GHERARDI, Silvia <br/><br/>
Knowing and learning in practice-based studies :  an introduction 

 - Bingley, UK :  Emerald,  2009 
<br/><br/> Purpose – The aim of this introduction to the special issue is to furnish a panorama on how practice-based studies (PBS) concerned with organizational learning have developed in recent years, and to describe the topics that such studies have debated. Design/methodology/approach – The articles in this special issue were first presented at the standing working group on “Practice-based Studies of Knowledge and Innovation in Workplaces” of the European Group for Organizational Studies, and will therefore provide the background to PBS and an idea of its methodology. Findings – The practice- based approach may be useful for: a renewed conception of organization as a texture of interrelated practices which extend to form an action-net sustained by a knowing-in-action which renews itself and transforms itself into being practiced; a renewed conception of knowledge as a situated, negotiated, emergent and embedded activity; a renewed conception of materiality as a form of distributed agency and an intimate relationship with humans; a methodology for analysis of the new forms of work as knowing-in-practice; and a lexicon which comprises new expressions and concepts for the renewal of organization studies. Research limitations/implications – The special issue does not represent an extended review of the literature on PBS. Originality/value – This paper offers an overview of an emergent field of studies.