Project Technical Data |
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This project was funded by the Center for Research, Development, and Innovation (CIDI) at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Sede Central Medellín [File No. 074B-02/13-S80]
Situating
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If one were to walk around the city, one would likely find billboards and store ads that use English words, English texts in local bookshops and libraries, and even English words in graffiti. Nevertheless, we still possess very little evidence (if, in fact, there is anything at all) of how people are using and playing with the English language in the city and its urban spaces (Mora, 2012b). Our concern is how people are appropriating and interacting with the English language in all those physical, social, and even virtual spaces of the unnamed, untold city, or the urbs, as opposed to the polis, the official city. Conventional wisdom would argue that English still remains the domain of the classroom and that English is not an official means of communication in the city.
While the lack of official status of English holds true, that does not mean English is only confined to the classroom practices or the official media. In fact, based on some realities of literacy practices outside of the school (Knobel, 2001; Hull & Schultz, 2001; Street, 1995; Tannock, 2001), there is the possibility that youth and adults in Medellín may already be recreating English in the city, adding as part of the local culture. In fact, if we take Heath and Street’s (2008) idea of culture as “unbounded, kaleidoscopic, and dynamic” (p. 7), it makes perfect sense to look at how a “culture of English” is developing in “Medellín city,” specifically in those unexplored spaces that comprise the urbs. It is also reasonable to think that the city, as a moving, breathing, and living entity, as a field (Bourdieu, 1993) where social, linguistic, and human interactions take place, may very well be shaping and re-shaping English, just as English as a field is helping reshape the city. |
Our First Thoughts on City as Literacy |
This study proposes a framework around the notion of “the city as literacy practice.” In this notion, we understand the city itself as literacy (Mora, 2012a), revisiting Freire and Macedo’s (1987) idea of “reading the world and the word.” The city is a place where different kinds of texts converge and help generate a world with a certain identity and layers of expression and understanding. The city, then, becomes a space that is not monochromatic; in order to really understand it, one would require to engage in a deeper analysis of the diverse textual and semiotic interactions that stem from it. This framework (and the study, as a consequence), acknowledges the multilinear and complex nature of the city as a necessary and relevant aspect to describe and analyze the texts that are immersed in and created by the city.
To really understand English literacy practices in urban spaces, one cannot rely on the traditional frameworks. Instead, there is a need for broader and more complex models that actually enable researchers to understand how the complexity of the city appears in the literacy practices. The three concepts that will, then, help define this framework are:
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The City as Routes we Would Travel |
In our inquiries, we have also found that the idea of “route” offers a good approach to understand the culture of English literacies that we may find in every urban space. Relying on Stuart Hall’s idea of “roots and routes” to describe culture as the place where one stands and the direction one wishes to go (Willis, Hall, Montavon, Hunter, & Herrera, 2008), each route will offer an option to look at where people come from and how the use of English may have opened other cultural alternatives.
Each researcher has chosen a route according to their interests and options for immersion (for instance, the principal investigator might have a difficult time “blending in” in a heavy metal concert, while one of our co-investigators has more knowledge of this culture). Each researcher has written a rationale for the selection of their route and how the intend to enter the field and gather information. The routes we chose, then, were:
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Academic Presentations and Publications
Nathalie, Raúl, and Melissa at Regional SRG Annual Meeting (2014)
Carla and Maria Camila presenting at the ASOCOPI 50th Annual Conference (2015)
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During the course of this project, this research team presented a total of six international (including the first-ever AERA), one local, and one national presentation and published one proceedings paper and a book chapter. Here is the yearly detail.
2013
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