Literacy

Writing, Reading and Social Organisation

By: John Oxenham

Write A Review

eText | 27 November 2017 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Format
ePUB

eText

$73.69

or 4 interest-free payments of $18.42 with

Instant online reading in your Booktopia eTextbook Library *

Why choose an eTextbook?

Instant Access *

Purchase and read your book immediately

Read Aloud

Listen and follow along as Bookshelf reads to you

Study Tools

Built-in study tools like highlights and more

* eTextbooks are not downloadable to your eReader or an app and can be accessed via web browsers only. You must be connected to the internet and have no technical issues with your device or browser that could prevent the eTextbook from operating.

Originally published in 1980. The skills of reading and writing have been proclaimed as universal human rights. This book explores why this should be so. In particular, it examines whether or not the possession of reading or writing skills has, or has not, influenced the values and organisation of society. Viewing literacy as a technology, the author maintains that like all technologies, it is created by man for limited purposes. Nevertheless, given the right conditions, it can be used by man to change not only other technologies, but also himself and (in the end) all of his society. But like other technologies, literacy too may be subject to obsolescence which poses the all-important question of whether the advent of universal literacy has coincided with the redundancy of the written word.