Product Description

Learning is becoming an urgent topic. Nations worry about the learning of their citizens, companies about the learning of their workers, schools about the learning of their students. But it is not always easy to think about how to foster learning in innovative ways. This book presents a framework for doing that, with a social theory of learning that is ground-breaking yet accessible, with profound implications not only for research, but also for all those who have to foster learning as part of their responsibilites at work, at home, at school.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #117873 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
"The terms of debate about 'knowledge management' and 'learning organizations' are slowly, and finally turning from issues of information and technology to those of human capabilities and the sources of motivation, creativity, and problem-solving skills that create real value in the new economy. Wenger is light years ahead in understanding those sources, and the critical importance of informal communities and 'social learning' in fostering them." Phillip Brook Manville, Partner, McKinsey & Co.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating and Unusual approach to Learning
Learning is much more than acquiring and repeating new information. This book combines learning, meaning and identity by studying a group of people who are claims adjusters in an insurance company. The level and complexity of analysis is fascinating and the connection between identity and learning is quite clear. This level of analysis is largely missing in most discussions of learning because the educational establishment has not yet realized that a) learning can and often does occur without teaching; b) learning only happens when the knowledge means something to the learner and c) learning is a social phenomenon. I was intrigued by this book even though it took a lot of work to understand. For anybody who seirously interested in expanding his or her own understanding of learning I recommend this highly.

Thought Provoking
This book is written primarily for academics. Wenger challenges educational institutions to re-think their basic assumptions about learning (e.g., its social aspects, its relationship to practice, and the role of teaching).

I found the book to be very thought provoking, but I would recommend his 2002 book, "Cultivating Communities of Practice," for practitioners.

Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Learning"

A foundation book that helps to put KM in perspective
You'll struggle to work through "Communities of Practice." Yet, if you persevere, you'll have gained a sound basis for evaluating and keeping in perspective the relative business value of all the recent advances in knowledge management.

A good companion book to "Communities of Practice" with respect to how people make meaning is Yankelovich's "The Magic of Dialogue."