City Literacies

Abstract

Cities, the home of many of the world’s great libraries, have traditionally been recognized as a hub of both literacy and illiteracy; proudly boasting literacy excellence in their wealth and variety of resources and practices and sadly acknowledging high levels of literacy failure in their inner-city schools. Below is a review of existing literature documenting the history and development of “city literacies,” translated into “literacies in cities.” This is followed by a more detailed account of recent major contributions to the field and trends in research in progress with special reference to individuals growing up and becoming literate at the beginning and the end of the twentieth century in London, one of the largest and most ethnically diverse cities in the world. During the early twentieth century, research is reflecting the “superdiversity” (Vertovec, New complexities of cohesion in Britain. Superdiversity, transnationalism, and civil-integration. Commission on Integration and Cohesion, HMSO, West Yorkshire, 2007) of migration and movement between countries taking place and a brief outline of just a few current directions is given. The contribution then summarizes problems in this field and finally points to possible future directions for the research on literacies in cities during the coming decades of the twenty-first century. Throughout time, we see the contrasts and contradictions between studies documenting informal literacies taking place in homes and communities, which show a wealth of skills, knowledge, and inventiveness in cities, and reports relating to school literacy which laments poor performance of city children in classroom tests.