Cultivating network analysis: rethinking the concept of ‘community’ within ‘communities of practice’

Abstract

The concept of community is central to theories of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’, ‘situated learning’ and, most of all, ‘communities of practice’. The term appears twice in the second sentence – four times in the first paragraph – of Lave and Wenger’s classic text (1991: 29). It is even more prominent in Wenger (1998) and Wenger et al. (2002). However, unlike ‘practice’, the concept of community remains relatively underdeveloped in their works. As a result, unquestioned theoretical assumptions are incorporated into their analysis that both create a range of conceptual difficulties and exclude other perspectives that are more fruitful. This chapter will argue that the notion of communities of practice has, implicitly and uncritically, drawn on one particular theoretical tradition in the study of communities – that which focuses on the symbolic construction of imagined collective entities. It is further suggested that an alternative approach – theories of social networks – offers a better way of addressing some of the common criticisms that have been levelled at the idea of communities of practice.