TY - JOUR
TI - Community of Practice as a Form of Voluntary Academic Cooperation
AU - Prawelska-Skrzypek, Grażyna
AU - Maciąg, Justyna
AU - Sinha, Tammi
AU - Welch, Christina
AU - Ward, Nigel
TI - Community of Practice as a Form of Voluntary Academic Cooperation
AB - 
	Background. Contemporary challenges motivate academics to look for forms of activities stimulating creative processes, releasing creativity, and supporting cooperation between universities and their socio‑economic environments, including the expansion of knowledge with the active participation of these environments. Such effects are brought about by cooperation within the framework of a community of practice – a traditional form of academics’ organizing themselves that is currently being rediscovered.

	Research aims. A presentation and analysis of examples of informal academic cooperation in Poland and the United Kingdom.

	Methodology. A case study has been conducted on the basis of statements made by British and Polish researchers and practitioners involved in communities of practice.

	Findings. The result of the conducted research is the identification of a theoretical basis necessary for understanding various types of voluntary cooperation within an academic community. The research results show that communities of practice are an effective way of working thanks to the stimulation of creative processes, academics’ individual development, and advantages gained by institutions. Their key strengths are the absence of formalization and the joy of creation. They constitute a renaissance of the traditional forms of work compatible with academics’ styles of living.

	JEL Codes: I23
VL - 2019
IS - Numer 18 (4)
PY - 2019
SN - 2449-8920
C1 - 2449-8939
SP - 53
EP - 72
DO - 10.4467/24498939IJCM.19.012.11755
UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/international-journal-of-contemporary-management/artykul/community-of-practice-as-a-form-of-voluntary-academic-cooperation
KW - informal academic cooperation
KW - community of practice