Negotiating Entrepreneurial Identity

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine Warren
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Negotiation Of Identity ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The Uk

This paper focuses on the negotiation of identity in case studies of four women undergoing career change in the UK. The triple nexus between identity as a reflexive journey, entrepreneurship as a social process and communities of practice is established and provides a powerful means of exploring the dynamics of the entrepreneurial transition. The paper examines how identity is constructed and reconstructed during their trajectory from one mode of work to another, as they acknowledged, and were acknowledged by, shifting communities of practice. The central argument of the paper is that the women were at times constituted as entrepreneurs by a powerful discourse, but that their first priority was to be recognized and legitimized as professionals as they engaged with particular communities of practice. Further, they rework these discourses with an impact not just at the level of their own individual experience, but also at network level through interaction with their community of practice. The study uses narrative analysis to provide insights into the processes and practices that have constituted their experience. The purpose of the paper is to contribute to an understanding of the early stages of entrepreneurial activity; this may be of benefit to policy makers, support services and educators, as well as the academic community. Theoretically, it is demonstrated that the notion of the community of practice has value in developing a processual understanding of the entrepreneurial transition.

Communities of practice as a multidisciplinary response in times of crisis: adapting to successful online learning practices

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerrie Sadiq
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Delivery Model ◽  
Learning Practices ◽  
Online Format

Purpose There are many success stories during Covid-19 of academics providing expertly delivered online learning experiences for tertiary students locally and around the world. This paper aims to consider how success was achieved by academics who are not specifically educated with the knowledge and skills to convert a traditional delivery model into an online format and who conventionally spend years working on single projects before they come to fruition. Design/methodology/approach This study provides, as a possible explanation for success, the willingness of academics to embrace a tertiary sector rather than discipline-specific collaborative learning approach to their own informal education in online learning practices through communities of practice. Using learning theory, both analytical and reflective methodologies are adopted through an examination of an example of a successful academic community of practice. Findings Engaging with a multidisciplinary community of practice can be highly beneficial for academics not specifically educated with the knowledge and skills to convert a traditional delivery model into an online format. Communities of practice provide more than online educational skills; they foster a sense of togetherness and a safe environment to share concerns and challenges on both a professional and personal level. Originality/value The benefits of communities of practice for academics during a period of profound operational disruption have yet to be documented in the literature. Specifically, this study highlights the supportive environment provided by a community of practice by examining the successful large-scale transition from face-to-face learning to an online environment during a pandemic.

scholarly journals Rethinking Situated Learning: Participation and Communities of Practice in the UK Fire and Rescue Service

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1045-1061
Author(s):  
James Brooks ◽  
Irena Grugulis ◽  
Hugh Cook
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Situated Learning ◽  
Legitimate Peripheral Participation ◽  
Rescue Service ◽  
Rescue Services ◽  
Being There ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Funding Cuts

Legitimate peripheral participation is the bedrock of situated learning. It involves the novice or newcomer acquiring skills through work in a community of practice (CoP). It is generally assumed that CoP learning involves novices moving in a centripetal manner from periphery to core, gaining skills and knowledge from established workers before becoming full members of the community. This article draws on qualitative research in Northern Fire, one of the UK’s largest fire and rescue services, to challenge the idea that novices’ learning progression is linear and sequential, highlighting their fundamental importance in CoPs. It argues that learning is radial, with established workers learning from novices, just as novices learn from established workers. The novices contributed to group dynamics passively, simply by being there; and actively, through their own skills and theoretical knowledge. When funding cuts and austerity curtailed recruitment, the absence of novice firefighters hindered CoP learning.

The ‘indie unions’ and the UK labour movement: Towards a community of practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 0143831X2110099
Author(s):  
Holly Smith
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Union Renewal ◽  
The Uk

This article draws on the concept of communities of practice (COP) in order to illuminate the phenomenon of ‘indie unions’ and their contribution to the UK labour movement. These unions are typically regarded as distinct from, and perhaps in opposition to, existing labour movement institutions, and thus exempt from consideration in debates about union renewal. The argument offered here aims to show that by conceptualising the UK labour movement as COP, and the indie unions as community members, they can be considered key actors in union renewal. Through case studies of different union campaigns in the outsourced cleaning sector, this article demonstrates how the indie unions’ strategies are being learned and practised by the established unions, thus situating them as an intrinsic part of a stratified yet solidaristic labour movement with the potential for renewal.

scholarly journals ISExpertNet: Facilitating Knowledge Sharina in the Information Systems Academic Community

10.28945/2888 ◽  
2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Viehland
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Global Information ◽  
Expert Network ◽  
Global Information Systems

In this study the global Information Systems academic community is viewed as a community of practice in which knowledge is resident but inadequately shared. The article begins by examining the application of knowledge management in communities of practice, especially the knowledge needs of shared work practitioners and conditions that facilitate knowledge sharing. The central part of the paper proposes an Information Systems Expert Network (ISExpertNet) as a solution for the global IS academic community to use in sharing expert knowledge. Especially, appropriate incentives to encourage knowledge contributions and operations of ISExpertNet are discussed. The article concludes by offering several suggestions for future research and development of ISExpertNet.

scholarly journals The National Association of Dance and Mime Animateurs (1986–9): A Community of Practice

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-173
Author(s):  
Jayne Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Professional Association ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
National Association ◽  
Community Settings ◽  
Community Dance ◽  
The Uk

The Foundation for Community Dance is the national lead body for community dance in the UK. It has been at the forefront of the development of community dance in Britain continuously for over twenty five years. It began, in 1986, as the National Association of Dance and Mime Animateurs (NADMA). This professional association of dance practitioners (referred to at the time as animateurs) sought to raise awareness of a newly identified profession and provide a forum for the dissemination of the forms, working processes and techniques needed to work successfully in community settings. This paper seeks to instigate a critical assessment of NADMA's work by considering it in relation to theoretical debates concerning cultural provision and pedagogic practice of the time and, subsequently, to the theory of communities of practice. The paper considers the cultural and educational policy contexts within which the dance animateurs, who formed and ran the association, worked. This helps explain the multiple demands and tensions, inherent in the cultural and pedagogic politics of the time, to which the profession was subject. The paper suggests that these were ultimately managed through the cooperative and collective working of NADMA members. In the five years following NADMA's formation some key parameters for dance development in Britain were established. The paper suggests that NADMA made a significant contribution to such development by helping to create a more integrated, adaptable dance profession and an infrastructure for participatory dance that pre-figured the national dance agency network of the 1990s.

