ABSTRACT
Communities of practice are defined by shared practices and goals; the salience and meaning of those practices and goals can only be determined through detailed or ingroup knowledge. This chapter explains social groupings that may have more local meaning or more salience in the day-to-day workings of speakers' lives than something like social class does. The significance of social networks emerges implicitly in sociolinguistics as early as Labov's study of Martha's Vineyard. The chapter introduces some basic terminology associated with network analysis, as well as ways in which an analyst can identify social networks. It describes the notion of communities of practice, which bring the variation down to even more personal patterns of interaction, and offers the potential to connect with intra-individual style-shifting. The chapter concludes with a discussion of some theoretical issues arising from the discussion of social class or social status and social networks, especially the relationship between class and style.
