ABSTRACT
This chapter raises questions about our understanding of academic literacy practices in the digital university. It reports upon some recent research in the UK, which has highlighted a potential disconnect between undergraduate online reading practices and requirements for assessed work. The chapter goes on to examine the contribution of work broadly conceptualized as actor network theory (ANT) as a complementary perspective to academic literacies approaches. It concludes that we can potentially enhance our understanding of knowledge-making practices in the university if we both interrogate our own theoretical and methodological assumptions and combine these with a network approach. Starting from a long-standing and generally accepted stance and approach in the empirical study of literacies, the chapter begins to open up questions around research and practice occasioned by the digital. This not only suggests some fundamental changes in our understanding of the ways that knowledge is enacted but should also help us towards interrogating our own practices productively.
