Mary Hamilton is Professor of Adult Learning and Literacy, co-director of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning and Associate Director of the Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University, UK. She has written extensively on policy, practice and everyday learning in adult literacy and is co-author of a number of books including Local Literacies (reissued 2012, Routledge); Powerful Literacies (with Jim Crowther and Lynn Tett) and Changing Faces of Adult Literacy, Language and Numeracy: A Critical History (with Yvonne Hillier).

'Mary Hamilton brings to the project of refining our understanding of literacy and challenging simplistic assumptions, her own deeper analysis of policy, her experience of teaching and learning practices in adult literacy in the UK and also her study of popular media representations of literacy. Essential reading not only for those still bound up in the popular imagination about literacy but also for those who have been working in the field but can still benefit from such an account by a seasoned writer capable of bringing together different fields, different theories, different ‘discourses of the imagination’.'Brian Street, Emeritus Professor, King's College London, UK

• 1. Introduction Part I: Constructing Imaginaries Using Different Semiotic Resources 2. Literacy by Numbers 3. Visualising Literacy 4. The Powers of Voice Part II Domains of Imagination 5. Governing Literacy 6. Literacy in the News 7. Speaking from Experience 8. Conclusion

Mary Hamilton is Professor of Adult Learning and Literacy, co-director of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning and Associate Director of the Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University, UK. She has written extensively on policy, practice and everyday learning in adult literacy and is co-author of a number of books including Local Literacies (reissued 2012, Routledge); Powerful Literacies (with Jim Crowther and Lynn Tett) and Changing Faces of Adult Literacy, Language and Numeracy: A Critical History (with Yvonne Hillier).

'Mary Hamilton brings to the project of refining our understanding of literacy and challenging simplistic assumptions, her own deeper analysis of policy, her experience of teaching and learning practices in adult literacy in the UK and also her study of popular media representations of literacy. Essential reading not only for those still bound up in the popular imagination about literacy but also for those who have been working in the field but can still benefit from such an account by a seasoned writer capable of bringing together different fields, different theories, different ‘discourses of the imagination’.'Brian Street, Emeritus Professor, King's College London, UK

• 1. Introduction Part I: Constructing Imaginaries Using Different Semiotic Resources 2. Literacy by Numbers 3. Visualising Literacy 4. The Powers of Voice Part II Domains of Imagination 5. Governing Literacy 6. Literacy in the News 7. Speaking from Experience 8. Conclusion

Mary Hamilton is Professor of Adult Learning and Literacy, co-director of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning and Associate Director of the Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University, UK. She has written extensively on policy, practice and everyday learning in adult literacy and is co-author of a number of books including Local Literacies (reissued 2012, Routledge); Powerful Literacies (with Jim Crowther and Lynn Tett) and Changing Faces of Adult Literacy, Language and Numeracy: A Critical History (with Yvonne Hillier).

'Mary Hamilton brings to the project of refining our understanding of literacy and challenging simplistic assumptions, her own deeper analysis of policy, her experience of teaching and learning practices in adult literacy in the UK and also her study of popular media representations of literacy. Essential reading not only for those still bound up in the popular imagination about literacy but also for those who have been working in the field but can still benefit from such an account by a seasoned writer capable of bringing together different fields, different theories, different ‘discourses of the imagination’.'Brian Street, Emeritus Professor, King's College London, UK

• 1. Introduction Part I: Constructing Imaginaries Using Different Semiotic Resources 2. Literacy by Numbers 3. Visualising Literacy 4. The Powers of Voice Part II Domains of Imagination 5. Governing Literacy 6. Literacy in the News 7. Speaking from Experience 8. Conclusion