Linda C Li et al, “Evolution of Wenger’s Concept of Community of Practice”

This article explores the evolution of the community of practice concept and its development through a historical literature review. A community of practice (“CoP”) is a type of informal learning organization (Wenger). Its main goal is to enhance self-efficacy. CoP has been described as a tool that can improve the capacity to develop and share knowledge. Communities provide the groundwork for sharing knowledge and provide a safe environment for learning through observation, interaction and discussions. A strong community fosters interactions and relationships based on mutual respect and trust.

Early work surrounding CoP centered around interactions between novices and experts that developed as the two interacted, and that perpetuated the system of interactions and mentoring (Lave and Wenger, 1991). CoP was later conceptualized as the means by which engagement in informal groups, internal and external to the workplace, which they called ‘community-of-communities”, encourages information sharing and solution development of job-related problems (Brown and Duguid, 1991). CoP was expanded to encompass three interrelated dimensions: mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire (Wenger, 1998). Mutual engagement represents the interaction between individuals, leading to a shared understanding of an issue. Joint enterprise is the process used by individuals working towards a common goal. Finally, shared repertoire refers to the language or resources a group uses to negotiate meaning and facilitate learning within the group. Later literature defined CoP as “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger et al., 2002). The original interrelated domains were recharacterized as the domain, community, and practice. The domain represents the common ground and boundaries that enable individuals to share ideas. The community creates the social structure that facilitates learning, and the practice is a set of shared resources such as documents, ideas, experiences, etc. In essence, together, these three elements can enhance CoP.

Linda C Li et al, “Evolution of Wenger’s Concept of Community of Practice” (2009) 4:11 Implementation Science.