Communities of practice

Lave and Wenger grounded their early theorizing in workplace apprenticeship examples, looking at how “newcomers” learned from “old timers” as legitimate peripheral participants; that is, members on the edge of the community who are permitted to remain at the edges temporarily, gradually moving towards core membership as they learn the shared ways of doing in that community and develop identities as insiders or perhaps becoming marginalized if they are unsuccessful or even remaining as legitimate peripheral participants long term. Therefore, it should not be surprising that language in the workplace researchers were early adopters of communities of practice as a way to theorize group membership and identity (e.g., Holmes and Marra 2002; Holmes and Stubbe 2003; Mullany 2008; Schnurr 2009a). It has proved to be a very fruitful model for these purposes, and in the rest of this chapter I will explore how the model has developed on a mutually reformulating path with the field of language in the workplace. I will also make some suggestions for further possible applications of communities of practice as the field broadens and begins to turn its attention to an increasingly wider diversity of workplace environments and activities.