Community Literacy Journal Oct 2006 Open Access

Writing Programs as Distributed Networks: A Materialist Approach to University-Community Digital Media Literacy

Michael Comstock

Abstract

This article addresses how community-university digital media literacy projects are redefining literacy, literate practices, and institutions. Using Actor-Network Theory (ANT), which emphasizes the organizing process itself, I analyze the shifting definitions of literacy within one particular university-community collaboration. My analysis demonstrates the importance of creating writer and producer identities for all project participants and developing networks of responsibility and sustainability through the distribution of expertise among university and community institutions. In order to sustain such collaborations and university- community networks, literacy workers and writing programs must challenge static forms of participation and expertise, as well as monolithic notions of literacy, and become more responsive to concrete literacy needs within our communities.

Journal
Community Literacy Journal
Published
2006-10-01
DOI
10.25148/clj.1.1.009530
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Open Access
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Topics
collaborative writing literacy studies
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Getto et al. (2014)
    Helping To Build Better Networks: Service-Learning Partnerships as Distributed …
    Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric

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