ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the practice-based learning perspective and more specifically the literature on communities of practice. It reviews theoretical insights about the discontinuities of construction organisation and their consequences for learning and innovation, learning through social practice in construction, and learning in communities of practice introducing the two main concepts used for our case analysis – participation and reification. The chapter presents two contrasted cases of communities forming in France and Sweden, drawn from the authors’ previous studies. The first case deals with the French construction firm Spie Batignolles and illustrates how an internal community supports the development of an innovative partnering concept branded as Concertance. The second case deals with the development of new prefabricated concrete products in Sweden based on a mixed community formed between NCC Construction and its long-standing concrete supplier Abetong. The chapter discusses managerial implications and opportunities for further research.
