Workshop Report: International Workshop on : Communities of Practice
This international workshop, held under the auspices of the EU-DIME Network of Excellence (WP 1.2), in association with the University of Durham and the newly-inaugurated Institute for Advance Studies, took place at the Geography Resource Centre, University of Durham from 27-28 October 2006.
Organized by Ash Amin, Joanne Roberts and Hamzah Muzaini (University of Durham), and centred on the theme of ‘Communities of Practice (CoPs): A Driver for Innovation and Competitive Advantage?’, the event saw 27 delegates attending what turned out to be an energetic and insightful gathering of established scholars, post-graduates, policy-makers and industrial practitioners participating in paper presentations, dynamic discussions and roundtable reflections.
Over the two days, the workshop was divided into seven sessions. The first six consisted of paper presentations and discussions on different themes, and the last was dedicated to a roundtable discussion where delegates shared their views on the roles of CoPs in the context of policy and industrial practice. On the first day, delegates were also treated to an insider’s tour and formal dinner at the historic Durham Castle.
(To access the workshop programme and complete delegate list, please see below).
Workshop sessions:
The event was launched by welcomes from Ash Amin and James Stirling, the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Durham University.
Session 1 entitled ‘Reflections on CoPs’, chaired by Ash Amin (Durham University), consisted of papers by Jean Lave (University of California, Berkeley), Paul Duguid (University of California, Berkeley) and Michael Storper (London School of Economics). Following that, in Session 2, chaired by Edward Lorenz (University of Nice/Sophia Antipolis), papers were presented by Phil Cooke (Cardiff University), Peter Maskell (Copenhagen Business School) and Meric Gertler (University of Toronto) on the theme of ‘The Place of Proximity’.
This was followed by Session 3, chaired by Joanne Roberts (Durham University), on CoPs and their relationship to ‘Power, Loyalty, and Identity’. This session saw papers presented by Alessia Contu (Lancaster University), Silvia Gherardi (University of Trento) and Edward Lorenz with Nathalie Lazaric (University of Nice/Sophia Antipolis). The day was brought to a close with Session 4 on ‘Innovation and Creativity’, chaired by Roger Lee (QMUL), consisting of papers by David Stark (Columbia University), Patrick Cohendet (BETA/ HEC Montreal) with Laurent Simon (HEC Montreal) and Nigel Thrift (University of Warwick).
The second day began with Session 5 on ‘Openness, Collaboration and Trust’ chaired by Elizabeth Shove (Lancaster University). Here, presentations were heard from Juan Mateos-Garcia with Ed Steinmueller (University of Sussex) and Paul Muller (University of Angers). In Session 6, chaired by Ed Steinmuller (University of Sussex) on the theme of ‘Exploration and Exploitation’, Harry Scarbrough (Warwick Business School), Bart Nooteboom (Tilburg University) and Philippe Laredo (Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées) delivered their contributions.
Session 7 on ‘Policy Reflections’, chaired by Ash Amin (Durham University) saw brief presentations from Göran Anderson (VINNOVA, Swedish Agency for Innovation System) and Marc Coenders (Habiforum Network, Netherlands). In this session, the main objective was to establish a working dialogue for more discussions and exchanges between scholars, policy-makers and industrial practitioners.
(To access all the paper abstracts, session notes or the submitted papers themselves, including an additional review paper on CoPs by Ash Amin and Joanne Roberts, please see below. A methodology paper on CoPs will follow shortly.)
Conclusion:
The workshop was judged by all participants as a great success. The attempt to bring people from different disciplines to critically examine the concept and relevance of communities as spaces for learning, creativity and innovation, proved to be fruitful. The papers covered many dimensions of the topic, while the discussions were animated and perceptive, taking the workshop towards new ways of understanding spatial and organizational dynamics of learning and innovation. A book edited by Ash Amin and Joanne Roberts with the provisional title of Organizing for Creativity is currently under negotiation with a reputable international publisher. More details about this venture, including the book’s orientation, themes, and chapters will follow soon. We would also like to take this opportunity to invite delegates and others to further contribute any works-in-progress to the Working Paper Series that we have set up as part of this EU-DIME project WP 1.2. The call for paper and details on how to do this can be found at : http://www.dime-eu.org/working-papers/wp12
Acknowledgements:
We would like to acknowledge various individuals who helped in making the workshop a success. First, we would like to thank James Stirling for taking the time to open the event, Frida Andersson, Simon Turner, and Zilia Iskoujina for taking notes of the discussion in each session, and above all, Veronica Crooks for attending to the many practical requirements of the workshop. We wish to also thank the Department of Geography for providing the venue, along with Durham Castle for their kind hospitality in conducting the tour on the night of the dinner. Finally, thanks to the delegates themselves who attended and made the event a huge success.
