The voluntary cooperation of academics as an example of the peer learning activity and its role in human resources development in a university.

Communities of practice and the impact for organizational improvements in universities and to the wider community. The question comes around again and again – What are Universities for? The work of Collins 2012, provides a good starting point to explore this. Building communities which can benefit from the living laboratories that are universities. Special places where academics develop their passion for their discipline, challenging and questioning the current theories and building strong knowledge bases which benefit society. Universities act as hubs to develop skills, knowledge and attributes that benefit society. Communities of practice are special, they act as a hub for people who share a passion for and a desire to solve common problems and or build and share knowledge for a common discipline.

This chapter presents the theoretical base for communities of practice, and provides a case study of how this approach develops networks which act as conduits from universities to wider society for developing skills and knowledge. Cooperation between academics and practitioners is key to this and to the act of rippling knowledge from our living labs (Universities). The case study is built using the testimony of academic and practitioners engaged in these communities of practice.