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In this article, we aim to analyse the nature and epistemic consequences ofwhat figures in network science as patterns of nodes and edges called'communities'. Tracing these patterns as multi-faceted and ambivalent, wepropose to describe the concept of community as a 'vague operator', a variantof Susan Leigh Star's notion of the boundary object, and propose that theability to construct different modes of description that are both vague in someregisters and hyper-precise in others, is core both to digital politics and theanalysis of 'communities'. Engaging with these formations in terms drawn frommathematics and software studies enables a wider mapping of their formation.Disentangling different lineages in network science then allows us tocontextualise the founding account of 'community' popularised by MichelleGirvan and Mark Newman in 2002. After studying one particular communitydetection algorithm, the widely-used 'Louvain algorithm', we comment oncontroversies arising with some of their more ambiguous applications. We arguethat 'community' can act as a real abstraction with the power to reshape socialrelations such as producing echo chambers in social networking sites. To reworkthe epistemological terms of community detection and propose a reconsiderationof vague operators, we draw on debates and propositions within the literatureof network science to imagine a 'critical heuristics' that embraces partiality,epistemic humbleness, reflexivity and artificiality.

Community as a Vague Operator: Epistemological Questions for a Critical Heuristics of Community Detection Algorithms