The power of place in human resource development: An invitation to explore the link between learning and location

✍ Scribed by Nick Nissley

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 82 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1044-8004
• DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.20090

✦ Synopsis

We speak idiomatically of "knowing one' s place," "finding one' s place," or sometimes "feeling out of place"; we may be "going places" or be "between a rock and a hard place." But what is the role of place in learning, especially in human resource development (HRD)? There is an emerging recognition of the link between learning and location emerging from HRD theorists and practitioners. For example, share this curiosity. They assert:

We work in places; we live in places; we learn in places. Everything that we do happens in a physical space of some kind. We may meet and interact virtually but we are still bound, bodily and physically, to places. And yet place, that physical context within which HRD, and everything else, happens [,] is taken for granted and rarely discussed. (p. 96) similarly note that place has been a generally undertheorized concept in educational research. , however, have pioneered research into place and learning in HRD, finding that "the way in which a greater awareness of the places in which we live and work and learn, of our immediate contexts, can be used to support individual and organizational learning and the design of learning events" (p. 96). Essentially, Hardy and Newsham assert that place theory, in the context of HRD, has an enormous and yet untapped potential to further our understanding and improvement of individual and organizational learning as well as the design of learning events. This article is framed by an assumption: Place matters. Consider, for example, where we choose to vacation, to live, and where we seek out inspiration. Countless magazines annually report "the top 10 best places to . . .