I think the text was less concerned with a fictional environment, such as a sci-fi future, and rather more with our current situation.
Different communities of people communicate with one another in different ways. Indeed, the way we communicate is a prime determiner of community. There are lots of different sub-cultural groups many of us encounter on a daily basis who we cannot understand. There are even mainstream groups who are difficult to comprehend. I live in Scotland and am at a loss to understand many of those around me, especially those that employ local dialect. I do not understand the way they speak nor the things they are referring to (my ignorance is of both language and culture). However, although I am unlikely to expend much energy seeking to understand them (I rarely find I need to) I have no issues with them communicating as they see fit. They probably find it hard to understand me as well. When we need to communicate we have enough common language we can do so. However, I am not of their community nor are they of mine. Ofelia Garcia and others have referred to these linguistic social dynamics as pluriliteracies ( http://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/kleifgen/tech_n_lit/PluriliteraciesFinal. pdf ). As they observe in this paper, literacy itself is a contested area. Very few of us are truly illiterate although it is the case that some people do not have competence in the communicative systems that our societies routinely demand of us. It is just the case that a person¹s competence might not be in an area useful for mainstream social interaction. Other¹s might have a number of competencies, capable of communicating in a variety of dialects or languages. Most of us have some sort of capability beyond our main domain of literacy, whether it is an understanding of mathematics, a second language, computer programming or familiarity with a local dialect. As such most of us are effectively pluriliterate. Regards Simon On 3/2/09 12:32, "james of jwm-art net" <ja...@jwm-art.net> wrote: >> >The text as a whole >> >clearly states that its concern is with who gains access to and rights of >> >definition of social and economic infrastructure in culturally contested >> >urban spaces and what the implications are for the communities and >> >individuals involved. > > > It kind of suggests to me, a sci-fi future, superficially utopian, but > dystopian beneath the surface, a massive split in society between those > that control and the rest (particular genre, logans run or something > more recent (a film with clones, 2000+), gattica another one, etc. Simon Biggs Research Professor edinburgh college of art s.bi...@eca.ac.uk www.eca.ac.uk www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ si...@littlepig.org.uk www.littlepig.org.uk AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201
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