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This article aims to explore, by drawing on, and coordinating and combining Cultural Historical Activity Theory and Community of Practice theoretical perspectives, what we might learn about how to design for Lesson Study that best supports both collective and individual learning.

The article primarily makes a theoretical contribution. It does, however, draw on, and is informed by, the design of a large-scale study that sought to improve teaching and learning in mathematics with the particular aim of improving grades of post-16 learners in national examinations in England. Lesson Study was central to the designed intervention and such design is explored from the two theoretical perspectives.

Theoretical analysis suggests how the careful design of Lesson Study can facilitate both individual and collective learning in terms of the theories networked here. In particular, it is suggested that supporting collective learning requires careful attention to how “disturbances” in activity systems need to be designed for rather than being left to chance and how architectures that can support individual learning in terms of identity development should pay attention to supporting emerging practices as well as defining what is non-negotiable.

The article takes a novel approach by coordinating and combining two different, and well established, theoretical approaches, which, significantly, are used quite widely in social science research. Together they provide a rich view of learning at both individual and collective levels and suggest ways in which we might better support design for Lesson Study.

The ongoing challenge to sustain educational reforms requires a learning process through which doubt is induced as a means of fostering productive school change. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of doubt as well as the doubting process and its importance to the school community, particularly with regard to educational reforms.

After discussing the notions of doubt and the doubting process in the context of school reform, collective doubting in school administration is presented, accompanied by empirical illustrations.

Whereas existing change management literature acknowledges resistance to change as a negative phenomenon, doubt and doubting – questioning the taken-for-granted need for reform and the way the reform should be carried out – is conceptualized as a positive and constructive phenomenon, a source for collective learning. The paper presents limitations, implications, and avenues for future research regarding the doubting process in the context of school reform.

The collective doubting perspective has been sorely under investigated in the educational context. The constructive reform framework of collective doubting may help schools and policy makers develop and sustain educational reforms to foster continuous growth within students and practitioners alike.

In this final chapter, we explore the ever-evolving 21st century landscape where ethics drive community development toward resilience and progress. Drawing inspiration from the subheadings mapping our journey, we traverse international case studies spanning Canada, Brazil, Sweden, Kenya, China, Australia, Antarctica, and India. Through these global insights, we uncover the impacts of dynamic forces on communities worldwide, navigating ethical dilemmas and opportunities. We present strategies tailored to diverse continent-specific needs, explore inclusive governance models, and highlight the transformative power of ethical engagement. This journey underscores the vital role of resilience and concludes with a global call to embrace ethical approaches for inclusive community development and a sustainable future.

The medicalization thesis derives from a classic theme in the field of medical sociology. It addresses the broader issue of the power of medicine – as a culture and as a profession – to define and regulate social behavior. This issue was introduced into sociology 50 years ago by Talcott Parsons (1951) who suggested that medicine was a social institution that regulated the kind of deviance for which the individual was not held morally responsible and for which a medical diagnosis could be found. The agent of social control was the medical profession, an institutionalized structure in society that had been given the mandate to restore the health of the sick so that they could resume their expected role obligations. Inherent in this view of medicine was the functionalist perspective on the workings of society: the basic function of medicine was to maintain the established division of labor, a state that guaranteed the optimum working of society. For 20 years, the Parsonian interpretation of how medicine worked – including sick-role theory and the theory of the profession of medicine – dominated the bourgeoning field of medical sociology.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and discuss the role that spiritual development plays in the development of learning individuals and organizations. Spiritual development has been examined though the lens of various meditative practices (such as transcendental meditation, mindfulness and flow) and religious indoctrinations (such as Hinduism and Islam).

Possibilities of developing learning individuals and learning organizations have been examined by reviewing the benefits of meditative practices and core beliefs of several religious indoctrinations. The findings have been discussed and put into context of the desired learning organizations characteristics, especially from the perspective offered by Peter Senge.

The presented discussion points to the conclusion that spiritual development, either by practicing certain meditation practices or by implementing core values of different religious indoctrinations, can be considered as a missing and a powerful leverage when developing learning organizations. Spiritual development of individuals might be the missing link or the Holy Grail which could make the learning organizations, as defined by Senge, not only logical and desirable but also attainable.

In this paper, other religious indoctrinations and their correspondence with the learning organization philosophy, besides Hinduism and Islam, have not been considered.

Implications for practitioners, especially managers, have been identified regarding recommendations for designing working environments that would enable space and time for practicing meditative practices. Implications for raising the level of consciousness have been identified for individuals striving to enliven their state of being and hence improve their creativity and motivation, as well as the inner sense of serenity and well-being. Suggestions have been provided for practitioners in the academic environment regarding the need to introduce the benefits of raising the level of consciousness to their students.

Raising the level of consciousness and developing spirituality can have tremendous positive social implications in terms of improved health, ethical and moral conduct, social relations, creativity, productivity and general welfare.

By comparing the benefits of raising the level of consciousness by practicing meditation and reflecting on religious core values and beliefs with the desired learning organization characteristics, it becomes clear that individual spiritual development is the missing link when building learning organizations.

