Human ecological complexity; epistemological implications of social networking and emerging curriculum theories

Abstract

This article explores the growing use of social networking among contemporary students and researchers in education. It is argued that social networking systems exhibit many of the characteristics of complex systems, such as self-organization and far-from-equilibrium conditions. This article, therefore, contends that curriculum development in the near future will be deeply impacted by social networks. Equally, curriculum scholars are in a unique position to integrate chaos and complexity theories which help to recreate the ontological and epistemological frameworks needed to respond to social networking phenomena.