Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, And Identity (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: New Ed, 1/13/2000
EAN 9780521663632, ISBN10: 0521663636
Paperback, 336 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
This book presents a theory of learning that starts with the assumption that engagement in social practice is the fundamental process by which we get to know what we know and by which we become who we are. The primary unit of analysis of this process is neither the individual nor social institutions, but the informal 'communities of practice' that people form as they pursue shared enterprises over time. To give a social account of learning, the theory explores in a systematic way the intersection of issues of community, social practice, meaning, and identity. The result is a broad framework for thinking about learning as a process of social participation. This ambitious but thoroughly accessible framework has relevance for the practitioner as well as the theoretician, presented with all the breadth, depth, and rigor necessary to address such a complex and yet profoundly human topic.
Prologue
Part I. Practice
Introduction I
1. Meaning
2. Community
3. Learning
4. Boundary
5. Locality
Coda I. Knowing in practice
Part II. Identity
Introduction II
6. Identity in practice
7. Participation and non-participation
8. Modes of belonging
9. Identification and negotiability
Coda II. Learning communities
Conclusion
Introduction III
10. Learning architectures
11. Organizations
12. Education
Epilogue.