Captures the researches, experience and current thoughts of two leading professional corporate university and corporate academy solutions designers and developers. Provides a provocative commentary on the quality of current management perspectives and practice in the area of corporate university management and comments on some of the popular misconceptions of what the corporate university is all about. Moves forward, from a critique perspective, with comments on a proactive modality for configuring intellectual properties and implementing intervention programmes. This process involves the development of dynamic scenarios around “thinking schools” properties and their manifestation through management processes defined as the BLU way. Emphasises the vital strategic management role being undertaken by the new generation of corporate university managers and the nature of the skills and competencies necessary in renewing and sustaining intelligence based enterprise cultures in organisations.

This paper seeks to show appreciation for the collective endeavour of work practices based on varying degrees of dependence, interdependence and mutuality between at least two people. Such dependencies have to be concerned with how talent is used and how this use is an interaction between people, a process called talenting. The aim of this paper is to provide a method to explore talenting.

The paper provides a brief overview of recent debates relating to talent management (TM). This paper argues that TM seldom pays attention to work practices where performance is frequently a collective endeavour. A mapping method is explained to identify work practices and obtain narrative data. This paper provides a case to explore talenting in West Yorkshire Police.

In total, 12 examples are found and 3 are presented showing the value of various forms of dependency to achieve outcomes.

TM needs to move beyond employment practices to work practices. There is a need to close the gap between traditional TM employment practices, usually individually focused, and work practices which are most likely to require a collective endeavour.

There needs be ongoing appreciation of talenting to add to TM activities.

This paper recognises a more inclusive approach to TM based on work performance.

This paper, to the best of the authors’s knowledge, is probably the first enquiry of its kind.

This paper studies early stages of actor mobilization for institutional change within Swedish esports.

The authors employ interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The authors’ findings explain how actors become motivated to act in critical reflections linked to conflicting legitimacy judgments and emotionally charged personal struggles. Moreover, the findings show how, as actors get activated in collective action, they identify efficacy lines around valid domains and experience emotionally charged collective endeavors. Furthermore, the findings explain how particularities in early experiences project legitimacy aspirations that orient collective action toward validity ends and particular values and ideals shaping actors' grassroots movements.

This study adds to legitimacy and institutional change theory through individual actors' perspectives, providing key insights into how they are motivated, activated, and oriented. This study is the first to investigate grassroots activists' personal stories in esports.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between the concept of the learning organization and that of the co-creation of value.

The paper is conceptual in nature and draws on data from a case study of a small highly innovative Australian company.

The authors show that, from a value co-creation perspective, the learning organization can be viewed as an open, collaborative, social/economic actor engaged in social/economic activities with other interdependent actors (organizations or stakeholders) in a network or ecosystem of actors to serve its mission/purpose and the well-being of the ecosystem.

As a conceptual paper, the authors rely primarily on previous research as the basis for the argument. The implications of the findings are that, as value co-creation practices are founded upon the generation and leveraging of specific intangible capital resources, more research located in alternative research paradigms is required.

There are important implications for organizational leadership in that the practices that underpin value co-creation require the leadership to be able to work constructively with multiple forms of systemic and agentic power.

In increasingly turbulent and hyper-competitive global operational contexts, sustainable value creation is becoming recognized as a collective achievement within a broad eco-system of collaborators. This has implications for the relational capabilities of all collaborators.

The authors introduce a new perspective on the role of power management in the facilitation of the co-creation of value. Arguing that value creation is becoming recognized as a “collective achievement”, they focus on the collaborative practices that enable such an achievement.

The purpose of this paper is to report the outcome of an interdisciplinary discussion on the concepts of profit and profitability and various ways in which we could potentially problematize these concepts. It is our hope that a much greater attention or reconsideration of the problematization of profit and related accounting numbers will be fostered in part by the exchanges we include here.

This paper adopts an interdisciplinary discussion approach and brings into conversation ideas and views of several scholars on problematizing profit and profitability in various contexts and explores potential implications of such problematization.

Profit and profitability measures make invisible the collective endeavour of people who work hard (backstage) to achieve a desired profit level for a division and/or an organization. Profit tends to preclude the social process of debate around contradictions among the ends and means of collective activity. An inherent message that we can discern from our contributors is the typical failure of managers to appreciate the value of critical theory and interpretive research for them. Practitioners and positivist researchers seem to be so influenced by neo-liberal economic ideas that organizations are distrusted and at times reviled in their attachment to profit.

Problematizing opens-up the potential for interesting and significant theoretical insights. A much greater pragmatic and theoretical reconsideration of profit and profitability will be fostered by the exchanges we include here.

In setting out a future research agenda, this paper fosters theoretical and methodological pluralism in the research community focussing on problematizing profit and profitability in various settings. The discussion perspectives offered in this paper provides not only a basis for further research in this critical area of discourse and regulation on the role and status of profit and profitability but also emancipatory potential for practitioners (to be reflective of their practices and their undesired consequences of such practices) whose overarching focus is on these accounting numbers.