Professor David Barton is Director of the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre, Lancaster University, UK Dr Ute Papen is Senior Lecturer in Literacy Studies at Lancaster University, UK.

• Part 1: The anthropology of writing: writing as social and cultural practice; 1. What is the 'anthropology of writing'? David Barton and Uta Papen (both University of Lancaster, UK); 2. Acts of writing: when writing is doing, Beatrice Fraenke (EHESS, France); Part 2: Writing in the workplace - institutional demands; 3. Updating a biomedical database. David Pontille (EHESS, France); 4. Balancing demands from system and situation: literacy practices in a childcare workplace, Karin Tusting (University of Lancaster, UK); 5. Tracing cows: practical and administrative logics in tension, Nathalie Joly (EHESS, France); Part 3: Writing by individuals and institutions; 6. Vernacular spaces on the web. David Barton (University of Lancaster, UK); 7. Keeping a personal note-book in rural Mali: Practice, genre and the materiality of writing, Aissatou Mbodj-Pouye (EHESS, France); 8. Writing and being written about: patients as writers and recipients of health texts. Uta Papen (University of Lancaster, UK); Part 4: Historical perspectives; 9. Using Edwardian postcards to study ordinary writing, Julia Gillen and Nigel Hall (University of Lancaster, UK); 10. Legal and illegal forms of public writing in 17th century France, Anne Beroujon (UPMF Grenoble, France); 11. Writing illness: the diary of a doctor treating morphine addict in late nineteenth century France, Philippe Artieres (EHESS, France); Afterword: Current themes in the anthropology of writing. Brian Street (King's College London, UK); Bibliography; Index.

"An invigorating collection. With fresh terminology and fascinating cross-cultural perspectives, this book takes contemporary literacy studies to a higher plane. Its timing couldn't be better."