In this study of the social and psychological implications of literacy, sixteen distinguished scholars provide a sustained and detailed examination of the relations between orality and literacy, the traditions based on them, the functions served by them, and the psychological and linguistic processes recruited and enhanced by them. By shedding the romantic view that literacy is the road to rationality and modernity, the volume provides a more functional view of literacy. The articles place new emphasis on the relationship between speaking and writing and highlight the different ways in which...

In this study of the social and psychological implications of literacy, sixteen distinguished scholars provide a sustained and detailed examination of the relations between orality and literacy, the traditions based on them, the functions served by them, and the psychological and linguistic processes recruited and enhanced by them. By shedding the romantic view that literacy is the road to rationality and modernity, the volume provides a more functional view of literacy. The articles place new emphasis on the relationship between speaking and writing and highlight the different ways in which...

A central problem in cultural psychology is the diversity of patterns of rationality among cultures, historical periods, and stages of personal development. The distinguished contributors to this volume maintain that the acknowledgement of the inconsistency of rational patterns is not necessarily at odds with the traditional notion of the "psychological unity" of humankind. Leading psychologists, anthropologists, historians, and educational theorists explore this issue in considerable depth, citing relevant examples and problems relating to their specific areas of expertise. Scholars of...

IT in the Social Sciences provides students with an overview of the use and study of technology in the social sciences.

Everything that is involved in being and becoming literate is the concern of this interdisciplinary group of distinguished scholars.

This handbook marks the transformation of the topic of literacy from the narrower concerns with learning to read and write to an interdisciplinary enquiry into the various roles of writing and reading in the full range of social and psychological functions in both modern and developing societies. It does so by exploring the nature and development of writing systems, the relations between speech and writing, the history of the social uses of writing, the evolution of conventions of reading, the social and developmental dimensions of acquiring literate competencies, and, more generally, the...