by Jada Evora
Definition: A community of practice is a group of people who come together and share the same values and practices while working together to achieve a common goal.
Description
Within any given society, you’re guaranteed to find smaller communities. However, not every community is a community of practice (CofP). A group living in the same region as each other does not make them a community of practice, you have to look a little deeper than that. Communities of practice are more than people who share the same interests, because that would just be a club. The interactions between people of the same CofP often includes exchanging of knowledge that would help them move through society or somehow make them closer to achieving their shared goal. These interactions can happen consciously or unconsciously. Another identifying feature of a CofP is their shared use of language and language ideologies. It is important to recognize what language can reveal about the cultures of these CofPs. A great example of this is the ancient city of Sparta. The Spartans differentiated themselves from other civilizations by educating and not censoring their women. In doing this, there was more equality between men and women in this CofP. Other civilizations in comparison devalued women and therefore created an overtly misogynistic culture. Anthropologists who study these groups can understand how they learn together and interact with those around them. CofPs are changing today because of the internet making it easier to find and interact with people with shared interests. For example, a fisherman blog can now share information about where to find the most fish in a lake to their readers instantly. These readers can engage in a back and forth interaction with each other without ever even meeting face to face.
Application
With the emergence of the Internet, forming a community of practice has never been easier. There are two tools that are the most useful for creating a CofP: language and visibility. Visibility means that they have a sense of their numbers, and common language and thoughts gives the group mutual activities to bond over. Most people who find themselves with an unpopular belief find it hard to meet people around them with similar beliefs. The internet breaks the regional boundaries previously set that made it difficult for people to find each other. For example, if you put together a website for tree hugging activists, it’s only a matter of time before more tree hugging activists from all over the world use that outlet to come together and share their experiences and knowledge. However, while we all shouldn’t have an issue with tree hugging activists, the formation of a CofP online isn’t always a good thing.
Teens, especially white teens, are susceptible to what we call radicalization. Radicalization is the action or process of causing someone to adopt radical positions on political or social issues, which in turn allows them to integrate into an alt right CofP. There are white supremacy websites with the goal of making teens talk and think like them. But most teens don’t jump from normal to radicalized in one sitting. In addition to that most people don’t set out in search of hate groups online. When disgruntled white teen boys go searching online for answers, they almost certainly will find the hate sites or these hate sites will find them. These “alternate rights” groups are not selling white supremacy online, they are advertising a way of life that can appeal to someone vulnerable. White supremacists most often use chat rooms like 4chan and Reddit to recruit unsuspecting victims, and initiate this slow integration into their CofP. These recruiters slowly begin exposing teens to conservative ideologies through mediums that aren’t too extreme. Teens take to images they are familiar with like memes, but these memes are altered in such a way that spreads racist ideologies. For example, take Pepe. What started off as an innocent picture of a frog would later be manipulated into a caricature of Hitler, and symbol for the white supremacy and neo nazi movement. (see below)
Original Pepe meme (top) Racist Pepe meme (bottom)
On such websites, these teens are given anonymity, so they are free to use whatever language (violent, racial or intolerant slurs etc) they wish, but how does that translate in the real world where there are consequences? In a BBC article, one child shares that “white teen males are afraid of being called racists.” In real life settings outside their CofP, White supremacists adopt a totally different form of language that shapes the thoughts of outsiders. For example, white supremacists resent people who call them Nazi’s because of the bad connotation. Initially when people say the word “nazi”, your mind is flooded with terms that are symbolic of the World War 2 Nazi Regime; words like death, distruction, blatant racism, etc. It is this very reason that these white supremacists have come up with different ways to identify themselves. They prefer to be called “identitarians” which gives them the impression in people’s mind that they are some sort of clean cut, well educated philosophers. These groups also identify with the “alternative right” portion of the political spectrum because it’s better to say than to refer to oneself as a “white nationalist” or even worse “fascist”. This CofP uses language to camouflage themselves from the outside world, but this phenomenon has been present for a while. A very prominent example of this hidden language is the use of dog-whistle politics in around 1954 when lawmakers would use subtle language to pass racist laws. Other racist lawmakers were all fluent in this type of language, however the general public often had no idea what impacts these laws would have on them.
Okay, this all sounded very depressing but there is hope! We live in an age where all of the information we could ever want is at our fingertips, but we must learn to use this resource with caution. There are steps that parents and educators can and should take to stop radicalization before it’s too late. As influential adults, it is time to initiate a discussion about media literacy with children, or even friends who are susceptible to radicalization. Signs of a child being groomed for joining this CofP include asking questions about alt right talking points, sudden passion about political topics, isolating oneself, or even becoming violent and angry. It is important to discuss with children what they do online and limit how much time they spend there. Radicalization may be overlooked as a danger. Don’t make the mistake of allowing this threat into your home.