community of practice

Human beings live in communities and whatever they do is a joint performance conducted by them in communities of practice. This joint activity is carried out in ongoing conversation between people in which they negotiate what they are doing and how they are making sense of what the are doing. In this activity, they become who they are -- together they construct their identities.

Every community of practice is characterized by a dominant discourse, the most acceptable way to converse, which reflects power positions supported by ideologies. Most communities of practice are also characterized by some resistance to, or criticism of, the dominant discourse. A community of practice can change in the tension between the dominant discourse and the critique of it.

Source: Stacey, 2007, pp 2)