Literacy and Literacies

James Collins is Professor of Anthropology and of Reading at the University at Albany, State University of New York. He is the author of Understanding Tolowa Histories: Western Hegemonies and Native American Responses (1998), as well as of book and journal articles. Richard Blot is Assistant Professor at the Graduate Program in Literacy Studies, Lehman College, City University of New York. He has published in a number of journals, including TESOL Quarterly, Anthropology and Education Quarterly and Latin American Anthropology Review.

• List of figures; Foreword Brian V. Street; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: texts, power and identity; 2. The literacy thesis: vexed questions of rationality, development and self; 3. Situated approaches to the literacy debate; 4. Literacies and power in modern nation states: Euro-American lessons; 5. Literacies and identity formation: American cases; 6. Literacy, power and identity: colonial legacies and indigenous transformations; 7. Conclusion: literacy lessons - beginnings, ends and implications; Notes; References; Index.

'Literacy and Literacies offers a coherent and critical review of the different areas of controversy in contemporary literacy studies … Literacy and Literacies offers an excellent overview of the existing literatures, theoretical discussions and case studies. The book will prove an essential addition to courses on language and literacy in both linguistics, anthropology and other related fields.' Journal of Sociolinguistics