The concept of “communities of practice” enjoys great popularity in economic geography
dealing with the question of how novelty comes into the world. However,
while the role of communities in innovation processes is increasingly recognized, their
function in terms of commercialization of generated new ideas remains a kind of blind spot
in most existing studies. The article focuses on the transformation of “affects” into
“interests” and “demands” and traces how meanings and values are produced out of affective
situations experienced by geographically widely dispersed community participants. The
paper connects empirical findings from three case studies of enthusiast-driven
“communities of interest” (case modding, fingerboarding and geocaching) with a
theoretically grounded perspective on practices of collective value creation. By following
pragmatic approaches, the article presents three intertwining dimensions of valuation
practices—sensemaking, sacralization and
commodification—and illustrates how “markets” emerge out of
communities' activities.
AhmedS
(2004) Affective economies. Social
Text22(2):
117–139.
2.
AminACohendetP
(2004) Architectures of Knowledge: Firms, Capabilities, and
Communities, Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
3.
AminARobertsJ
(2008) Knowing in action: Beyond communities of
practice. Research Policy37(2):
353–369.
4.
AndersonB
(2006) Becoming and being hopeful: Towards a theory of
affect. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space24(5):
733–752.
5.
AspersPBeckertJ
(2011) Value in markets. In: BeckertJAspersP
(eds) The Worth of Goods: Valuation and Pricing in the Economy,
Oxford: Oxford University
Press, pp. 3–38.
6.
BaldwinCHienerthCvon
HippelE
(2006) How user innovations become commercial products: A
theoretical investigation and case study. Research
Policy35(9):
1291–1313.
7.
BatheltHCohendetP
(2014) The creation of knowledge: Local building, global
accessing and economic development—Toward an agenda. Journal of
Economic Geography14(5):
869–882.
8.
BelkRW
(2010) Sharing. Journal of Consumer
Research36(5):
715–734.
9.
BelkRWWallendorfMSherryJFjr
(1989) The sacred and the profane in consumer behavior:
Theodicy on the Odyssey. Journal of Consumer Research16(1):
1–38.
10.
BerezinM
(2005) Emotions and the economy. In:
SmelserNJSwedbergR
(eds) The Handbook of Economic Sociology, Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, pp.
109–127.
11.
BerndtCBoecklerM
(2010) Geographies of markets: Materials, morals and
monsters in motion. Progress in Human Geography35(4):
559–567.
12.
BerndtCBoecklerM
(2012) Geographies of marketization. In:
BarnesTJPeckJSheppardE
(eds) The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Economic Geography,
Chichester:
Wiley-Blackwell, pp.
199–212.
13.
BoltanskiLThévenotL
(1999) The sociology of critical capacity.
European Journal of Social Theory2(3):
359–377.
14.
BoltanskiLThévenotL
(2006) On Justification. Economies of Worth,
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press.
15.
Brinks V and Ibert O (2015) Mushrooming
entrepreneurship: The dynamic geography of enthusiast-driven innovation.
Geoforum 65: 363–373.
16.
BrownJSDuguidP
(1991) Organizational learning and communities-of-practice:
Toward a unified view of working, learning and innovation.
Organization Science2(1):
40–57.
17.
ÇalişkanCCallonM
(2009) Economization, part 1: Shifting attention from the
economy towards processes of economization. Economy and
Society38(3):
369–398.
18.
ÇalişkanCCallonM
(2010) Economization, part 2: A research program for the
study of markets. Economy and Society39(1):
1–32.
19.
CohendetPGrandadamDSimonL
(2014) Epistemic communities, localization and the dynamics
of knowledge creation. Journal of Economic Geography14(5):
929–954.
20.
ColeABarberá-TomásD
(2014) Negotiating conventions and creating community: The
case of Cartoon and European animation. Journal of Economic
Geography14(5):
973–993.
21.
CutchinMP
(2008) John Dewey's metaphysical ground-map and its
implications for geographical inquiry. Geoforum39(4):
1555–1569.
22.
DahlanderLFrederiksenL
(2012) The core and cosmopolitans: A relational view of
innovation in user communities. Organization Science23(4):
988–1007.
23.
