Community of practice
The term "community of practice" was first used in 1991 by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger who used it in relation to situated learning as part of an attempt to "rethink learning". In 1998, the theorist Etienne Wenger extended the concept and applied it to other contexts, including organizational settings.
Wenger (1998; 2000) asserts that in order for communities of practice to exist, three elements must be present:
1. Members must understand what the community is for; that is, the members must
feel a sense of joint enterprise and accountability.
2. Mutual engagement arises when members have time to build trust and
relationships with one another through regular interactions.
3. Members will develop a shared repertoire of stories, language, etc. that
embodies the distinctive knowledge of the community and allows members to
negotiate meaning.
Literature:
Brown, J. S., & Duguid, P. (1991). Organizational
learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working,
learning, and innovation. [Online]. Available:
www2.parc.com/ops/members/brown/papers/orglearning.html
Davenport, E. (2002). Organizational knowledge and communities of practice. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 36, 171-227.
Davenport, E., & Cronin, B. (1998). Some thoughts on ‘just for you’ service in
the context of domain expertise. Journal of Education for Library and
Information Science, 39, 264-274.
Davenport, E., & Hall, H. (2002). Organizational knowledge and communities of
practice. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology,
171-227.
Davies, E. (2005). Communities of practice. IN: Fisher, K. E., Erdelez, S. & McKechnie, L. (eds.). Theories of information behavior. Medford, NJ: Information Today. (Pp. 104-107).
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning,
meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice: The key to knowledge strategy. In E. L. Lesser, M. A. Fontaine, & J. A. Slusher (Eds.), Knowledge and communities (pp. 3-51). Boston: Butterworth Heinemann.
Wenger, E (2004). Praksisfællesskaber: læring, mening og identitet. Kbh: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
See also: Boundary object; Discourse community; Domain;
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 11-06-2006