Materializing Literacies in Communities: The Uses of Literacy Revisited

Description

What is a ‘contemporary’ understanding of literacy practices? How can ‘literacy’ be explained and situated? This book addresses literacy practices research, understanding it as both material and spatial, based in homes and communities, as well as in formal educational settings. It addresses a need to update the work done on theoretical literacy models, with the last major paradigms such as critical literacies and multiliteracies developed a decade ago. Kate Pahl draws on case studies to highlight experiences alternate from the traditional representations of literacy. She argues that the affordances of home and familiar spaces offer fertile ground for meaning-making. These resultant literacies are multimodal and linked to space, place and community. An important evaluative resource, this book details a range of methodologies for further researching literacy, describing ethnographic, visual, participatory and ecological approaches, together with connective ethnographies. This volume will appeal to academics and professions in literacy studies and language and education. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Copyright Acknowledgements 1 Introduction Space Materiality Aesthetics Narrative Representation Futures Methodology 2 Space Encountering a place Belonging in a place Living in a place Imagining a space The literacies of place My own exploration of place and space: A researcher journey Conclusion 3 Materiality Literacy and textiles Literacy and multimodality Language and everyday practices Language as Talisman Vignette Garden as text Artefactual literacies Literacy and (Im)materiality Conclusion 4 Aesthetics Creativity and aesthetics The literary and the aesthetic Aesthetics at the borders Decorative aesthetics Conclusion 5 Narrative Shared stories Making stories from the everyday Conclusion 6 Representation Representation and place Representation and culture Representation as aesthetic Representation as recognition Crafting representation Representation as embodiment Representation, the literary and the everyday Conclusion 7 Futures What could be: Sites of memory What could be: Sites of improvisation What could be: Sites of hope What could be: Stories and timescales What could be: Digital literacies and the ‘not yet’ Conclusion 8 Methodology Ethnography Collaborative ethnography as a way of being Intuitive methods Art practice and the ethnographic imagination Co-production Conclusion Notes References Index