Masculinities and femininities as communities of practice

This exploratory paper argues that treating masculinities and femininities as localised communities of practice is a useful approach to the question of how and why particular forms of gender are performed at particular times and places. In the paper I consider Lave and Wenger's [Lave, Jean, & Wenger, Etienne (1991). Situated Learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press; Wenger, Etienne (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press] conceptualisation of learning as taking place through legitimate participation in communities of practice and demonstrate how this characterises the learning of particular forms of masculinity and femininity practice. I further discuss the implications of this for our understanding of identity and for the salience of bodies and bodily forms as reified markers of masculinity and femininity. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.