DeweyJ
(1916) Essays in Experimental Logic,
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago
Press.
24.
DeweyJ
(1939) Theory of valuation. In:
DeweyJ
(ed.) International Encyclopedia of Unified ScienceVol 2(4): Chicago, IL:
The University of Chicago Press, pp.
26–28.
25.
FarajSJarvenpaaSLMajchrzakA
(2011) Knowledge collaboration in online
communities. Organization Science22(5):
1224–1239.
26.
FaulconbridgeJ
(2010) Global architects: Learning and innovation through
communities and constellations of practice. Environment and
Planning A42(12):
2842–2858.
27.
FrankeNShahS
(2003) How communities support innovative activities: An
exploration of assistance and sharing among end-users. Research
Policy32(1):
157–178.
28.
Fuchs-HeinritzW
(2005) Biographische Forschung. Eine Einführung in Praxis und
Methoden. 3., überarbeitete Auflage, Wiesbaden:
VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
29.
GeogheganH
(2013) Emotional geographies of enthusiasm: Belonging to the
Telecommunications Heritage Group. Area45(1):
40–46.
30.
GertlerM
(2008) Buzz without being there? Communities of practice in
context. In: AminARobertsJ
(eds) Community, Economic Creativity, and Organization,
Oxford: Oxford University
Press, pp. 203–226.
31.
GibsonCWarrenA
(2014) Making surfboards: Emergence of a trans-pacific
cultural industry. The Journal of Pacific History49(1):
1–25.
32.
GrabherGIbertO
(2014) Distance as asset? Knowledge collaboration in hybrid
virtual communities. Journal of Economic Geography14(1):
97–123.
33.
GregsonNMetcalfeACreweL
(2009) Practices of object maintenance and repair. How
consumers attend to consumer objects within the home. Journal of
Consumer Culture9(2):
248–272.
34.
HaefligerSJägerPvon
KroghG
(2010) Under the radar: Industry entry by user
entrepreneurs. Research Policy39(9):
1198–1213.
35.
HagelJBrownJSDavisonL
(2010) The Power of Pull. How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set
Big Things in Motion, New York:
Basic Books.
36.
HaugeAPowerD
(2012) Quality, difference and regional advantage: The case
of the winter sports industry. European Urban and Regional
Studies20(4):
385–400.
37.
HienerthC
(2006) The commercialization of user innovations: The
development of the rodeo kayak industry. R&D
Management36(3):
273–294.
38.
HuiA
(2014) Enthusiasm. In: AdeyPBisselDHannamK
(eds) The Routledge Handbook of Mobilities, London; New
York: Routledge, pp.
172–181.
39.
HutterM
(2011) Infinite surprises: On the stabilization of value in
the creative industries. In: BeckertJAspersP
(eds) The Worth of Goods. Valuation & Pricing in the Economy,
Oxford: Oxford University
Press, pp. 201–220.
40.
HutterMStarkD
(2015) Pragmatist perspectives on valuation: An
introduction. In: Berthoin
AntalAHutterMStarkD
(eds) Moments of Valuation: Exploring Sites of Dissonance,
Oxford: Oxford University
Press, pp. 1–12.
41.
IbertO
(2007) Towards a geography of knowledge creation: The
ambivalence between “Knowledge as an Object” and “Knowing in Practice.”.
Regional Studies41(1):
103–114.
42.
IbertOSteinA
(2012) Spatialities of governance: Spatial imaginations
associated with market, hierarchy, networks and communities.
Geography Compass6(10):
602–616.
43.
JonesAMurphyJT
(2010) Theorizing practice in economic geography:
Foundations, challenges and possibilities. Progress in Human
Geography35(3):
366–392.
44.
Knorr
CetinaK (1981)
The Manufacture of Knowledge. An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual
Nature of Science, Oxford:
Pergamon Press.
LamnekS
(1995) Qualitative Sozialforschung. Band 2 Methoden und
Techniken, Weinheim:
Beltz.
47.
LangeBBürknerH-J
(2013) Value creation in scene-based music production: The
case of electronic club music in Germany. Economic
Geography89(2):
149–169.
48.
LatourB
(2005) Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to
Actor-Network-Theory, Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
49.
