Tracing the Development of Critical HRD Scholarship over 20 Years (2003-2022): Citation and Authorship Network Analysis

Abstract: Appreciating the contribution of critical human resource development (CHRD) scholarship to create more equitable, just HRD theories by challenging performance-, profit-, and production-oriented HRD values based on diverse critical perspectives and theories, this study explored the development of CHRD scholarship over 20 years (2003-2022) by analyzing citation and authorship networks of CHRD journal articles. The degree and betweenness centrality of CHRD citation and authorship networks were calculated to find influential authors and articles, and the structure of CHRD authorship communities was detected—eight connected core groups and many disconnected periphery groups—to find the dynamic nature of the CHRD authorship network. Further, the CHRD authorship networks were explored and visualized on a five-year basis with the calculated scores of transitivity and density of those networks. The analysis results identified that particular core members led the CHRD scholarship. Also, community groupings and each community’s key themes were found to be related to the national locations of the authors’ affiliated institutions. Additionally, the expansion and increased internal connection of the CHRD scholarship networks were found. This study also illuminated research themes and scholars on the margin as well as the center of the CHRD scholarship network. This study concluded with a critical discussion of the Whiteness and cohesiveness of the CHRD scholarship network.