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Objectives
Developing a relational approach to (new) literacy(ies) from both a theoretical and an empirical perspectives Rethinking sociocultural approaches to literacy (situated literacies, the ideological model of literacy, new literacy studies) as regards:
a post-social perspective of the literate subjects and literacy practices the notion, enhanced by ICTs, that space is not a container of social practice, but spatialization is a practice in itself

Literacy actor-networks:
compared case studies from Brazil
Marcelo E. K. Buzato University of Campinas mbuzato@iel.unicamp.br

New Literacy Studies

Literacies vary in form, meaning and effects according to contextual conditions (local) Literacy events are shaped by (global, abstract) literacy practices that define them Literacy contexts can be affected by literacy events and practices from other contexts by means of circulating entities (concrete or abstract)

Theoretical background

(Hamilton, 2001; Clarke, 2001 e 2002; Brandt & Clinton, 2002; Barton & Hamilton, 2005; Leander e Lovvorn, 2006)

Actor-Network Theory
spatialization = circulation = context T. A.
Relational materialism/interobjectivity (human + non-human semiotic chains create social ordering though delegation) Generalized symmetry (humans are not privileged over non-humans in explanations) Subject-Object-Structure continuity (rejecting dichotomies such as intrapsychological and extrapsychological, social and technical, local and global, and so on)
(Latour 1992, 1996, 2005)

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Networks
Heterogeneous Homogeneous Technical
university

Local (literacy) events

utilities justice taylor Credit form

architect

Programmer

Social Conceptual

contract paycheck

SSN Credit info service

Sales target interest

client database

client

manager

bonds market operators Government default rates Government creditors central bank Head office

Translation
entities - human, technical and textual are compound realities, the product of a process of composition (Callon and Law, 1997) [actors are networks and vice-versa] To translate is to bring together complex entities into a single object or idea that can be mobilized. Self-constitutive activities of actor-networks that happens in four different moments or stages

The four moments of translation

One actor defines the problem and convinces the others to take over certain identities and positions in the network The interests of the allies are translated into the language of the central actor Actors become spokesmen of the collectives connected to them for the translation Action and control is globalizes by the circulation of immutable mobiles

1. 2. 3. 4.

Problematization interessement Enrollment Mobilization

Boundary Objects
Means of coordination and alignment between worlds to satisfy different concerns simultaneously, without the imposition of interpretations between worlds Simultaneously concrete and abstract, specific and general, conventionalized and customized Often internally heterogeneous

(Star & Griesemer, 1989)

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Resemiotization Theory
(Multimodal Discourse Analysis)
As messages (utterances) flow across different media and semioses along stages and/or nodes of social practices As semiotic systems are not totally commensurable: different meaning potentials are mobilized to do certain things at certain times Utterances are translated into exosomatic realities through resemiotizations (intersemiotic shifts) from talk, to writing, to drawing. to technological device Resemiotization opens up different modalities of human experience and possibilities of building subjectivities
(Iadema, 2003)

Method
Format: Case studies along a two-year period Data: Monitoring software and journals (self data), participant and non-participant observation and interviews based on the self data Analysis strategy:
following connections among actors to produce accounts of translations starting from a particular (personal) problematization Subjects and literacies viewed as connected on the same flattened plane, i.e. actor-networks connected to each other

Findings:
Recontextualization and resemiotization strategies Boundary objects

T.

Subjects A.
Female 19 years old Black Working class family Avid CMC and socialnetwork user School oriented Formerly protestant atheist

Problematizations
T. People, particularly older, conservative people, do not see the reality behind what they look at; they are blind about themselves and basically unfair towards the others A. Doubts are good because they connect what people are to what they can be or want to be

Male 19 years old White Middle-class family Poet and gamer Not particularly school oriented Formerly atheist protestant

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Resemiotization & Recontextualization strategies

Boundary Objects

Com os grupos montados e os jogadores definidos, fica a cargo do mestre de cada grupo escrever a praventura e iniciar o jogo. A funo do professor ai passa a ser de ajudar nas construes das aventuras e nos sistemas de regras, o professor tambm pode fazer com que os mestres faam inseres de elementos da literatura portuguesa e brasileira nas aventuras. Outro fator de destaque que o professor pode assumir papel de personagem NPC (Non-player Character) nas aventuras de todos os grupos da sala, podendo assim desenvolver desafios e instigar o processo lgico dos alunos (...).

With the players assembled and the teams defined, it is up to the "master" of each group to write the pre-venture and start the game. The teacher's role is to be there to help in the composition of the adventures and rule systems, the teacher can also have the "masters insert elements of Portuguese and Brazilian literature in the adventures. Another highlight is that the teacher may play as an NPC (Non-Player Character) in the adventures, so she can develop and instigate challenges to the logical process of the students (...).

From: Date: To: Subject:

<nome da monitora da disciplina> [<iniciais da monitora>@hotmail.com] Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:09:15 -0200 <nome da lista > [<nome da lista >@yahoogrupos.com.br] [<nome da lista >] recados da professora <nome da professora >

INCIDENT REPORT FORM The student <name> got up from his seat to attack the student <name> (8th B) pinching her on the cheek, and was asked to stop that. The student was warned by the custodian, but did not stop and, next, the student swore at the custodian ("fuck it", prick", "pussy, "fuck you) using words not allowed between students and staff of this school. He was warned again, and then raised his tone of voice at the custodian. She asked him to stop it and behave as is fit for a student since he was under the schools care. She also asked the student to sit down, telling the other students to do the same. The student infringed paragraph 7 of Article 12 [of the schools code of conduct].

