The purpose of the present book is to examine the challenges to human skills and competencies emerging from the knowledge society. Relying on a series of empirical workplace studies, as well as an extensive review of the psychological, sociological and educational literature, the authors develop a framework for examining human competence as a process of networked expertise. Networked expertise is relational in nature; it is constituted in interaction between individuals, communities, and larger networks supported by cognitive artifacts, and it coevolves with continuously transforming innovative knowledge communities. Networked expertise is examined from the perspective of three metaphors of learning, i.e. knowledge acquisition, participation, and knowledge creation, which are all relevant in workplaces as well as in educational institutions.
