Community Literacies As Shared Resources for Transformation

Through multiple narratives reflecting the complexity of participatory action research partnerships for social justice, this book sheds light on the dialogic spaces that intentionally support community literacies and rhetorical practices for inquiry and change. Applying literacy as social practice, Larson and Moses tell a story of a unique collaboration between community members and university faculty and students, who together transformed an urban corner store into a cornerstone of the community. Building on the emerging field of community literacies, the book captures the group’s active work on the ground and, on another level, how transformation occurred in the dialogic spaces of the research team as it learned to embrace distributed expertise and multiple identities.

Joanne Larson is the Michael W. Scandling Professor of Education at the University of Rochester, USA.

George H. Moses is the Executive Director of North East Area Development, Inc. (NEAD) and Group 14621 Community Association in Rochester, USA.