Literacy and democracy

ABSTRACT

It is argued that literacy and democracy interact in dynamic reciprocity. Their mutual influences may be either positive or negative: they are negative when literacy, unequally distributed, is reduced to mere skills (even if these are highly sophisticated), rather than conducive to free, argumentative and critical thinking, inspired by humanist values. Furthermore, in the case of pseudo-democracy, when elections said to be free replace well-informed public debate and collective decision-making, as well as the people’s control over such decisions. The development of a democratic intentionality is claimed to be the key to reversing the current tendency to a negative dynamic. The paper also describes and discusses the historical development and present situation of literacy and democracy worldwide, their impact throughout human history and, at an individual level, the impact of literacy acquisition/development on the mind and brain.

KEYWORDS:

• Literacy
• democracy
• illiteracy
• mind plasticity
• democratic intentionality

Acknowledgments

This paper is based on my book, “Lire, écrire et être libre. De l’alphabétisation à la démocratie”, published in France, by Odile Jacob, in January 2016. Two distinct versions of it have been presented: one in the workshop “Reading in Forest”, October 2015 (Germany), the other as a keynote in the ESCAN congress, June 2016 (Portugal). I am deeply grateful for Régine Kolinsky’s insightful suggestions and criticisms, for the Action Editor’s weighed alliance of support and demand, and for the Reviewers’ constructive remarks, all of which motivated me to accomplish important rewriting on previous versions. I am also indebted to Saoradh Favier and Jeromy Hrabovecky, who contributed significantly to improve both the text's style and precision.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

My recent work on literacy was supported by the FRS-FNRS under grant [FRFC 2.4515.12] and by an Interuniversity Attraction Poles (IAP) grant [7/33], Belspo.