ABSTRACT
This section of the book discusses the conceptual framework adopted for this research. Two complementary theoretical perspectives of communities and collaboration networks in complex knowledge-intensive RTD work are presented. This chapter presents concepts of community as the social locus of knowledge in technological practice. It makes particular reference to personal network communities facilitated by communication and transportation technologies, communities of practice within organisational settings, and scientific and technological communities of practice enabling the development of existing and new technological traditions. Chapter 3 discusses collaboration and networking in RTD work starting from the processes of technological innovation, rather than the communities which socially shape new ideas and technologies. Social networks are considered important for both theoretical perspectives because they play a crucial role in understanding how knowledge about new technologies is created and shared, and because they highlight how various actors and groups give meaning to a technological innovation over great distances by reinventing and translating it during its adoption and implementation processes.
