Knowledge Cultures and the Shaping of Work-based Learning: The Case of Computer Engineering

This paper examines how the knowledge culture of computer engineering – that is, the ways in which knowledge is produced, distributed, accumulated and collectively approached within this profession – serve to construct work-based learning in specific ways. Typically, the epistemic infrastructures take the form of information structures with a global outreach that both hinge on and generate standardization and codification. At the same time, computer engineering implies extensive engagements with technological objects that are open-ended and in constant transformation, such as systems, programs and codes. The professional domain is thus characterised by a richness of what may be termed ‘epistemic objects’, that is, objects marked by their unfolding and question-generating qualities. The paper reveals how these features involve engineers in multiple and coexisting dynamics of objectual practice that provide and constitute opportunities for learning. The paper concludes by discussing some implications of this knowledge culture for individuals and communities alike.