Literacy Practices: Investigating Literacy in Social Contexts (Language in Social Life)

Recent developments in literacy research argue that literacy is not a neutral package of decontextualized skills, but must be understood in context as situated social practice.
Literacy Practices combines key theoretical issues in 'The New Literacy Studies' with illustrative case studies to examine this argument and provide new, more adequate ways of understanding literacy. In particular it argues that an adequate account of literacy must draw on both linguistic and social theory, providing a theory of text and a theory of practice. It emphasizes in particular the roles of literacy in multilingual settings and much of the case study material is drawn from the author's own work in London and Sydney.
The book begins by asking what is literacy and what models, myths and metaphors underpin its everyday understandings. It examines the social context of literacy, reviewing important theoretical sources and providing illustrative case studies, going on to review current linguistics perspectives on literacy, with illustrative texts. Mike Baynham also includes a critical review of ideas on reading and writing development from a social practice perspective, and concludes with a discussion of issues in researching literacy as social practice.
Literacy Practices will be of interest to students of applied linguistics, language education, cultural studies and adult education, as well as literary theorists and researchers, and anthropologists.