Understanding Communities of Practice

Abstract

In the analyses presented in the previous four chapters, the local cultural context within which each interaction occurred has been outlined and positioned as central to the reading of the various interactive moves made by the Sapphic Stomper women. The conversation taking place at that time, the relationships between the women present and the significance of the topics raised and views expressed have all been considered in order to explain the indexical meaning of the stances taken. In this way, the necessity of an ethnographic framework for the analysis of interactive constructions of identity has been demonstrated. The CoP described and explored in this book was one with its own norms, values, ethos and expectations, and making sense of how its members attached meaning to its practices has required an understanding of each of these aspects of the group. In order to understand why the Stomper women evaluated such practices as wearing make-up or skirts in a negative way (as in Section 6.1), for example, or why they positioned bisexuality as somehow inauthentic (such as in Section 5.2.2.2), or what subtle indexical links were made to broader queer culture through the claiming of the label ‘Dyke’ (see Chapters 5 and 6), it was essential to also understand what it meant to be a Sapphic Stomper. Through the ethnographic methodology described in Chapter 4, an insight into this was achieved.