IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v25y2011i2p342-351.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The missing middle: communities of practice in a freelance labour market

Author

Listed:
  • Irena Grugulis

    (Durham University, UKÂ Â Irena.Grugulis@durham.ac.uk)

  • Dimitrinka Stoyanova

    (University of St. Andrews, UKÂ)

Abstract

Learning at, and through, work is a key part of the skills literature. However, the idea and ideal of the ‘community of practice’ assumes that workplaces are coherent communities where the skilful are available for novices to consult and observe. This is not always the case. This research note, drawing on three months of detailed ethnographic research in a TV production company, explores the way communities of practice function in a labour market dominated by small firms and freelancers. It argues that the experienced workers who would normally be central to skills development are simply not available to consult or observe, since they are employed on freelance contracts. The novices’ community is one with a ‘missing middle’.

Suggested Citation

  • Irena Grugulis & Dimitrinka Stoyanova, 2011. "The missing middle: communities of practice in a freelance labour market," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 25(2), pages 342-351, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:25:y:2011:i:2:p:342-351
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017011398891
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017011398891
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017011398891?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid, 2001. "Knowledge and Organization: A Social-Practice Perspective," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 198-213, April.
    2. Karen Handley & Andrew Sturdy & Robin Fincham & Timothy Clark, 2006. "Within and Beyond Communities of Practice: Making Sense of Learning Through Participation, Identity and Practice," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 641-653, May.
    3. Annette Bernhardt & Thomas Bailey, 1998. "Improving Worker Welfare in the Age of Flexibility," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 16-44, September.
    4. Joanne Roberts, 2006. "Limits to Communities of Practice," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 623-639, May.
    5. Lars Lindkvist, 2005. "Knowledge Communities and Knowledge Collectivities: A Typology of Knowledge Work in Groups," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(6), pages 1189-1210, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ivory, Chris & Casey, Rebecca & Watson, Kayleigh, 2016. "The role of mobile ICT in repair worker communities of practice," 27th European Regional ITS Conference, Cambridge (UK) 2016 148676, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    2. Spilg, Edward & Siebert, Sabina & Martin, Graeme, 2012. "A social learning perspective on the development of doctors in the UK National Health Service," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(9), pages 1617-1624.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Siedlok, Frank & Hibbert, Paul & Sillince, John, 2015. "From practice to collaborative community in interdisciplinary research contexts," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 96-107.
    2. Amin, Ash & Roberts, Joanne, 2008. "Knowing in action: Beyond communities of practice," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 353-369, March.
    3. Yakob, Ramsin, 2018. "Augmenting Local Managerial Capacity Through Knowledge Collectivities: The Case of Volvo Car China," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 386-403.
    4. Torsten Ringberg & Markus Reihlen, 2008. "Towards a Socio‐Cognitive Approach to Knowledge Transfer," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 912-935, July.
    5. Yakhlef, Ali, 2010. "The three facets of knowledge: A critique of the practice-based learning theory," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 39-46, February.
    6. Emmanuelle Vaast & Geoff Walsham, 2009. "Trans-Situated Learning: Supporting a Network of Practice with an Information Infrastructure," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 547-564, December.
    7. Mathias Guérineau & Sihem Ben Mahmoud-Jouini & Florence Charue-Duboc, 2018. "Role of Community of Practices and their Coordination in the Innovation Development and Deployment within a Multinational Corporation [El papel de las comunidades de práctica, su coordinación en el," Post-Print hal-04574372, HAL.
    8. Ribeiro, Richard & Kimble, Chris & Cairns, Paul, 2010. "Quantum phenomena in Communities of Practice," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 21-27.
    9. Ferguson, J.E. & Huysman, M.H., 2009. "Between ambition and approach: towards sustainable knowledge management in development organizations," Serie Research Memoranda 0003, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    10. Pamela Chidiogo Izunwanne, 2017. "Developing an Understanding of Organisational Knowledge Creation: A Review Framework," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(02), pages 1-31, June.
    11. Kirsti Maria Ala-Mutka, 2009. "Review of Learning in ICT-enabled Networks and Communities," JRC Research Reports JRC52394, Joint Research Centre.
    12. Apitzsch, Birgit, 2006. "Unternehmensnetzwerke und soziale Einbettung: Begriffliche Bestimmungen, Funktionen und Entstehungsbedingungen," Duisburger Beiträge zur soziologischen Forschung 3/2006, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute of Sociology.
    13. Anne Gausdal & Etty Nilsen, 2011. "Orchestrating Innovative SME Networks. The Case of “HealthInnovation”," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 2(4), pages 586-600, December.
    14. Sandra Dubouloz & Anne Berthinier-Poncet & Luciana Castro Gonçalves & Emilie Ruiz & Catherine Thevenard-Puthod, 2020. "Communautés d'innovation : de leur caractérisation au questionnement de leurs frontières," Working Papers hal-02891869, HAL.
    15. J. Andrei Villarroel & John E. Taylor & Christopher L. Tucci, 2013. "Innovation and learning performance implications of free revealing and knowledge brokering in competing communities: insights from the Netflix Prize challenge," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 42-77, March.
    16. Tiziana Russo Spena & Marco Trequa & Francesco Bifulco, 2016. "Knowledge Practices for an Emerging Innovation Ecosystem," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 13(05), pages 1-21, October.
    17. Michael Kaethler, 2019. "Curating creative communities of practice: the role of ambiguity," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, December.
    18. Sandra Dubouloz & Anne Berthinier-Poncet & Luciana Castro Gonçalves & Emilie Ruiz & Catherine Thevenard-Puthod, 2021. "Innovation communities: from their characterization to the questioning of their boundaries [Comunidades de innovación: desde su caracterización hasta el cuestionamiento de sus fronteras]," Post-Print hal-02891869, HAL.
    19. Nooteboom, B., 2007. "Cognitive Distance in and Between COP’s and Firms : Where do Exploitation and Exploration take Place, and How are they Connected?," Discussion Paper 2007-4, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    20. Davide Nicolini, 2011. "Practice as the Site of Knowing: Insights from the Field of Telemedicine," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 602-620, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:25:y:2011:i:2:p:342-351. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.