A Practice Centred Approach to Understanding Social Learning and Knowledge Creation in a “Community of Practice”

David Boateng Sarpong

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v3n4p23

Abstract

Communities of Practice (CoPs) in organisation science are often described as ‘the shop floor of human capital’ where learning and knowledge creation which underpins innovation evolves. Adopting the Bristol area geocaching community as a case study, this paper draws on the ‘practice turn’ in contemporary social theory to study the everyday interaction of the community members in their situated practice. Taking the geocaching community and their practice as a collective unit of analysis, the study employed the qualitative methods of ethnographic interviewing, participant observation and content analysis of archival internet forum logs of members to extend our understanding of the performative processes of social learning and knowledge creations in CoPs. A conceptual framework showing how the interactions among actors and their artefacts and reflexivity in practice could lead to learning and knowledge creation that stimulates innovation in a CoP is presented as a modest attempt to improve our understanding of the dynamics of a CoP renewal and sustainability.

Highlights

Ever since the concept of Community of Practice (CoP) was introduced by Lave & Wenger (1991), it has received an unprecedented attention resulting in a burgeoning corpus of literature dedicated to studying their structures, dynamics and their effects on organisational performance (e.g. Wenger et al 2002; Lave, 1988; Boland & Tenkasi,1995)
The article from a meta-theoretical level conceptualises the practice of geocaching as the object of the community of practitioners (Geocachers) and the practitioners as the subject of the object (Geocaching).Based on this, we dwell on the physical artefacts employed by actors, their habitual discourse they engage in practice and their ongoing interactions to develop a conceptual framework for thinking about of how the performative processes of learning and knowledge creation occur to facilitate the sustenance and renewal of the CoP
While existing and emerging structures shape the practice of a CoP, it is the actors practices which in-turn constitutes and reproduce the structures (Sewell, 1992).In this sense, actors as intelligible human beings engaged in their practice can reflect on the activities that constitutes the practice and challenge some of the constraints imposed on their actions in practice in creative ways which come to transform or reconfigure the very structures that enabled them to engage in the practice

Summary

Introduction

Ever since the concept of CoP was introduced by Lave & Wenger (1991), it has received an unprecedented attention resulting in a burgeoning corpus of literature dedicated to studying their structures, dynamics and their effects on organisational performance (e.g. Wenger et al 2002; Lave, 1988; Boland & Tenkasi,1995) By virtue of their ability to providing a platform for sharing ideas and providing support to community members, CoPs have been frequently identified with providing a unique context for learning and knowledge creation and often labelled as a major source of innovation. The article from a meta-theoretical level conceptualises the practice of geocaching as the object of the community of practitioners (Geocachers) and the practitioners as the subject of the object (Geocaching).Based on this, we dwell on the physical artefacts employed by actors, their habitual discourse they engage in practice and their ongoing interactions to develop a conceptual framework for thinking about of how the performative processes of learning and knowledge creation occur to facilitate the sustenance and renewal of the CoP

Objectives

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Conclusion