Communities of practice and networks : reviewing two perspectives on social learning

This article examines the similarities between the concepts of 'community of practice' and 'networking for learning'. This article examines the common elements, and discusses the approaches, the characteristics, theoretical background and importance for development of each model. Next, similarities based on conceptions of social learning are explored. Finally, it is argued that communities of practice and networks for learning are part of the same continuum with varying degrees of formality, ranging from informal communities of practice to highly formal networks for learning. This article provides a valuable, relatively accessible introduction to the ideas of "networking" and "community of practice", discusses how they have evolved and explores how they can be useful to the development sector