Caros e caras, encaminho a vcs alguns recados da <nome da professora >, ok?! Boa semana a todos, <nome da monitora da disciplina> COMUNICADOS: verbs

translation

- Darei normalmente a aula na quarta-feira, dia 28/10: ser a traduo da 2A e o ensino do futuro de verbos regulares e irregulares. Matria da prova final. - Os alunos devem entregar por escrito os exerccios de verso portugus/latim (...) - A prova substitutiva ser dia (...) - A prova final obrigatria (...) - Quem tirou abaixo de 5,0 precisa (...) version Portuguese/Latin Atenciosamente, <nome da professora > Novo Internet Explorer 8: traduza com apenas um clique. Baixe agora, grtis! New Internet Explorer 8: translate with a click. Download now, its free!

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Converging findings
Class and gender may affect the nature and quality of the allies mobilized by the subjects, but do not seem to be accountable for the differences in their opposite literacy trajectories. Spatialization, recontextualization and resemiotization comprised the bulk of both subjects literacies; information seeking/gathering and other traditional school (digital) literacies were either bracketed or subverted by resemiotization and recontextualization strategies Boundary objects were many times used by third parties to translate the subjects interests and work (into the commercial, scientific or professional interests of some remote node), but BOs were also used by the subjects to connect school and non-school (or work) literacies productively for their subjectivity building translations (was it productive for the school/employer too?)

Discussion
Whats to gain or lose in taking literacies and literate subjects as actor-networks in terms of literacy pedagogy? finding ways to deal productively with students as cyborgs and with knowledge as a distributed heterogeneous network is of central importance for (re)designing literacy education and assessment Boundary objects and critical literacies: how can the puppets be taught manipulate puppeteers, or at least to be aware of such manipulations? He who traces the network is always part of the network! What interests and concerns will this kind of research in education (rather than SCOT) translate? Can teachers and students be trained to trace the actor-networks that affect their local business? Can they start and sustain far reaching translations of their own using ICTs?

References
BARTON, David; HAMILTON, Mary. 2005. Literacy, reification and the dynamics of social interaction In: BARTON, DAVID; HAMILTON, MARY (org) Beyond Communities of Practice: language, power, and social context. Nova Iorque: Cambridge University Press, p. 14-35. BRANDT, Deborah.; CLINTON, Katie. 2002 Limits of the local: Expanding perspectives on literacy as a social practice. Journal of Literacy Research, 34( 3):337-356. CLARKE, Julia. 2001. Using actor-network theories for the study of literacy events and practices in global and local settings. Online <http://www.ched.uct.ac.za/literacy/Papers/ClarkePaper1.html > Accessed on May 10, 2007. _____. 2002. A new kind of symmetry: Actor-network theories and the new literacy studies. Studies in the Education of Adults. 34(2):107-122. HAMILTON, Mary. 2001. Priviledged literacies: policy, institutional process and the life of IALS. Language and Education, 15:178-196. IADEMA, Rick A. M. 2003.Multimodality, resemiotization: extending the analysis of discourse as multi-semiotic practice. Visual Communication, 2(1):2957. LATOUR, Bruno. 1992.Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts In: BIJKER, WIEBE; LAW, JOHN (eds) Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge MS: MIT Press, p. 225258 _____. 1996. On Interobjectivity. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 3(4):228-245. _____. 2005. Reassembling the Social: an introduction to actor-network-theory. Nova Iorque: Oxford University Press, 301p. LEANDER, Kevin; LOVVORN, Jason. F. 2006. Literacy Networks: Following the Circulation of Texts, Bodies, and Objects in the Schooling and Online Gaming of One Youth. Cognition and Instruction, 24(3):291340. STAR, Suzan. L.; GRIESEMER, James 1989. Institutional Ecology, 'Translations' and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39. Social Studies of Science, 19(3):387-420.

Literacy actor-networks:
compared case studies from Brazil
Marcelo E. K. Buzato University of Campinas mbuzato@iel.unicamp.br

(Latour, 1992, p. 175)

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... a fala que se ela tiver o cabelo, os cabelos crescidos, o cabelo como se fosse, representa o vu. Mas fala "cabelos crescidos", e no que voc no pode cort-los! So cabelos crescidos, compridos (( mostra com as mos), mas no que voc no pode cortar. E eles "no, mas no pode". Da eu pensei bem que determinadas coisas eram ditas na igreja, para as mulheres, para que elas, automaticamente no evolussem, digamos assim (...)

"... then it [the Bible] says that if she has hair, long hair, the hair is like it represents the veil. But it says "grown hair", and not that you cant cut your hair! Its about grown hair, long ((shows with hands)), but it doesnt mean you cant have it cut. And went like no, you do not, you cant." Then I thought, well that certain things were said in church for women so they automatically wouldnt get ahead in life (...)"

No vale sinistro, ouo tantlico cantar Serafim, trombetas e odes ao divinal Que divino este? Oh, maldito sonhar! E dos abismos profundos, sobe vorpal Ecos d'uma lamuria que fazem anjos chorar Oh! Ventos uivantes, estes clamam o mal! Oh! Maldito demnio sombrio, alva estrela! Ser que a paz um dia eu poderei t-la? In the Sinister valley, I hear tantalic singing Seraphim, trumpets, and odes to the divine Who is this Godly? Oh, damn dream! And from the deep chasms, climbs vorpal Echoes of whimper that make angels cry Oh! Howling winds, they cry out evil! Oh! Damn gloomy demon, morning star! Will peace someday be mine?

Keystrokes Typed Program: Chrome Start: 07/12/2010 23:25:15 [Twitter / Home - Google Chrome]

Im shocked by some news <23:25> Ai, ai. Uma notcia muito me abalou...Fazer o qu q As pessoas vem e vo na nossa vida, no So So s uns 29 km a mais, 30, ou 40... Tudo bem... <23:30> Entra no google talk. Log in to Google talk

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