Translating Local Knowledge at Organizational Peripheries*
研究在组织边缘地带工作的员工如何将实践中获得的地方知识翻译给中心管理层，但这类知识常被忽视或贬低，探讨了地方知识与专家知识的结构性差异。
Abstract This article theorizes about the kinds of knowing present in organizations that share both a structural similarity in the organization of work and work practices – a ‘double periphery’ in which a community of practitioners acts across both a horizontal, geographic periphery and a vertical, hierarchical periphery – and a common mode of practice – translating across these peripheral borders. In principle, these workers develop knowledge in interaction with clients and customers that could be valuable to the organization, were it but to learn from them. Instead, the ‘local knowledge’ they learn in acting across these peripheries is discounted, if not disparaged, by more centrally‐located managers and executives. The article theorizes about the nature of translating local knowledge concerning organizational practices and about the structural character of local versus ‘expert’ knowledge.