ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the notion of event, a concept which has occupied an important place in literacy studies for a number of years and one which we revisit from a sociomaterial perspective. We begin by outlining and illustrating the ways in which the literacy event has been conceptualised showing how it has functioned as a unit of analysis in research studies concerned with a wide range of uses of literacy in social practice. This leads on to the consideration of some recent developments in literacy, theory and research that have begun to unsettle, challenge or refine how we think about event. The chapter then develops our own ideas about literacy-as-event (Burnett & Merchant, 2020), drawing on Massumi’s (2002) work on event and applying it to meaning making in digital media.
