ABSTRACT
Literacy is primarily something people do; it is an activity, located in the space between thought and text. Literacy does not just reside in people's heads as a set of skills to be learned, and it does notjust reside on paper, captured as texts to be analysed. Like all human activity, literacy is essentially social, and it is located in the interaction between people. This book is a study ofwhat people do with literacy: of the social activities, of the thoughts and meanings behind the activities, and of the texts utilised in such activities. It is about how a particular group of people use reading and writing in their day-to-day lives. Of necessity, the book is particular; it sets out from individual people's lives and particular literacy events at a certain point in history. At the same time, it is also about the general nature of literacy and about the state of literacy in the world at the end of the twentieth century. This book explores contemporary uses and meanings of literacy in everyday life and the ways in which these are changing. It is based upon an ethnographic study which documents in detail literacy practices at one point in time and space: the time is the final decade of the twentieth century, the place is Lancaster, a town in the north-west of England. We look backwards at the history and cultural traditions on which these practices rest, as well as examining the constant change affecting people's contemporary practices.
