Affinity space

An affinity space is a place where learning happens. According to James Paul Gee, affinity spaces are locations where groups of people are drawn together because of a shared, strong interest or engagement in a common activity.^{[1][page needed][2][page needed]} Often but not always^[3] occurring online, affinity spaces encourage the sharing of knowledge or participation in a specific area, and informal learning is a common outcome.^[4] In his coining of the term, Gee takes the notion of participatory cultures,^[5] and reframes it to the idea of "space". To Gee, what is happening in these online cultures is not merely a "culture" – and far different from a "community". In Gee's view, the word "community" conjures up images of belongingness and membership (p. 70).^{[2][page needed]} Instead, he has defined these worlds as "spaces" – a term that allows for the "robust characterization of the ebbs and flows and differing levels of involvement and participation exhibited by members" ^{[2][page needed]}

According to Gee (2004), "An affinity space is a place or set of places where people affiliate with others based primarily on shared activities, interests, and goals, not shared race, class culture, ethnicity, or gender" (p. 67).^{[2][page needed]}

Gee (2004) refers to affinity spaces and states, "Learners 'apprentice' themselves to a group of people who share a certain set of practices (e.g. learning to cook in a family, learning to play video games with a guild, learning to assemble circuit boards in a workplace, learning to splice genes in a biology lab), pick up these practices through joint action with more advanced peers, and advance their abilities to engage and work with others in carrying out such practices" (p. 70).^[2]

What Gee (2004) tries to explain about Affinity Spaces is not an attempt to label a group of people. By affinity space, he means a space where people can interact and share a lot with each other. The people who are interacting in a space might find themselves as sharing a community with some others in that space, while other people might view their interactions in the space differently. Gee (2004) adds, " In any case, creating spaces within diverse sorts of people can interact is a leitmotif of the modern world" (p. 71).^[2]