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Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity

Item

Title

Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity

Abstract/Description

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.

Author/creator

Date

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Resource type

Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

Published Text

Scholarship genre

Textbook

Open access/full-text available

No

Peer reviewed

No

ISBN

978-1-107-26837-1

Citation

Wenger, E. (1999). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge University Press.

Num pages

216

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