From conflict to communities: fields’ reshuffles and the emergence of communities of practice in humanitarian logistics

Panizzolo, Seila ORCID: 0000-0001-5596-6791 (2024) From conflict to communities: fields’ reshuffles and the emergence of communities of practice in humanitarian logistics. International Studies Quarterly. ISSN 1468-2478 (In Press)

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Abstract

Initiatives by agents in a favourable contingency can reshuffle transnational areas of practice and show how fields shape communities of practice (CoP). The article examines how CoPs emerge and develop, and why this happens in some areas and not others. It also explores whether CoPs should be situated within conflictual theories of the international, like field theory. The article argues that CoPs emerge through four stages, whereby (1) the initiative that resourceful agents take at the critical juncture of different fields of practice is followed by (2) a power reshuffle in the fields concerned due to other organisations recognising what those agents can offer. The result is (3) the selective consolidation of common practices only in those fields where organisations engage in collective learning and share the same takenfor- granted. Upon meeting these conditions, (4) the CoP can resist the competition from other organisations in its field and endure. Empirically, the article examines the case of a CoP that emerged in Dubai from the world’s largest humanitarian free zone and as part of the field of humanitarian logistics. Ultimately, CoPs are an ordering principle of international relations that does not contradict — but exists within — the tenets of field theory.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2024
Divisions:	Methodology
Subjects:	J Political Science J Political Science > JZ International relations
Date Deposited:	20 Dec 2024 10:33
Last Modified:	20 Dec 2024 10:48
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/126519

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