David Barton is Professor of Language and Literacy in the Department of Linguistics at Lancaster University. He is Director of the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre. His main work has been concerned with carrying out detailed studies of literacy practices in different domains of life and with rethinking the nature of literacy in contemporary society. Karin Tusting is a Research Associate at the Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University. She is currently working on the Adult Learners' Lives project, an ethnography study of the relationship between learning and other aspects of people's lives, working with adult literacy, numeracy, and ESOL learners.

• Introduction; 1. Literacy, reification, and the dynamics of social interaction David Barton and Mary Hamilton; 2. Language and power in communities of practice Karin Tusting; 3. Mediating allegations of racism in a multiethnic London school: what speech communities and communities of practice can tell us about discourse and power Angela Creese; 4. 'I've picked some up from a colleague': language, sharing, and communities of practice in an institutional setting Frances Rock; 5. The person in the doing: negotiating the experience of self Maria Clara Keating; 6. Communities of practice and learning communities: do bilingual co-workers learn in community? Deirdre Martin; 7. Moving beyond communities of practice in adult basic education Steven Robert Harris and Nicola Shelswell; 8. Communities of practice in higher education: useful heuristic or educational model? Mary Lea; 9. Communities of practice, risk, and Sellafield Greg Myers; 10. Semiotic social spaces and affinity spaces: from 'the age of mythology' to today's schools James Paul Gee.

David Barton is Professor of Language and Literacy in the Department of Linguistics at Lancaster University. He is Director of the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre. His main work has been concerned with carrying out detailed studies of literacy practices in different domains of life and with rethinking the nature of literacy in contemporary society. Karin Tusting is a Research Associate at the Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University. She is currently working on the Adult Learners' Lives project, an ethnography study of the relationship between learning and other aspects of people's lives, working with adult literacy, numeracy, and ESOL learners.

• Introduction; 1. Literacy, reification, and the dynamics of social interaction David Barton and Mary Hamilton; 2. Language and power in communities of practice Karin Tusting; 3. Mediating allegations of racism in a multiethnic London school: what speech communities and communities of practice can tell us about discourse and power Angela Creese; 4. 'I've picked some up from a colleague': language, sharing, and communities of practice in an institutional setting Frances Rock; 5. The person in the doing: negotiating the experience of self Maria Clara Keating; 6. Communities of practice and learning communities: do bilingual co-workers learn in community? Deirdre Martin; 7. Moving beyond communities of practice in adult basic education Steven Robert Harris and Nicola Shelswell; 8. Communities of practice in higher education: useful heuristic or educational model? Mary Lea; 9. Communities of practice, risk, and Sellafield Greg Myers; 10. Semiotic social spaces and affinity spaces: from 'the age of mythology' to today's schools James Paul Gee.

David Barton is Professor of Language and Literacy in the Department of Linguistics at Lancaster University. He is Director of the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre. His main work has been concerned with carrying out detailed studies of literacy practices in different domains of life and with rethinking the nature of literacy in contemporary society. Karin Tusting is a Research Associate at the Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University. She is currently working on the Adult Learners' Lives project, an ethnography study of the relationship between learning and other aspects of people's lives, working with adult literacy, numeracy, and ESOL learners.

• Introduction; 1. Literacy, reification, and the dynamics of social interaction David Barton and Mary Hamilton; 2. Language and power in communities of practice Karin Tusting; 3. Mediating allegations of racism in a multiethnic London school: what speech communities and communities of practice can tell us about discourse and power Angela Creese; 4. 'I've picked some up from a colleague': language, sharing, and communities of practice in an institutional setting Frances Rock; 5. The person in the doing: negotiating the experience of self Maria Clara Keating; 6. Communities of practice and learning communities: do bilingual co-workers learn in community? Deirdre Martin; 7. Moving beyond communities of practice in adult basic education Steven Robert Harris and Nicola Shelswell; 8. Communities of practice in higher education: useful heuristic or educational model? Mary Lea; 9. Communities of practice, risk, and Sellafield Greg Myers; 10. Semiotic social spaces and affinity spaces: from 'the age of mythology' to today's schools James Paul Gee.