Understanding Textual Practices in a Changing World

Abstract

To address questions about the future of Literacy Studies, this chapter first gives a brief overview of some of the theoretical framing provided by Literacy Studies and then reviews the evidence from detailed ethnographic studies of literacy in different contexts, from research carried out at Lancaster in England and more broadly. The chapter discusses two common findings from the range of studies which have been undertaken: the crucial role of mediators, mentors, brokers, networks and sponsors; and how particular practices have different significance and meaning in different domains of life. Looking at the future of Literacy Studies, the chapter further points to the significance of literacy in an increasingly textually mediated social world, including how texts are cultural artefacts and can be traced across contexts to link the local and the global; and how textual meaning-making is increasingly multimodal with electronic texts having growing importance. Finally, some future directions for the field are suggested. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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