well but.... my sense of the whole point of LPP is that the
community/practice evolves and it does so by the eventual replacement of
experts, ie, the turnover in the community. to the extent that newbies, and
frankly everybody, is a co-member of many "communities," there is the
constant possible infusion of new ideas, new spin, on the
practice/activity. L&W talk a lot about the natural "tension" (or
contradiction) in the community btwn the up and coming and the old and
established. I take all that to indicate multidirectional influence and
development.
and now, dueling texts:
"In recent accounts of learning by activity tehorists (e.g., Engestrom,
1987), the major contradiction underlying the historical development of
learning is that of the commodity. Certainly this is fundamental to the
historical shaping of social reporduction as well as production. But we
believe that a second contradiction -- that between continuity and
displacement -- is also fundamental to the social relations of production
and to the social reproduction of labor." (L&W, 1991, p. 114)
"The different ways in which old-timers and newcomers establish and
maintain identities conflict and generate competing viewpoins on the
practice and its development. Newcomers are caught in a dilemma. On the one
hand, tehy need to engage in the existing practice, which had developed
over time: to understand it, to participate in it, and to become fulol
members of the community in which it exists. On the other hand, they have a
stake in its development as they begin to establish their own identity in
its future." (ibid, p 115)