ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Community of Practice (CoP) for alternative infrastructure for gender equality in academic institutions (Alt+G) that gathers researchers from Slovenia. Building on a history of efforts to achieve gender equality in Slovene academia, the CoP gathers scholars (and some non-academic staff) dedicated to promoting women in science, improving gender equality in their institutions and the sector as a whole. The chapter demonstrates how the focus of transformative efforts shifted from the level of national regulations to the academic institutions, due to systemic conditions. Furthermore, it shows that the CoP approach is particularly beneficial for spreading and multiplying structural change within the institutions of higher education and research organisations, and that it can help overcome certain systemic fallacies. The CoP structure and sense of community is able to provide a framework that turns unforeseen challenges into windows of opportunity for institutional change and creates space for mutual learning. Since the CoP approach operates on the fuel of personal motivation and depends on individual rather than institutional commitment, its ability and reach in enhancing concrete institutional change is contingent on favourable structural context.
