On the Material Consequences of Literacy

Research in the ethnography of literacy has led to a stronger focus on literacy as a social practice among researchers and educators. How literacy is ideological and how it is linked to issues of institutional structure and power needs more systematic focus, particularly in the contexts of rapid and unprecedented economic, cultural and sociodemographic change affiliated with globalisation. A case is made for a refocus on the material consequences of literacy including an understanding of literate practice, capital and exchange, both local and transnational.