What are communities of practice? A critical review of four seminal works. Paper presented at the Fifth European Conference on Organizational Knowledge, Learning, and Capabilities
(April 2004)Abstract
This paper is a critical review of four seminal works on communities of practice. The first three works are underpinned by a common epistemological view, but Lave and Wenger (1991) is often read as primarily about the socialisation of new-comers into knowledge by a form of apprenticeship, while the focus in Brown and Duguid (1991) is more on improvising new knowledge in a counter cultural, interstitial group. Wenger (1998) is more uncompromisingly theoretical and looks at the informal relations and understandings that develop in mutual engagement on an appropriated joint enterprise. Useful though the concept is as an ideal type, the applicability of it to much modern heavily individualised and tightly managed work may be questioned. And it is the use of the term community is a continuing cause of confusion.<br> The most recent work (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder 2002) marks a distinct shift towards a managerialist stance. The proposition that managers should foster informal horizontal groups across organisational boundaries is in fact a fundamental redefinition of the concept. However it does identify a plausible if limited KM tool. The paper discusses different interpretations of the idea of “coordinating” communities of practice as a management ideology of empowerment. In conclusion, the continuing value of community practice theory as identifying an important ideal type is suggested, with an example of a proposed application.