本書作者萊夫是加利福尼亞大學伯剋利分校的教育學教授，溫格則是一位從事學習研究的科學研究者。在此書中，他們從根本上對有關學習的概念進行瞭極其深刻的反思。他們站在人類學的立場上，將研究的重點放在完整的人的身上，將知識視為個人和社會或物理情境之間聯係的屬性以及互動的産物，並將研究學習的焦點移至實踐共同體中學習者社會參與的特徵，從而將參與視作學習的關鍵成分。由此，該理論認為意義和身份的同時在互動中建構的，這一建構受到所在更廣泛的情境脈絡的極大影響。本書共包括四個部分：1、閤法的邊緣參與；2、實踐、人、社會世界；3、助産士、裁縫、軍需官、屠夫、戒酒的酗酒者；4、實踐共同體中的閤法的邊緣參與。總之，本書是一本極其短小精悍的專著，但其研究學習的新穎視角、腳踏實地的研究風格、字裏行間躍動著的原創性思維卻讓人嘆為觀止並深受其益。

In this important theoretical treatist, Jean Lave, anthropologist, and Etienne Wenger, computer scientist, push forward the notion of situated learning - that learning is fundamentally a social process. The authors maintain that learning viewed as situated activity has as its central defining characteristic a process they call legitimate peripheral participation (LPP). Learners participate in communities of practitioners, moving toward full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community. LPP provides a way to speak about crucial relations between newcomers and old-timers and about their activities, identities, artefacts, knowledge and practice. The communities discussed in the book are midwives, tailors, quartermasters, butchers, and recovering alcoholics, however, the process by which participants in those communities learn can be generalised to other social groups.