Abstract

The aim of the paper is to explore how knowledge is acquired and transmitted in a community of practices and it forms a culture of practice. A community of practices is the privileged locus of the learning in practice and transmission of practical knowledge. This study is therefore an attempt to understand in what forms and by means of what mechanisms building-site novices are socialised in the community of practices and how, within this process, the competence relative to safety and danger is learnt. An ethnographic study, which takes a situational focus, is illustrated in order to highlight the social and cultural character of learning.