Literacy. An introduction

Abstract

In order to better grasp the complexity of (mediation of) culture the concept of literacy is taken as a starting point.To grasp the concept of literacy is very complex, because the concept has received different meanings through time and space, as well as different accents from various perspectives, disciplines and contexts.One of the ways to give meaning to the concept is by starting from the recent debate around the crisis of literacy.After all, since that crisis -in the eighties of the last century -a proliferation of books and conferences with the word literacy in their captions can be noticed.Literacy received ample publicity as well, and usually in terms of 'the decline of cultural literacy': youngsters were no longer able to write properly, they would not know their classics any longer, let alone possess any historic knowledge or insight.In short, the attention was inspired by disquieting announcements about waning or otherwise reading and writing skills with pupils and adults and a fear for a constantly diminishing reading behaviour and the impact this might have on the written and literary intellectual culture (Soetaert & Top 1996).Through this double concern one can recognize the two extremes in between which the concept of literacy is defined: from 'the basic skill of reading and writing' to 'reading and assimilating of higher culture'.As Hannon states, until about a quarter of a century ago literacy was mainly linked up with illiteracy (Hannon 2000:1).In this view, it is about the lack of 'reading and writing skills' and the repercussion of this on the socio-economical situation of the people involved.To remedy this last issue, a basic curriculum needs to be developed with a uniform and standardized set of basic skills, and matching unambiguous criteria, exact measurements and qualifications.The determining factor in this view on literacy was the belief in an ideologically neutral instrument in the battle against exploitation and unemployment (Jacobs & Van Doorslaer 2000: 39).As functioning in society is the central issue, the concepts of 'functional literacy' and 'functional illiteracy' are often used in this view on literacy.This largely 'economical' perspective on literacy does not suffice for an article which deals with the complexity of today's culture, however.Even though this cannot be generalized, it is still a fact that a majority of the population in a western democracy master the basic skills of reading and writing to an adequate degree.In other words, how can the concept of literacy offer an interesting perspective on how youngsters and adults deal with 'culture'?

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