Learning Communities in a Learning Region
The Soft Infrastructure of Cross-Firm Learning Networks in Silicon Valley
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4138728 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chris Benner (0000-0002-4618-0719, Department of Geography, 302 Walker Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16803, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Pages | 1809-1830 |
| Publication date | 2003-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1068/a35238 |
| OpenAlex | W2030752669 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 55 |
| References cited | 44 |
The ability of firms, industries, and regions continually to translate information and knowledge into viable new products, services, and production processes in the face of constantly changing technology and market conditions is increasingly at the core of competitive success in the contemporary economy. Such economic learning is ultimately dependent on the ability of individuals to learn, and yet most of the literature in this area has focused on firms and organizational learning processes, and is only beginning to engage seriously with people's learning processes. This paper explores the links between social learning processes and dynamics of innovation in Silicon Valley, arguing that cross-firm, occupationally based, 'communities of practice' provide a critical context for individuals to learn and maintain the competencies they need to be successful in the region's dynamic but volatile economy. These cross-firm occupational learning communities in many cases are being built through the activities of formal professional associations, which are playing an increasingly important role in providing the organizational infrastructure to sustain these learning communities. Using a case study of an association of women in Internet design and development occupations, the author illustrates the value of such communities in supporting individual and collective learning processes. These findings suggest that economic development strategies could productively be focused on identifying, strengthening, and expanding access to such cross-firm occupational learning communities
Business · Competitive advantage · Geography · Knowledge management · Organizational learning · Political science · Public relations · Social learning · Computer Science · Innovation and Knowledge Management · Innovative Education and Learning Practices · Marketing
Spatial Planning and High-tech Development
Evolution of Wenger's concept of community of practice
Is regional innovation system development possible in peripheral regions? Some evidence from the case of La Pocatière, Canada
How to unlock regional economies from path dependency? From learning region to learning cluster
(How) Do (Firms in) Clusters Create Knowledge?
Temporary Architectures of Learning
Regional Cultural Economy
Bad company? The ambiguity of personal knowledge networks
Networks of learning within the English wine industry
Exporting the Silicon Valley to China
Work-life 'balance' and gendered (im)mobilities of knowledge and learning in high-tech regional economies
Do clusters really matter for innovation practices in Information Technology? Questioning the significance of technological knowledge spillovers
A Network-based view of regional growth
Localized mobility clusters
Missing Elements of Knowledge Diffusion between Trade Fairs and Industrial Clusters Beyond Pipelines
Modelling urban transition with coupled housing and labour markets
Female entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia
Modelling the smart city performance
Smart cities in perspective – a comparative European study by means of self-organizing maps
Fostering connectivity
Knowledge Collaboration and Proximity
Social Networks in High-Technology Local Economies
Work–Life ‘Balance’, Recession and the Gendered Limits to Learning and Innovation (Or, Why It Pays Employers To Care)
Work–life (im)‘balance’ and its consequences for everyday learning and innovation in the New Economy
Brain circulation and flexible adjustment
Geographies of production
Economic geographies of power
Ecosistemi dell'innovazione
Buzz and tranquility, what matters for creativity? A case study of the online games industry in Shanghai
Industrial Districts as Open Learning Systems
Do Urban Social Enterprises Benefit from Agglomeration? Evidence from Four UK Cities
The End of the Learning Region as We Knew It; Towards Learning in Space
Scientific Labour Markets, Networks and Regional Innovation Systems
Between Culture, Policy and Industry
Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Industrial Development
Regional innovation systems
Work and life in the clear‐cut
Analysing the role of consumers within technological innovation systems
Rescaling regions in the state
Gendered Geographies of High-Tech Regional Economies
Labour Relations and the Transfer of Knowledge in Industrial Clusters
Exploring the Knowledge Strategies of Temporary Cluster Organizers
Global Architects
On the Sociospatial Dynamics of Personal Knowledge Networks
Exploring cultural economies of internationalization
Critical Success Factors and Cluster Evolution
Exploring the Role of Professional Associations in Collective Learning in London and New York's Advertising and Law Professional-Service-Firm Clusters
Business and Professional Networks
Shadow Spaces for Social Learning
Reproducing the City of London's Institutional Landscape
Relational and Dialectical Spaces of Knowing
Reproducing Toronto's Design Ecology
Uneven Geographies of Organizational Practice
The Cato Manor Development Project in Durban, South Africa
Entrepreneurial regions
The Formation of Professions
The regional world
Psychological Contracts in Organizations
The Rise of Professionalism
The System of Professions
Understanding Silicon Valley
Communities of Practice
The Associational Economy
Competitiveness, Localised Learning and Regional Development
Cognition in the Wild
Economies of Signs and Space
Work in the New Economy
Territory-Based Regional Development Policy and Planning in a Learning Economy
The Competitiveness of Firms and Regions
Technopoles of the World
Regional innovation systems
What Machines Can't Do
The Learning Region
The Intersection of the Learning Region and Local and Regional Economic Development
Toward the learning region
Regional institutions and knowledge – tracking new forms of regional development policy
The learning region in an age of austerity
Talking about machines
The Learning Economy, the Learning Firm and the Learning Region
Learning and Adaptation in Decentralised Business Networks
Learning Regions
High-Technology Agglomeration and the Labor Market
Situated Learning
| Unique citing works | 55 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,5 |
| Citation span | 2004 - 2024 (21) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 54 |