Issues of identity came up on a number of occasions in Part I, but I did not address the topic directly. It is now time to turn to it. Focusing on identity, however, is not a change of topic but rather a shift in focus within the same general topic. Issues of identity are an integral aspect of a social theory of learning and are thus inseparable from issues of practice, community, and meaning. Focusing on identity within this context extends the framework in two directions:
1) it narrows the focus onto the person, but from a social perspective
2) it expands the focus beyond communities of practice, calling attention to broader processes of identification and social structures.
In addition, focusing on identity brings to the fore the issues of nonparticipation as well as participation, and of exclusion as well as inclusion. Our identity includes our ability and our inability to shape the meanings that define our communities and our forms of belonging.
The individual and the collective
I will use the concept of identity to focus on the person without assuming the individual self as a point of departure. Building an identity consists of negotiating the meanings of our experience of membership in social communities. The concept of identity serves as a pivot between the social and the individual, so that each can be talked about in terms of the other.
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