ABSTRACT
This chapter distinguishes and clarifies different processes of learning that are often conflated in the literature. It argues that the processes of learning distinguished are most usefully conceptualised in terms of competences, thus avoiding some of the ambiguities and category mistakes that can be found in the existing firm and regional literature. The chapter also argues that different kinds of learning process can be identified at both the firm and regional level. These different kinds learning process are to learning made possible by being part of some collectivity; and the way a collectivity encodes the lessons of its members in the structures that constitute it. The chapter suggests that much ambiguity and confusion in the learning literature stems from a failure to distinguish two essentially quite different processes. It creates a distinction between two senses in which the 'collectiveness' of learning is emphasised. These includes: 'learning within an epistemic community'; and 'system learning'.
