A sustentação das comunidades virtuais de aprendizagem e de prática

• Ano de defesa: 2008
• Autor(a) principal: Christopoulos, Tania Pereira
• Orientador(a): Diniz, Eduardo Henrique
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Palavras-chave em Português: Comunidades de prática; Aprendizagem; Teoria ator-rede; Identidade
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Communities of practice; Learning; Actor-network theory; Identity
• Link de acesso: https://hdl.handle.net/10438/2563

Communities of practice (CoPs) are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis. In order that a CoP evolves and reach its objectives it must contain characteristics proper of Learning Communities, which means that there are facilities like maps, models or discourses to motivate the interaction between the group competence and individual experiences. The technology is another facility and it may contribute to disseminate the knowledge and the practice because it improves cooperation. Once technology is introduced, the Learning CoPs may become Virtual Communities of Practice, whose sustainability is important in order that the organizations improve internal knowledge, by means of learning in practice, contributing to innovation and productivity. Many of these CoPs don’t sustain themselves during their first years. The reasons may be that interactions of the members of the Virtual Communities of Practice result – much of the time - into controversies. Many controversies may appear from different power relationships created by the new strategies adopted to deal with new realities or from the absence of an adequate stimuli policy from the organization where the Virtual Communities or Practice are embedded. New strategies interfere in identity formation processes that, as a consequence, interfere in the life-cycle of the Virtual Communities of Practice. This thesis analyses the main aspects which contribute to the sustainability of virtual CoPs. The case study of two Virtual Communities of Practice that were created by Fundap (Fundação do Desenvolvimento Administrativo) are explored, based on the Communities of Practice Theory and on the Actor Network Theory, composed with Simbolic Interacionism elements. The main contribution of this thesis is a description, which presents the strategies adopted by one organization to lead with the power relations and controversies in virtual communities of practice that it creates and manage, with implications to apprenticeship.