Knowing and Learning as Networking

Abstract

This article attempts to build on contemporary views emanating from the sociology of science and technology and cognitive science regarding cognition as situated and distributed, and knowing and learning as residing in heterogeneous networks of relationships between the social and material world. The main argument presented here is that most studies of organizational learning are underpinned by individual cognitivist metaphors and rely on a topographic view of organizations, conceived as containers of knowledge and a locale of learning. Instead, we propose socio-technical networks as the unit of analysis, and advocate a network view of organizations, conceived as a set of interlocking and shifting relations with porous and fluid boundaries. Finally, we will argue that the broader institutional context has important structuring consequences for situated practices, both for formal organizational practices as well as for informal, intra-and extra-organizational practices linking individuals to wider occupational communities.

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