‘
Communities of practice’ as defined by Wenger, involve: “…groups
of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Wenger, N.D.: 1). Hildreth, Kimble and Wright (1998) note that definitions
of ‘
communities of practice’ are wide ranging. Wenger (1998) sees the concept as a new term for a familiar experience, and relates it to a social theory
of learning. The origin
of the term is in Lave and Wenger’s (1991) book Situated Learning (Stamps, 1998). They propose a theory
of situated learning where learning: “is an integral part
of a generative social
practice in the lived-in world” (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 35) and: “the mastery
of knowledge and skill requires newcomers to move toward full participation in the sociocultural
practices
of a community” (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 29). In essence, this concerns the process by which newcomers or ‘apprentices’ engage with and become a part
of a community
of practice which consists
of other apprentices, ‘young masters’ and masters. In looking at gender and language as community-based
practice, Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (1992) take Lave and Wenger’s notion
of community
of practice to mean: “an aggregate
of people who come together around mutual engagement in an endeavor. Ways
of doing things, ways
of talking, beliefs, values, power relations—in short,
practices—emerge in the course
of this mutual endeavor. As a social construct, a community
of practice is different from the traditional community, primarily because it is defined simultaneously by its membership and by the
practice in which that membership engages” (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, 1992, p. 464).
Learn more in:
Applying Bourdieu to eBay's Success and Socio-Technical Design