Community, Economic Creativity, and Organization

How knowledge is created, and how innovation in products and practices occurs, have been long-standing concerns of socio-economists. This book argues that 'communities of practice', communities and networks of joint enterprise, are the prime site where knowledge and innovation are generated. It sees the everyday interaction that takes place in different working and professional contexts as producing this creativity, learning and knowing through action.In this book, leading international scholars examine the concept and our understanding of the relationship between situated practice and economic creativity. Chapters examine the development of the concept, the link between situated learning and knowing, and the economy in general, what challenges these links raise for organization and knowledge management to encourage knowledge exploitation and breakthrough innovation, and, more generally, the socio-spatial aspects of creativity in its different knowledge settings.Exploring the frontiers of current understanding of innovation and learning, this book is for all those interested in the economic sociology of knowledge creation.