O Brother, Where are Thou?

Abstract

Communities of practice are highly situated and, yet, networks of practice supposedly connect them. Assuming the situated dimension of work and identity in communities of practice, how may dispersed agents be connected, and how may the features of communities of practice be extended from the local to the network level? This article proposes that the use of intranets contributes to the interconnections of local communities and to the emergence of a network of practice. It draws on two case studies in which members of local communities used an intranet system to establish communications with remote colleagues in ways that did not merely reproduce their immediate context. The use of the intranet contributed to the mutual reinforcement of local communities, and of the overall network, and to growing complementarities among colleagues at different levels. Conceptually, in a relational perspective, the use of the intranet extended the situatedness of practice.