Learning in Projects, Remembering in Networks?: Communality, Sociality, and Connectivity in Project Ecologies

Abstract

This paper seeks to contrast two opposing logics of project-based learning. Accumulation and modularization of knowledge denote the key imperatives of a learning logic that is exemplified by the software ecology in Munich. Learning is geared towards moving from ‘one-off’ to repeatable solutions. This cumulative logic is juxtaposed with a discontinuous learning regime that is driven by the maxims of originality and creativity. ‘Learning by switching’ here signifies the emblematic knowledge practice that is exemplified by the London advertising ecology. The paper explores these learning modes by subsequently exploring processes of learning and forgetting within and between the core team, the firm, and the epistemic community tied together for the completion of a specific project. In addition, the paper also directs attention to more diffuse learning processes in an awareness space that extends beyond and beneath the actual production ties. Instead of mapping the awareness space along a simplistic scalar nesting of network density and knowledge types (reduced to the notorious global vs local dichotomy), the paper proposes a differentiation that primarily involves different social and communicative logics. Whereas communality signifies lasting and intense ties, sociality signifies intense and yet ephemeral relations and connectivity indicates transient and weak networks.