Difference between revisions of "Media Practices and literacies"

Revision as of 21:42, 9 September 2013

This double theme or composite theme is one of the major insights of my dissertation. I would like to bring together the "practice turn" in social sciences, especially in relation to media practices, and the sociocultural understanding of literacy, in particular the new literacies. Although I see clear intersection of both approaches, they have not been yet integrated. Perhaps it is not even necessary to expend so much effort mixing the two approaches. Maybe, it is enough to review the two paradigms and highlight points in common, their convergence. At the end, what I would like to do is to be able to study some of the media practices and literacies in action, happening in the everyday life.

One way to start doing so is by organizing here the two approaches:

• Media Practice

• Literacies

Can the two paradigms intersect or are they completely different things?

As a matter of fact it seems that both approaches look at social practices in order to understand social and cultural life. Both approaches also seem to value the ‘everyday’ and ‘life-world.’ However, literacies seems to focus very specifically on discourses, meanwhile the social practice has a wider scope that includes thinking, doing, happening. Both approaches are also influenced by the cultural turn in social theory.

Practice theory situates the social in a different realm from those of other cultural theories. The ‘place’ of the social here is different. Simultaneously, this means that the ‘smallest unit’ of social theory and social analysis in practice theory is conceptualized differently.

Can we think as literacies as site of the social? are communicative acts sites of the social? Since this acts are discoursive and textual are they too far from the "praxis"? is the concept of literacies too bias towards cultural textualism? Since literacies place the social in discourse, it is not possible to align them with the new theories of media practice?

And how about if we simply talk about the sociocultural practices that are literacies, and maybe just mention the existence of the media practice approach. They can address the same practice but from different ontological conceptions. Perhaps it could be better to stay just with the literacies as discursive, textual and communicative practices. As a matter of fact, I already have read the literature and can speak comfortable about them.

The Practice and Media Turn

Since the 1980s, the practice turn in social science have called attention the need to study the practices, the acts in where agents perform, exercise their power.

In the social sciences, researchers have made the call to study media practices.

In the linguistic and educational science, scholars have made the call to study literacies as sociocultural practices.

Sociological, cultural, and linguistic analysis of the practice of people using new digital technologies.

New practices mediated by digital technologies.

An array of activities, analyzed as social practices.