ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we explore how meaning might be reconceptualised from a sociomaterial perspective. This involves deploying a new set of terms which trouble anthropocentric conceptions of meaning making and text but also help us to develop a coherent sense of what literacy does, why it is important and what this new perspective offers to our concern with digital communication. We suggest that what happens in heterogeneous encounters between people and materials disrupts conventional thinking about meaning making in general, and about literacy in particular. We propose a series of conceptual tools that support a conceptualisation of meaning making – and literacy in particular – that is consistent with a sociomaterial perspective: meaning potential, social–material–semiotic arrangements, and social–material–textual arrangements.
