, both human and non-human come together and are entangled, in constant flux to enact the becoming of the network university. This raises the question of how technologies are adopted and designed in the network where agency does not reside exclusively with the individual human, such as policy maker, designer or technologist. New materialisms provide the perspective that the human designer affects and is affected by the network assemblage and rather than being a fixer or solutionist, designs with the human and non-human networked university.