Limits of the Local

Expanding Perspectives on Literacy as a Social Practice

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5778036
AutoresDeborah Brandt (University of Wisconsin–Madison), Katie Clinton (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
Año2002
Volumen34
Número3
Páginas337-356
Fecha de publicación2002-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Reading Behavior (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-4111 • E-ISSN: 1554-8430
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1207/s15548430jlr3403_4
OpenAlexW2136554323
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas175
Referencias citadas23

This essay reflects on how the social practice model of literacy, an approach that defines reading and writing as situated, social practices, under-theorizes certain aspects of literacy, making it hard to account fully for its workings in local contexts. We trace this theoretical blind spot to the ways that the social practice model was formulated as a challenge to the "Great Divide" or "autonomous" models of literacy. We suggest that in rejecting a conception of literacy as a deterministic force, the revisionists critique veers too far in a reactive direction. By exaggerating the power of local contexts to define the meaning and forms that literacy takes and by under-theorizing the potentials of the technology of literacy, methodological bias and conceptual impasses are created. To open new directions for literacy research we suggest more attention be paid to the material dimensions of literacy. Drawing on the work of Bruno LaTour (1993, 1996), we seek to theorize the transcontextualized and transcontextualizing potentials of literacy = particularly its ability to travel, integrate, and endure. Finally, we propose a set of analytical constructs that treat literacy not solely as an outcome or accomplishment of local practices, but also as a participant in them. By restoring a "thing status" to literacy, we can attend to the role of literacy in human action. The logic of such a perspective suggests that understanding what literacy is doing with people in a setting is as important as understanding what people are doing with literacy in a setting

Critical literacy · Social practice · Digital Communication and Language · Literacy, Media, and Education · Media, Communication, and Education