Community Literacy and the Rhetoric of Local Publics

The veteran of many a community literacy project and many a study about the phenomenon, Long (composition, Eastern Washington U.) examines the motivations, content and process of "going public" with one's reading and writing. As she describes the rich and complex theoretical framework, Long uses recent studies and reports as evidence, defining the "local public" framework and its relations to more formal avenues and canonical genres, locating community literacy studies and comparing them to participatory democracy, developing the idea of such projects being evidence of participatory democracy, of a creative womb, a cultivated garden, a form of community organizing, and as a shadow system for those for whom formal institutions are purposeless. She includes a fine chapter on pedagogical practices based upon her findings. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)