The Social Uses of Literacy: Theory and Practice in Contemporary South Africa -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Acknowledgements -- Nomenclature -- Photographic credits -- Table of contents -- Preface -- Relativism, Romanticism and Relevance - the three Rs -- Relativism -- Romanticism -- Relevance -- Conclusion -- Introduction -- The political context of literacy in South Africa -- The policy context of literacy in South Africa -- Implementing new policy -- The theoretical context of this research -- The New Literacy Studies (NLS) -- The 'literacy myth' and the 'autonomous' model of literacy -- Networks and exchange relationships -- Literacy practices and discourse -- The Social Uses of Literacy (SoUL) research -- Methodology -- Research and practical outcomes -- Apprenticeship learning -- Mediation -- Section 1. Literacies at work -- Chapter 1. Literacy, voter education and constructions of citizenship in the Western Cape during the first democratic national elections in South Africa -- The 'problem of illiteracy' as stumbling block -- Voter education -- Representations of homogeneity and the assertion of difference in voter education workshops -- Not why to vote, but how and where -- Sameness and difference -- Chapter 2. Literacy, knowledge, gender and power in the workplace on three farms in the Western Cape -- Introduction -- Men's work: knowledge and power without reading and writing -- Women's work - literacy without power -- Conclusions -- Note -- Chapter 3. Literacy and communication in a Cape factory -- Management-worker communication: signs and notices -- Worker-management communication: the safety representative system -- Management-worker communication: the bonus system -- Understandings of the bonus system -- Workers' literacy practices: at work -- Literacy education at the factory.

Education and mobility at the factory -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Chapter 4. Communicative practices of the service staff of a school -- The discourse of the family -- Allocation of space within the 'family' -- The naming of family members: girls and boys, misters and mistresses -- The family discourse and literacy practices -- The liberal discourse -- The liberal discourse and literacy practices -- The workers' committee -- Literacy practices and the organisation of work -- Conclusions -- Note -- Section 2. Mediating literacies -- Chapter 5. Literacy mediation and social identity in Newtown, Eastern Cape -- The experts writing for 'the other' -- The magistrate's office -- The pharmacy -- The logics of survival -- 'High society' in Newtown -- Local legitimacy as mediator -- Local literacy mediators coming to power -- Implications -- Notes -- Chapter 6. Cultural brokers and bricoleurs of modern and traditional literacies: land struggles in Namaqualand's Coloured reserves -- Local and 'official' literacies and challenges to the hegemony of educated élites -- School versus local, everyday knowledge: a generational conundrum? -- The making of Namaqualand's Coloured reserves and the land tenure struggles of the 1980s -- Letter writing in Namaqualand: brokering bureaucratic messages and inscribing local identities -- Brokering local and official literacies, and forging new political identities -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Chapter 7. Literacy learning and local literacy practice in Bellville South -- Literacy practices and everyday life -- Literacy practices in the neighbourhood -- Pension day as literacy practice -- Funeral services as literacy events -- The discourses of literacy classes -- Literacy, school and development: the successful literacy project -- Literacy and neighbourhood discourse: the 'failed' literacy class -- Implications -- Notes.

Chapter 8. 'We can all sing, but we can't all talk': literacy brokers and tsotsi gangsters in a Cape Town shantytown -- Beaming in on Marconi Beam -- Cultural brokers and literate bureaucracies -- Brokering dilemmas of local and bureaucratic literacies -- 'Learning on the job': from herder in Transkei, to policeman in Egoli (Johannesburg), to trade unionist and cultural broker -- Tsotsi identity and the delinking from the politics of the New South Africa -- Notes -- Section 3. Contextualising literacies: policy lessons -- Chapter 9. Literacy, migrancy and disrupted domesticity: Khayelitshan ways of knowing -- The construction of adult illiteracy as a problem -- Ways of knowing -- Background to Khayelitsha -- Doing the research -- Orientations to schooling: roots into the colonial past -- Schooling, religion and identity -- Household literacy and numeracy -- The literacies of schooling -- Leaving school -- Literacies and labour -- Intensifying migrancy, disrupted domesticity and local literacies -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Chapter 10. 'We are waiting/this is our home': literacy and the search for resources in the rural Eastern Cape -- Waiting for resources -- Schooled literacy and the moral economy of the family -- Local literacies and cultural knowledge in Tentergate and Zola -- Literacy as display -- A Zionist church service -- Economic practices -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Chapter 11. Taking literacy for a ride - reading andwriting in the taxi industry -- Introduction -- Discourses about power, violence and exploitation -- Strategies for survival in a world full of literacies -- Official assistance -- Operating illegally -- Support systems -- Informal education -- Coaching by colleagues -- Rank talk -- Trial and error -- Learning by observation and apprenticeship -- Operators' discourses about education, literacy and driving -- Conclusions -- Notes.

Chapter 12. Literacy practices in an informal settlement in the Cape Peninsula -- Setting sights on Site 5 -- The literacy practices of an 'illiterate' community leader -- 'It's all right when we're alone': literacy practices and development in Site 5 -- 'Maybe next year we might ... be able to answer back in English': the construction and value of night school literacy -- Articulation versus delivery: implications of the research for the provision of literacy -- Note -- Afterword -- References -- Index.