Events

Communities of practice: what are they and what can they do for IR?

Federica Bicchi
Dept of International Relations
LSE

Have you ever encountered a group of people who work really well together and are able to come up with innovative solutions to shared problems? It is probably a community of practice (CoP), although according to mainstream characterisations in International Relations you would struggle to find an adequate descriptor. The aim here is to assess the analytical value of communities of practice (CoPs) and juxtapose it to other concepts, most notably networks, advocacy coalitions and epistemic communities, in order to clarify its added value for International Relations. I will start by looking at what communities of practice are, moving on to compare them with other concepts, such of networks. It will then tackle what CoPs can and cannot do, according to the literature that uses and criticises the concept. It will finish by suggesting how a research project in International Relations centred on CoPs could look like, by using the illustrative case study of European foreign policy cooperation.