A Study on Mutual Engagement in Communities of Practice

Abstract

The Morakot flood disaster was caused by Typhoon Morakot, which was one of the catastrophic typhoons that have influenced Taiwan in recorded history. The government was criticized for their slow response to the disaster. It was not the government rescue crew but the voluntary rescue teams that offered the most important helping hand to the victims to retrieve thousands of trapped citizens from buried villages. Why can voluntary rescue teams be so professional and efficient? The answer is: they are a kind of Community of Practice (CoP). Although Wenger (1998) proposed 3 elements of forming a CoP, a deep analysis into the 3 elements is lacking, to say nothing of discussing “mutual engagement”, one of the 3 elements, from the perspective of NGOs. In order to explore the members’ mutual engagement in rescue CoPs, the researchers used the data derived from rescue teams in Taiwan to understand two questions: A)Why did the rescue team members initially participate in the mutual engagement? B)Why did the members continue to participate in the mutual engagement? The semi-structured interview method was employed to collect data, while the theoretical framework of CoPs was applied to structure the analysis. The main opinions adopted in this study were from 20 interviewees, who belonged to 6 of the visited rescue teams. This study concludes with some factors in people's initial participation in mutual engagement, and with some factors relating to members’ continuing motivation to participate. Mutual engagement is triggered by varied social learning processes, so the elements interact and are intertwined with each other.