Advancing a networked post-digital vision for critical management education

This provocation essay argues that our post-digital era, in which technology is thoroughly entangled in our lives and people are engaged in perpetual informal learning via social media, calls for a critical management pedagogical vision that embraces digitality. Engaging with how digital tools might serve critical education ends is crucial so as not to capitulate to those with corporate interests, such as those who run social media companies, the project of fostering an educated citizenry. This essay does not deny the many negative impacts of social media nor the risks associated with their further adoption, but advocates in favor of reimagining their governance and deployment. It builds on Hodgson and Watland’s (2004) exhortation for increased attention by critical management scholars to networked learning, in order to highlight the current relevance of the networked learning movement’s long-standing exploration of the intersection of radical pedagogies and educational technologies. It suggests one possible route forward to be for universities to become owners and managers of social media platforms, which would be sites of connection between students, faculty, staff and each other, as well as the broader community and citizenry.