Collective Learning at the Boundaries of Communities of Practice: Inclusive Policymaking at the World Bank

Abstract

This article explains the emergence of inclusive practices at the World Bank as a collective learning process between communities of practice. Contributing to the literature on practices and cognitive evolution in International Relations, this theory of learning goes beyond socialisation or meaning negotiation in communities in focusing on the translation of knowledge at the boundaries of communities of practice. This article also contributes to scholarship on international organisations in theorising communities and social processes that transcend formal boundaries. In brief, it develops three processes of change through collective learning (boundary encounters, brokerage, and the use of epistemic boundary objects) to understand the emergence of inclusive policymaking practices at the World Bank. Finally, it empirically explores how the Uganda Poverty Eradication Action Plan in 1997 participated in this collective learning. This research is based on 21 first-hand interviews, twenty publicly available interviews and extensive archival work.