ABSTRACT
This chapter assumes this view of knowing to consider how organizations depend on social learning systems. First, I outline two aspects of a conceptual framework for understanding social learning systems: a social definition of learning in terms of social competence and personal experience, and three distinct modes of belonging through which we participate in social learning systems: engagement, imagination, and alignment. Then I look at three structuring elements of social learning systems: communities of practice, boundary processes among these systems and identities as shaped by our participation in these systems. About each of these elements I use my conceptual framework to ask three questions. Why focus on it? Which way is up, that is, how to construe progress in this area? And, third, what is doable, that is, what are elements of design that one can hope to influence? Finally, I argue that organizations both are constituted by and participate in such social learning systems. Their success depends on their ability to design themselves as social learning systems and also to participate in broader learning systems such as an industry, a region, or a consortium.
