Dr Etienne Wenger: Learning in landscapes of practice

Dr Etienne Wenger presented 'Learning in landscapes of practice: recent developments in social learning theory' on Wednesday 1 May 2013 as part of the Festival of Research in the Brighton Fringe.

Learning is often viewed as something individuals do as they acquire information and skills. It is usually associated with some form of instruction. Dr Wenger presents a different perspective on learning, one that starts with the assumption that learning is an inherent dimension of everyday life and that it is fundamentally a social process. From this perspective, a living "body of knowledge" can be viewed as collection of communities of practice. Learning is not merely the acquisition of a curriculum, but a journey across this landscape of practice, which is transformative of the self. Achieving a high level of "knowledgeability" is a matter of negotiating a productive identity with respect to the various communities of practice that constitute this landscape. This lecture reviews the main tenets of this learning theory, the ways in which it has been used in practice, and more recent developments.