Emergent Communities of Practice : A Complexity Theory Lens

Conceptualizing on developing cognitive pathways for taming wicked problems within the context of complex adaptive social systems, we introduce a new type of community of practice (CoP), called second track processes, that generates social intelligence as solutions to these complex problems. Our model of CoP extends the current thinking on guided and self-directed modes; which considers CoP emergent and intentional processes coexisting to create new knowledge. Three concepts – complexity horizon, social horizon, and intelligence horizon – are developed from a trans-disciplinary perspective, to move CoP thinking beyond the control/autonomy debate using complexity theory. The paper develops a model for an emergent external CoP whose effectiveness may be measured by its social intelligence