Social Action Writing: Public Narratives and Methods of Community

Social Action Writing: Public Narratives and Methods of Community explores the ways writing and other literacies can catalyze social change and foster community development. This text situates writing instruction within the disciplinary perspective of community literacy (Campano, Ghiso, & Welch, 2016). It showcases methods of combining literacy-based practices with asset-based community development approaches to strengthen writing abilities and generate organic community empowerment capacity. Through the combination of theory and practice, Social Action Writing: Public Literacies and Methods of Community Empowerment addresses a current need for a comprehensive resource guide within the growing discipline of community literacy. Social Action Writing approaches writing as a social action and positions writing instruction through community-engaged and experiential pedagogies. Additionally, the work explains and demonstrates the connections between writing, research, and community empowerment and development methods. This text provides a “toolkit” to use literacy-based methods of collaborative and humanizing inquiry so that communities may foster progress and address social concerns through asset-focused practices. Similar to the interdisciplinary nature of community literacy, this text draws from the disciplinary perspectives of writing studies (Deans, 2002; Parks, 2016), social sciences, asset-based community development (McKnight, 2013), and humanizing research methodologies (Paris & Winn, 2014). Social Action Writing connects writing and collaborative inquiry with real-world outcomes by balancing theory, research, and action-oriented applications. This text prepares students and practitioners to harness high-impact community engaged learning and literacy approaches to generate organic and equitable change.