Local Literacies

Reading and Writing in One Community

By: David Barton, Mary Hamilton

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Paperback | 24 February 2012 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
338 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.6 x 1.78

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Local Literacies is a unique detailed study of the role of reading and writing in people's everyday lives. By concentrating on a selection of people in a particular community in Lancaster, England, the authors analyse how they use literacy in their day-to-day lives. It follows four people in detail examining how they use local media, their participation in public life, the role of literacy in family activities and in leisure pursuits. Links are made between everyday learning and education. The study is based on an ethnographic approach to studying everyday activities and is framed in the theory of literacy as a social practice.

This Routledge Linguistics Classic includes a new foreword by Deborah Brandt and a new framing chapter, in which David Barton and Mary Hamilton look at the connections between local and global activities, interfaces with institutional literacies, and the growing significance of digital literacies in everyday life.

A seminal text, Local Literacies provides an explicit usable methodology for both teachers and researchers, and clear theorising around a set of six propositions. Clearly written and engaging, this is a deeply absorbing study and is essential reading for all those involved in literacy and literacy education.

Industry Reviews

'Local Literacies presents complex ideas, mixing debates from linguistics, social history and cultural studies; yet it is written with enviable clarity ... Anyone interested in literacy education needs to read this book.' - Jane Mace, South Bank University, UK

'A rare achievement. A holistic study of local literacies in one community which is both accessible and engagingly written. A book I would happily recommend to academics, practitioners, parents, teachers, community workers and the general public. Barton and Hamilton raise many questions, move debates about literacy forward, and reveal a broad understanding of the sheer complexity of literacies in ordinary people's lives. A stimulating and respectful book.' - Sarah Padmore, UK

'One of the best books on literacy I have read in my career. I can see myself going back to this book again and again, learning more each time I read it ... You can't leave the book without new insights about the nature of literacy in people's lives.' - David Bloome, Vanderbilt University, USA

A rich ambitious book that explores insightfully how we govern ways the written and read word works for us. Barton and Hamilton disclose the heart of our vernacular literacies - close up framings of our time, space, relationship and transformational points in our lives.' - Shirley Brice Heath, Stanford University, USA

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