Knowing a world in common: The role of workplace educators in the global production of working knowledge

Abstract

In this paper I am concerned with the challenge workplace learners and educators face, as they engage with global economies, to create ‘a world in common as … known in common’ (Smith 1999). I focus first on why global companies need their geographically dispersed workers to engage with a world ‘in common’, and how they go about constructing such a world. I pay particular attention to the role of written texts in connecting individual local sites with global discourses of knowledge production. Next, I explore the roles that workplace educators play in producing and interpreting the written texts of contemporary workplaces to produce ‘working knowledge’. I develop the argument that a critical dimension of the work of many workplace educators is the standardisation of language practice across institutions on a global scale, mediating local and global discourses to produce and use working knowledge. Finally, I discuss the political implications of the textual work that workplace educators undertake.