Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: communities of practice--a contested concept in flux? / Jason Hughes, Nick Jewson and Lorna Unwin -- Critiquing theories of learning and communities of practice / Alison Fuller -- Lost in translation: communities of practice--the journey from academic model to practitioner tool / Jason Hughes -- From communities of practice to mycorrhizae / Yrjèo Engestrèom -- Including the missing subject: placing the personal within the community / Stephen Billett -- Cultivating network analysis: rethinking "community" within communities of practice / Nick Jewson -- Sport as a community of practice: the coach-athlete relationship in British professional basketball / Val Owen-Pugh -- Becoming adults via communities of practice: the transition from work to adulthood / John Goodwin -- Apprenticeship from past to present: the challenges and consequences of rampant "community" diversity / Lorna Unwin -- Sexuality, gender, and legitimate peripheral participation: an ethnographic study of a call centre / Matthew Brannan -- The learning trajectories of old-timers: academic identities and communities of practice in higher education / Nalita James -- Unemployment as a community of practice: tales of survival in the new Germany / Vanessa Beck -- Putting virtual communities of practice in their place: changes in the spatial location of work / Nick Jewson -- Conclusion: further developments and unresolved issues / Jason Hughes, Nick Jewson and Lorna Unwin.