Minh-Dan: March 2008 Archives

Wenger summarized most of the things I've been thinking since the first readings pretty well. In one of my previous posts, I ranted about not having multiple identities and "multiple identities" vs. "multiple aspects." Wenger calls this idea "multimembership" and states that identity is a nexus of multimembership: one's identity is defined in one's connections between different communities and communities of practice. This makes complete sense; as I stated in another previous post, "the meaning [identity] lies in the connections."

And now, boundaries (although not boundary objects) makes more sense to me, because Wenger described boundaries in the context of identity and community. "Multimembership is the living experience of boundaries." Those seven words make more sense than the other five chapters we've read of Wenger so far. It's interesting to note, though, that some people do not know how to experience multimembership, or do not know how to "import and export" practices from one community to another. Take, for instance, that kid who only knows how to talk about marching band and date others in marching band, and uses marching band as every example in every class. Does this mean that his identity is more "unified" (unimembership?) than others'? Or, does it simply mean that his marching band community of practice is the most prominent in his life? (The contrast here is between oneness of self vs. dominance of one aspect of self.)