Communities of Practice

<p>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. </p><p>This book charts the development of the idea of communities of practice and explores the key relationship between learning and identity among:</p><ul> <p> </p> <li>newcomers and ‘old timers’</li> <li>male and female workers</li> <li>the low skilled and the high skilled</li> <li>professionals and managers</li> <li>adults and adolescents.</li> </ul><p>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.</p> <p>1. Introduction: Communities of Practice - A Contested Concept in Flux? <em> </em>2. Critiquing Theories of Learning and Communities of Practice<em> </em>3. Lost in Translation: Communities of Practice: The Journey from Academic Model to Practitioner Tool 4. From Communities of Practice to Mycorrhizae 5. Including the Missing Subject: Placing the Personal Within the Community 6. Cultivating Network Analysis: Rethinking ‘Community’ within Communities of Practice 7. Sport as a Community of Practice: The Coach-Athlete Relationship in British Professional Basketball 8. Becoming Adults via Communities of Practice: The Transition from Work to Adulthood 9. Apprenticeship From Past to Present: The Challenges and Consequences of Rampant ‘Community’ Diversity 10. Sexuality, Gender and Legitimate Peripheral Participation: An Ethnographic Study of a Call Centre <em> </em>11. The Learning Trajectories of Old-Timers: Academic Identities and Communities of Practice in Higher Education 12. Unemployment as a Community of Practice: Tales of Survival in the New Germany<em> </em>13. Putting Virtual Communities of Practice in their Place: Changes in the Spatial Location of Work 14. Conclusion: Further Developments and Unresolved Issues </p>