2021

Aarnikoivu, Melina; Brankovic, Jelena

The article draws attention to the value of informal scholarly communities for early-career researchers in higher education studies. To this end, we provide a narrative reflection on the past, present, and future of the Early Career Higher Education Researchers (ECHER) network. ECHER was established in 2011 and has since grown into a widely known international network of early-career scholars in higher education studies. Given its independent, informal, loosely structured, and voluntary character, we conceptualise it as an open-ended experiment in community building. We discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges which accompany the said experiment.