The Knowledge of Communities

Nancy Meyer, Leni Oman, John S. Edwards, Alexeis Garcia-Perez, Denise Bedford, Pat Kerrigan

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781837971558
• eBook ISBN: 9781837971565
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Communication
• Index: Business

The knowledge sciences field has long recognized the importance of communities of practice to the flow of knowledge and situational learning.  However, the literature and research has focused mainly on communities in formal organizational contexts.  This constraint has limited research and exploration and exposed only a small portion of the knowledge of communities of practice.  Focusing only on organizational communities of practice further restricts what we have learned about the full range of knowledge capabilities.

The Knowledge of Communities provides an inclusive and comprehensive conceptual framework for understanding the spectrum of communities of practice and their relationship to the development of knowledge capital. Presenting a core standpoint that incorporates the variant perspectives of community processes from social sciences, psychology, behavioral sciences, communication and economics, the authors review existing research, identifying areas where additional work is needed, and present the results as a practical field guide for managers that can be utilized for analyzing any community of practice.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Authors
• Introduction to the Series – Working Methods for Knowledge Management
• Preface
• Section 1 Communities of Practice: The Big Picture
• Chapter 1 Communities of Practice: Expanding the View
• Chapter 2 An Extended Conceptual Model of a Community of Practice
• Section 2 The Community Component
• Chapter 3 The Community as a Collective
• Chapter 4 The Community as Members and Memberships
• Chapter 5 Community Growth, Development, and Duration
• Chapter 6 Community Scale and Complexity
• Section 3 The Learning Component
• Chapter 7 Situational and Experiential Learning
• Chapter 8 Learning and Knowledge Capital
• Chapter 9 Levels of Learning in Communities of Practice
• Chapter 10 Learning Cultures of Communities of Practice
• Section 4 The Practice Component
• Chapter 11 Practice: How the Community Works
• Section 5 The Domain Component
• Chapter 12 Domain, Purpose, and Goals of Communities of Practice
• Section 6 Health and Wellness of Communities of Practice
• Chapter 13 States of Health and Wellness of Communities of Practice
• Chapter 14 Cultivating Communities of Practice
• Appendix 1: Pulling It All Together
• Appendix 2: Future Research Topics for Communities of Practice
• Index