Local Literacies ─ Reading and Writing in One Community

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.

David Barton is Professor of Language and Literacy and Director of the Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University, UK. He is series editor of the Literacies series (Routledge) and author and co-editor of numerous titles including Literacy, Lives and Learning (2007, Routledge).
Mary Hamilton is Professor of Adult Learning and Literacy and Associate Director of the Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University, UK. She is the author of Literacy and the Politics of Representation (forthcoming, Routledge).

Foreword by David Bloome. Preface. Part I 1. Understanding Literacy as Social Practice 2. Locating Literacies in Time and Space: (1) A history of literacy in Lancaster 3. Locating Literacies in Time and Space: (2) Lancaster Today 4. Ethnography in Practice Part II 5. How They Have Fared in Education: Harry’s Literacy Practices 6. Getting Things Done in the Community: Shirley’s Literacy Practices 7. Living a Local Life: June’s Literacy Practices 8. Leisure and Pleasure: Cliff’s Literacy Practices Part III 9. Everyday Literacies: (1) The Range of Practices 10. Everyday Literacies: (2)the Patterning of Practices 11. Home, Learning and Education 12. The Web of Literacies in Local Organisations 13. Becoming Expert: Literacy and Sense-making 14. Vernacular Literacies 15. Afterword