I have noted that the use of the expression "comunity(ies) of practice(s)" had been extensively used by socioculturalist researchers in America. In Brazil, nonetheless, some researchers had used the expression "commonality(ies) of practice(s)" also reffering to a certain group of people engaged on a very particular activity.
The term "activity", too, is here generally written - by those researchers - in the singular, never in the plural (activities). For example: If I am in classroom, teaching theater, I present to my students one - or more than one - proposal(s) of theatrical activitY. I do not usually use the expression theatrical activitIES. I try to engage them (students) in a specific activitY, although making use of different proposals - or strategies - to fit that end (Theatrical activitY). In other words: It's much more comprehensible according to AT someone speaks of Human activitY than Human activitIES. Or to say "mediated typically human activitY" although a complex activity like that pressuposes many and various ACTIONS.
It seems to us - Portuguese speakers - that the expression "commonalities of practice(s)" - particularlly the word "commonality" -can go beyond the meaning usually given to "community" since the last one always carries a sense of neighbourhood or the idea of living at a same town square or in the same place. Let me try to make it much clear: In a certain classroom, for example, I can find students who do not live even in the city where the school is offered to. These things can be much more observed in the very country side of Brasil but it can also happen in big cities which had incorporated small towns around, like São Paulo, Salvador - and I suppose NY, LA etc. Or non-presencial pedagogical interventions, like XMCA.
I do not know if something like "this" - how these words sound - occurs with the English language. Does it happen?
Ricardo Ottoni Vaz Japiassu
Professor da Universidade do Estado da Bahia-Uneb X
http://sites.uol.com.br/rjapias/
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