Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning, and
identity. Cambridge University Press.
</color>>Linda.
>A wonderful discussion you're opening up. Could you please
>supply a complete reference for Wenger's book (including a
>page reference for the quote)?
>Thanks.
>David Kirshner
>
<color><param>FFFF,0000,0000</param>The quote comes from a footnote for
chapter 1. The note is note 3 in chapter 1 on page 53: "Human
engagement in the world is first and foremost a process of negotiating
meaning3."
The text of the note is 286.
</color>>"I would argue that our actions do not achieve their meanings
in and of
>themselves, but rather in the context of a broader process of
neogtiation.
>By starting with practice as a context for the negotiation of meaning,
I do
>not assume that activities carry their own meanings. This is one
reason
>that I will not take discrete activities, or even systems of
activities, as
>a fundamental unit of analysis. In this regard, theories based on
practice
>have a different ontological foundation than activity theory
(Leont'ev,
>'81; Wertsch, '85)."
<color><param>FFFF,0000,0000</param>Leont'ev '81 refers to the oft
cited The problem of activity in psychology. In J. Wertsch (ed.), The
Concept of Activity in Soviet Psychology. Armonk, NY: M.E. ShARpe. I
have never been able to find this book. If there is anyone who has a
copy they would be willing to photocopy and send to me I'd pay
handsomely, fyi.
The Wertsch reference is Werstch, J. (1985). Vygotsky and the Social
Formation of Mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
</color>