Skill acquisition within a (more-than-human) community of practice: A study of beekeeping in Punjab, India
通过研究印度旁遮普省养蜂人的技能习得，发现学习不仅涉及人类实践者，还涉及蜜蜂、当地生态等非人类因素，且性别、宗教、种姓等身份对学习动机和归属感至关重要。
Understanding learning processes involved in sustainable rural transitions requires theories that recognise learning as a complex, socio-ecologically situated phenomenon. Communities of practice theory provides a socially embedded account of learning processes. It suggests that joining communities of practice and developing an identity as a practitioner provides a motivational and pedagogical framework within which learning can occur. Yet, we contend that understanding the complex situational factors at work in acquiring skills requires attention be paid to identities and relations beyond those currently recognised in communities of practice theory. Through a study of beekeepers’ skill acquisition in the Indian Punjab, we show how practitioners mobilise diverse identities that are relevant to learning, motivation, and belonging and not only their identities as (aspiring) practitioners. In Punjab, gendered, religious, and caste-inflected identities are particularly important. We also show that the communities in which learners are embedded consist not only of human practitioners but involve an array of entities and forces that enable, constrain, and share in learning and practice. For beekeepers, learning is a deeply social and ecological process, involving and conditioning human and nonhuman contributions. • Beekeepers acquire skills through engagement with fellow beekeepers, bees, and local ecology. • In the global South, they must be responsive to volatile economic and ecological conditions. • Their learning is often motivated by desires to identify as beekeepers and family providers. • Yet, they are also motivated and inspired by feelings of belonging to the local ecology. • These feelings develop through their practice and can inspire pro-environmental behaviour.