Abstract
Research communication is vital in organizing knowledge in scientific fields. Educational research (ER) as an academic field is organized as a fragmented adhocracy, which is based on different addressees, stakeholders, resources, and demands. In this respect – and due to the importance of education and ER for the formation of the (nation) states – different countries have produced different traditions of ER. These research cultures are currently undergoing dynamic and contradictory transformations. Framed by theoretical approaches like the sociology of knowledge, knowledge organization, and systems theory, we focus on ER’s transformation in the construction of nets and nodes in scholarly communication using an international comparative case approach. The purpose of this chapter is to map and understand patterns of ER publishing in Germany, Italy, and Sweden. We use bibliometric tools to map ER publications and analyze the organizing of ER in intellectual traditions based on communication practices. Finally, we discuss theoretically and methodologically the possibilities and limits in the production and utilization of knowledge contributions. The results show interstices in international and national trajectories, as well as nationally oriented intellectual traditions. Simultaneous sectoral, thematic, and methodological convergences could indicate the increasing importance of mainstream communication cultures with an affinity for education politics and bureaucracy, contrasted by diversified, fragmented, and flexible adhocracies in ER.