Leaving Spain

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Me-Linh Hannah Riemann
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Biographical Research ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Southern European Countries

Since the beginning of the economic crisis of 2008, Spain, like other Southern European countries, has witnessed a mass departure of mostly young people looking for opportunities abroad. Leaving Spain is based on 58 autobiographical narrative interviews with recent Spanish migrants who went to the UK and Germany, and sometimes returned. By presenting a combination of in-depth case studies and comparative analyses, the author demonstrates the potential of biographical research and narrative analysis in studying contemporary Europe, including its overlapping crises. The scope of the sociological study is not limited to examining how those who left Spain experienced single phases of their migration. Instead, it focuses on the significance of migration projects in the context of their life histories and how they make sense of these experiences in retrospect. This book will not only be of great interest to social scientists and students in different disciplines and interdisciplinary studies such as sociology, anthropology, human geography, European studies, education, and social work, but also to professionals, European and national policy makers, and those interested in learning more about migrants’ experiences, perspectives, and (often invisible) contributions.

scholarly journals Solo self-employment, entrepreneurial subjectivity and the security–precarity continuum: Evidence from private tutors in the supplementary education industry

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110092
Author(s):  
Sarah L Holloway ◽  
Helena Pimlott-Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Choice ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Development Economic ◽  
Long Term Outcomes ◽  
Dominant Form ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Supplementary Education ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Education Industry

Entrepreneurship is regarded by policy makers and politicians as an accelerant for economic development. Economic geography demonstrates that rather than stimulating entrepreneurship in general, policy makers should support specific forms of entrepreneurship that fuel wider growth. The paper's original contribution is to insist that entrepreneurship research must also explore less growth-oriented, but crucially very widespread, forms of entrepreneurial activity. The paper therefore places solo self-employment – the self-employed without employees – centre stage as an exemplar of this trend. Research is presented on private tutors who run businesses from home, offering children one-to-one tuition in the burgeoning supplementary education industry. The paper scrutinises the causes, configuration and consequences of such solo self-employment as an economically marginal, but numerically dominant, form of entrepreneurship. In so doing, it makes three conceptual advances in the exploration of heterogeneous entrepreneurship. First, in examining why individuals become self-employed, the paper moves beyond classic efforts to understand entrepreneurship through binary push/pull mechanisms in models of occupational choice. Instead, the analysis demonstrates the importance of risk in entrepreneurship and paid employment, highlighting the multiple pathways into solo self-employment as opportunities and constraints coalesce in individual's lives. Secondly, in considering how the solo self-employed think about business, the research breaks through conventional definitions of entrepreneurship to demonstrate that solo self-employment involves a distinctively entrepreneurial subjectivity and practices. Thirdly, by investigating the consequences of solo self-employment, the findings transcend dualist interpretations of self-employment as the realm of entrepreneurial wealth or economic precarity, highlighting instead a security–precarity continuum in immediate and long-term outcomes.

scholarly journals European Youth Work Policy and Young People’s Experience of Open Access Youth Work

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
JON ORD ◽  
MARC CARLETTI ◽  
DANIELE MORCIANO ◽  
LASSE SIURALA ◽  
CHRISTOPHE DANSAC ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Young People ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Youth Work ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
European Youth

Abstract This article examines young people’s experiences of open access youth work in settings in the UK, Finland, Estonia, Italy and France. It analyses 844 individual narratives from young people, which communicate the impact of youthwork on their lives. These accounts are then analysed in the light of the European youth work policy goals. It concludes that it is encouraging that what young people identify as the positive impact of youth work are broadly consistent with many of these goals. There are however some disparities which require attention. These include the importance young people place on the social context of youth work, such as friendship, which is largely absent in EU youth work policy; as well as the importance placed on experiential learning. The paper also highlights a tension between ‘top down’ policy formulation and the ‘youth centric’ practices of youth work. It concludes with a reminder to policy makers that for youth work to remain successful the spaces and places for young people must remain meaningful to them ‘on their terms’.

scholarly journals Military Veterans and Welfare Reform: Bridging Two Policy Worlds through Qualitative Longitudinal Research

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Lisa Scullion ◽  
Katy Jones ◽  
Peter Dwyer ◽  
Celia Hynes ◽  
Philip Martin
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Military Veterans ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Veterans Affairs ◽  
Civilian Life ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk

There has been an increasing focus in the UK on the support provided to the Armed Forces community, with the publication of the Armed Forces Covenant (2011), the Strategy for our Veterans (2018) and the first ever Office for Veterans’ Affairs (2019). There is also an important body of research – including longitudinal research – focusing on transitions from military to civilian life, much of which is quantitative. At the same time, the UK has witnessed a period of unprecedented welfare reform. However, research focused on veterans’ interactions with the social security system has been largely absent. This article draws on the authors’ experiences of undertaking qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) to address this knowledge gap. We reflect on how QLR was essential in engaging policy makers enabling the research to bridge the two parallel policy worlds of veterans’ support and welfare reform, leading to significant policy and practice impact.

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