ABSTRACT
This book is a critical introduction to one of the most influential concepts to have emerged within the social sciences during recent years. The concept of ‘communities of practice’, and the associated concept of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’, arose out of a paradigm shift centring on the notion of ‘situated learning’. Together, these ideas have transformed the assumptions and metaphors guiding the study of learning, opened up new areas of empirical research and investigation, reinvigorated existing fields of enquiry and facilitated interdisciplinary exchanges of knowledge and expertise. Their impact can be measured by the growth and focus of academic publications, journals, conferences and networks since the early 1990s. Moreover, the concept of communities of practice has also had great influence outside academia. It has been developed as a managerial tool that is widely recommended by consultants as a beneficial aspect of the functioning of contemporary organizations (in both the public and private sector) characterized by an overt commitment to empowered collaborative working.
