 A group of people which is defined by social engagement for a common goal is called community of practice. In previous modules, we defined it, we talked about it in an informal way, to have first hand idea of this important concept that in fact will dominate our current discussion. So first of all, we should be clear about this notion of community of practice. It needs social engagement and social engagement has a purpose and that purpose is shared by the whole group that is called community of practice. The group is different in practices individually. There are ways of talking, there are background values, beliefs, power relations and methods of doing things. That can vary. The group is not uniform. Individuals are different with reference to all these things. But their goal, purpose, for social engagement, for social interaction within the group, that is the same. The group has core peripheral membership. This is another feature of community of practice. So here, first of all, when a new member comes, he has peripheral marginal membership of the group. And the old members which are already part of that, they are called core members of that group. So in this way, the relationship between new members and old members make it a hierarchical system. There is a peripheral and core relationship between members of the group. And they know doing things jointly. And knowing things is knowing different ways of using language. Now see here, knowing things is directly linked with knowing ways of using language in different manners. These ways of using language construct our new identity. So we are in a relationship of peripheral and core members. Then we interact with the members and we know how these people do different things within the group. And when we know these things, we know them by using different ways of language. And this would ultimately give us a new identity within the group. These groups are like factory, golf club, neighborhood play group, giant family, nuclear family, we also call it. Code, law code, they are some examples of communities of practice. Because they have all these features which we have talked about. COP for community of practice, I will be using COP now. COP can be larger or small. A few members or a number of members can form a social group. For example, university is a large community of practice, but academy is small. Community of practice can be intensive or it can be diffused. By intensive we mean that it is located on a specific place, a specific context. Family codes for example, if they are located in capital cities only, so this COP is intensive. And if they are established across the country, so this COP becomes diffused. Diffused means separate. Similarly COP, they can be born, they are born and they die. They come into existence, they flourish, they rise or they may be closed, they may be finished. For example, political party is established and if these people don't succeed to get power etc., the party may be abolished, may be eliminated or a new political party with a new aim and with a new name is formed. Then membership of COP is fluid. Members can come, members can go. This is what we mean by fluid. And COP may have crossovers with other closely related COP. For example, we have some charity. This is a COP, Akhuvath etc., for example. It has links with other COP's which are doing the same thing. So this is what we mean by crossovers between COP's. We conclude regarding these features of communities of practice that multiple membership and participation construct our identity. We can be member of more than one COP's and because of this membership, multiple participation and multiple membership we get our identity. In other ways, we can say we construct our identities because every COP gives us a new identity and the sum total of these identities is actually our identity. So identity is in fact a plural notion, a plural concept. If we want to know what an individual is, we can know through these COP's.