ABSTRACT
This benchmark text provides an accessible yet critical introduction to the theory and application of communities of practice and their use in a diverse range of managerial and professional contexts, from education to human resource development.
This book charts the development of the idea of communities of practice and explores the key relationship between learning and identity among:
- newcomers and ‘old timers’
- male and female workers
- the low skilled and the high skilled
- professionals and managers
- adults and adolescents.
Drawing on international empirical studies and adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, this book is useful reading for all students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers with an interest in work, employment, labour markets, learning, training or education.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter 3|11 pages
Lost in translation: communities of practice
The journey from academic model to practitioner tool
chapter 6|15 pages
Cultivating network analysis
Rethinking the concept of ‘community' within ‘communities of practice’
chapter 7|13 pages
Theorizing sport as a community of practice
The coach–athlete relationship in British professional basketball
chapter 9|11 pages
English apprenticeship from past to present
The challenges and consequences of rampant ‘community' diversity
chapter 10|11 pages
Sexuality, gender and legitimate peripheral participation
An ethnographic study of a call centre
chapter 11|13 pages
The learning trajectories of ‘old-timers'
Academic identities and communities of practice in higher education
chapter 13|15 pages
Communities of practice in their place
Some implications of changes in the spatial location of work
