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Proceedings of the 71st New York State Communication Association

October 19-21, 2012 • Honor's Haven, Ellenville, NY

COMMUNITIES OF COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICE Much communication scholarship over the past 50 years has focused on the inextricable link between interactive/dialogic processes and social network membership. That is, communication practices both create, and are created by, the networks in which social actors find themselves embedded. The theme for the 2013 New York State Communication Association’s annual conference is framed around the idea of networked communities of [communicative] practice. Such networked communities can be framed from political, economic, interpersonal, sociological, mediated, group, and organizational perspectives, and can focus on the theoretical, empirical, and practical implications therein. For example, how do networks of [communicative] practice come to influence relational satisfaction? How do networks of [communicative] practice come to sway the decision-making practices of small groups? How do networks of [communicative] practice come to shape reactions to media content? How do networks of [communicative] practice come to affect psychological feelings of job satisfaction? How do networks of [communicative] practice impact the process of political dialogue? Are networks of [communicative] practice antecedents to, or effects of, interaction? By providing answers to, and engaging in critical reflection of, these questions, scholars and practitioners, alike, will be better equipped to dialogue about and within the networks that make us, in a sense, social.