On boundaries and difference: Communities of practice and power relations in creative work

Contu, Alessia

doi:10.1177/1350507612471926

Cited by 67 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(97 reference statements)

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“…This perspective contributes to the growing strand of practice-based thinking in KM, which sees knowledge as situated, culturally and historically specific (Contu, 2013;Gherardi, 2000;Gherardi and Nicolini, 2003), offering an avenue to attend more explicitly to issues of power (Heizmann, 2011).…”

Section: Implications For Practitioners and Researchersmentioning

confidence: 96%

Power matters: the importance of Foucault’s power/knowledge as a conceptual lens in KM research and practice

Heizmann

Olsson

2015

Journal of Knowledge Management

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2015),"Development and validation of knowledge management performance measurement constructs for small and mediumIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. Abstract Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to engage knowledge management (KM) researchers and practitioners with Foucault's power/knowledge lens as a way of thinking about and recognising the central role of power in organisational knowledge cultures. Design/methodology/approach -The empirical illustrations in this paper are drawn from two qualitative studies in different professional and institutional contexts (insurance and theatre work). Both studies used in-depth interviews and discourse analysis as their principal methods of data collection and analysis. Findings -The empirical examples illustrate how practitioners operate within complex power/knowledge relations that shape their practices of knowledge sharing, generation and use. The findings show how an application of the power/knowledge lens renders visible both the constraining and productive force of power in KM.Research limitations/implications -Researchers may apply the conceptual tools presented here in a wider variety of institutional and professional contexts to examine the complex and multifaceted role of power in a more in-depth way. Practical implications -KM professionals will benefit from an understanding of organisational power/ knowledge relations when seeking to promote transformational changes in their organisations and build acceptance for KM initiatives. Originality/value -This paper addresses a gap in the literature around theoretical and empirical discussions of power as well as offering an alternative to prevailing resource-based views of power in KM.

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Section: Implications For Practitioners and Researchersmentioning

confidence: 96%

Power matters: the importance of Foucault’s power/knowledge as a conceptual lens in KM research and practice

Heizmann

Olsson

2015

Journal of Knowledge Management

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“…Further research has pointed to the conflicting identities and social tensions which can arise between different professional groups (Hong and Fiona, 2009) which result in different communities possibly distrusting each other's competences (Heizmann, 2011). Similar tensions will characterize the power dynamics within LoPs, and they depend on the economies of meaning, that is, how powerful and valued a particular community is in relation to other communities (Contu, 2014). In addition, researchers have noted that too high a power of core members, or "old-timers," within a CoP can prevent community members from learning effectively (Levina and Orlikowski, 2009), albeit the power structure within a community can change along with the evolving texture of the broader landscape (Mørk et al, 2010).…”

Section: Addressing Power Within and Beyond Communities Of Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Communities of practice in landscapes of practice

Pyrko

Dörfler²,

Eden

2019

Management Learning

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The original formulation of communities of practice primarily focused on describing how learning, meaning, and identity within a community can translate into a sustained practice. Wenger-Trayner et al. elaborated the concept of landscapes of practice to describe how different communities of practice may interact, and belong to broader landscapes of practice, rather than rely exclusively on their own local situated practices. In this conceptual article, we apply the perspective of landscapes of practice to organizations. The first part of our argument is descriptive, and is aimed at developing a model of landscapes of practice in organizations. With regard to this model, we propose that practices can be seen as multilevel, including local situated practices, generic practices, and cultural fields. This, in turn, helps to clarify and organize a number of central concepts within the practice literature. The second part of our argument is prescriptive, as we suggest that landscapes of practice call for triple-legitimization of situated learning, meaning that legitimization is not only needed at the level of community and organization, but also by attending to the dynamically changing epistemic texture of the landscapes.

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“…Thus, in professional work settings, in addition to shedding light on embodied and materially mediated practices of translation and knowing (Olohan forthcoming), practice analysis may be combined with critical theoretical approaches to technology and hegemony, as outlined here, to examine how capitalist organisation and work relations are produced and reproduced in and through historically, culturally and materially embedded practices. Useful illustrations of this approach, on which future studies of translation could be modelled, include Contu and Willmott's (2006) critical theoretical reading of Orr's (1996) study of photocopy technicians, and Contu's (2014) more recent analysis of power relations enacted in and through work practices in a digital media agency. In those cases Laclau and Mouffe's (1985) theory of social hegemony provides a conceptual framework for understanding organisational and capitalist power relations and dynamics.…”

Section: Technology and Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology, translation and society

Olohan

2017

Target

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Technology, translation and society: a constructivist, critical theory approach Maeve OlohanTranslation studies and social theories of translation tend not to deal adequately with questions regarding the role of technology in translation and have neglected the ways in which technologies, as non-human entities, embody and materialize hegemonic and power relations. This paper seeks to address this shortcoming by looking to science and technology studies (STS) for conceptual frameworks to help us to understand and articulate a) how popular, deterministic perceptions of translation technology are perpetuated through the discourses of hegemonic actors, b) how decisions regarding design and use of translation technologies may be studied with reference to their construction and interpretation by relevant social groups, and c) how a critical theory of technology and an analytical focus on practices can help to focus our attention on the exercise of hegemonic control in the translation sector.

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On boundaries and difference: Communities of practice and power relations in creative work

Cited by 67 publications

References 54 publications

Power matters: the importance of Foucault’s power/knowledge as a conceptual lens in KM research and practice

Power matters: the importance of Foucault’s power/knowledge as a conceptual lens in KM research and practice

Communities of practice in landscapes of practice

Technology, translation and society

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