Info Systems J (2007) 17, 349–368 © 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 349 Blackwell Publishing LtdOxford, UKISJInformation Systems Journal1350-1917© 2007 The Authors; Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd ? 200717••349368Original ArticleKnowledge management in the Brit- ish CouncilW Venters & B Wood Degenerative structures that inhibit the emergence of communities of practice: a case study of knowledge management in the British Council Will Venters* & Bob Wood † *Department of Management, London School of Economics, London, UK, email: w.venters@lse.ac.uk, and † School of Informatics, University of Manchester, UK, email: bob.wood@manchester.ac.uk Abstract. This paper presents the British Council’s knowledge management strategy. It outlines how, as part of this strategy, the organization attempted to engender communities of practice among a strategically significant group spread across the 110 countries in which the organization operates. Using a case study of this group, the paper explores ‘degenerative structures’ that impact on the ability to engender communities of practice and, through consideration of issues of indi- vidualization and risk, highlights a series of paradoxes that inhibited this organi- zation’s attempt to move from a ‘hub-and-spoke’ structure to become a networked organization in which communities of practice flourish. Keywords: knowledge management, communities of practice, cultural relations, risk, individualization INTRODUCTION This paper describes how the implementation of a knowledge management system within the British Council faltered. It examines reasons for this failure given that the implementers had a good understanding of the common pitfalls of such projects and worked hard to avoid them. The implementers had attempted to develop the conditions by which a ‘community of practice’ might emerge among a strategically significant group of employees, something argued to be beneficial for knowledge creation and sharing within the literature (Brown & Duguid, 1991; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). The paper explores degenerative structures that might have undermined this implementation, and describes such degenerative structures in order that information systems scholars and practitioners might consider such factors in the future. The paper does not consider communities of practice as capable of management in any rationalistic manner because they are self-selecting fluid social relationships, and so perhaps