Learning between projects: An accomplishment of social-material practices in projects

The one-off nature of projects represents both a source for creating new knowledge and a barrier to continuously improving organisational routines. The temporary configuration of task-dependent resources appears to stimulate learning within projects but limits the dissemination of this learning between projects and the broader organisation. This paradoxical learning potential of projects has attracted much attention in the literature. However, learning from and between projects is still predominantly seen as the inflow and outflow of knowledge possessed by individuals or stored in databases or documents. Such a narrow view of project-based learning neglects the social-material complexity of project practices. In this paper, the argument is put forward that learning between projects is foremost an accomplishment of social-material practices in the context of projects. By adopting a practice theory lens and based on an illustrative case of railway viaduct construction, we will show how cross-project learning trajectories emerge from the social-material practices in projects.