In this short book, co-authored with anthropologist Jean Lave, we first introduced the concept of community of practice.
It was an analysis of traditional apprenticeship systems.
It presents five case studies of apprenticeship.
Apprenticeship is usually associated with a relationship between a master and a student.
But we noticed that much of the actual learning takes places among members of a larger community that includes other apprentices and journeymen.
We called these communities "communities of practice."