LatourB
(2013) An Inquiry into Modes of Existence. An Anthropology of the
Moderns, Cambridge, MA/London:
Harvard University Press.
50.
LaveJ
(2008) Epilogue: Situated learning and changing
practice. In: AminARobertsJ
(eds) Community, Economic Creativity, and Organization,
Oxford: Oxford University
Press, pp. 283–296.
LewisCI
(1946) An Analysis of Knowledge and Valuation,
La Salle, IL: The Open Court Publishing
Company.
53.
MarxK
(2009 [1872]) Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen
Ökonomie, Köln:
Anaconda.
54.
MayringP
(2003) Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. 8.
Auflage, Weinheim, Basel: Beltz
Verlag.
55.
Müller FC and Ibert O (2015) (Re-)sources
of innovation: Understanding and comparing time-spatial innovation dynamics through the
lens of communities of practice. Geoforum 65:
338–350.
56.
MuñizAMjrSchauHJ
(2005) Religiosity in the abandoned apple Newton brand
community. Journal of Consumer Research31(4):
737–747.
57.
MolALawJ
(1994) Regions, networks and fluids: Anaemia and social
topology. Social Studies of Science24(4):
641–671.
58.
O'MahonySLakhaniK
(2011) Organizations in the shadow of
communities. Research in the Sociology of Organizations33: 3–36.
59.
OrlikowskiWJ
(2002) Knowing in practice: Enacting a collective capability
in distributed organizing. Organization Science13(3):
249–273.
60.
PileS
(2010) Emotions and affect in recent human
geography. Transactions of the Institute of British
Geographers35(1):
5–20.
61.
ReckwitzA
(2012) Affective spaces: A praxeological
outlook. Rethinking History16(2):
241–258.
62.
RobertsB
(2002) Biographical Research,
Buckingham: Open University
Press.
63.
RobertsJ
(2006) Limits to communities of practice.
Journal of Management Studies43(3):
623–639.
64.
SimonB
(2007) Geek Chic: Machine aesthetics, digital gaming, and
the cultural politics of the case mod. Games and
Culture2(3):
175–193.
65.
StarSLGriesemerJR
(1989) Institutional ecology, “Translations” and boundary
objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley's museum of vertebrate zoology,
1907–39. Social Studies of Science19(3):
387–420.
66.
StarkD
(2009) The Sense of Dissonance. Accounts of Worth in Economic
Life, Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
67.
StarkD
(2011) What's valuable? In: BeckertJAspersP
(eds) The Worth of Goods. Valuation & Pricing in the Economy,
Oxford: Oxford University
Press, pp. 319–338.
68.
ThriftN
(2004) Intensities of feeling: Towards a spatial politics of
affect. Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography86(1):
57–78.
69.
ThriftN
(2006) Re-inventing invention: New tendencies in capitalist
commodification. Economy and Society35(2):
279–306.
Turnbull S (2000) The role of emotion in
situated learning and communities of practice. In: Conference proceedings on
working knowledge: Productive learning at work, 10–13 December. Sydney, NSW,
Australia: Research into Adult and Vocational Learning, University of Technology, pp.
453–461.
72.
UrbanWB
(1909) Valuation. Its Nature and Laws,
London: Swan Sonnenschein &
Co.
73.
Von
HippelE (2005)
Democratizing Innovation, Cambridge:
MIT Press.
74.
WeickKESutcliffeKMObstfeldD
(2005) Organizing and the process of
sensemaking. Organization Science16(4):
409–421.
75.
WengerE
(1998) Communities of Practice. Learning, Meaning, and
Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
76.
WengerE
(2000) Communities of practice and social learning
systems. Organization7(2):
225–246.
77.
WengerE
(2010) Communities of practice and social learning systems:
The career of a concept. In: BlackmoreC
(ed.) Social Learning System and Communities of Practice,
London: Springer, pp.
179–198.
78.
WengerEMcDermottRSnyderW
(2002) Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing
Knowledge, Boston, MA: Harvard
Business School Press.
79.
YinRK
(2014) Case Study Research. Design and Methods,
London/Thousand Oaks, CA/New Delhi, India/Singapore:
Sage.
