ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the concluding remarks of the book reflecting on what we can learn from our experiences of setting up, supporting and facilitating Communities of Practice (CoP) for greater Gender Equality in research and innovation (R&I) and higher education (HE) throughout Europe. We weave together a comparative analysis of the empirical experiences of the ACT CoPs, structuring our findings according to the three main CoP concepts; domain, community, and practice. We highlight how those geographical based CoPs, thematic CoPs as well as disciplinary based CoPs defined their domain, as well as reflecting on the advantages and disadvantages of the defined domain. Community, as regarding the quality of social relations developed and sustained throughout the CoPs – as well a brief reflection on who forms part of these communities is then considered, in relation to furthering gender equality. Finally, the practice that the CoPs engaged in, is reflected on, regarding developing knowledge through action, as well as through the sharing and exchanging of best practices. We finally consider the extent to which a CoP approach is appropriate to further gender equality, including the strengths and challenges, building on two distinct bodies of literature, the CoP literature, and GE in R&I literature.
