Culture, Power, Knowledge: Young People and Adults' Acquisition of Literacy

Abstract

This work aims at establishing a relation between young people and adults' acquisition of literacy and its cultural poli ti cal and ideological effects on the infra and super-structures. The acquisition of literacy is here conceived as a cultural, epistemological and political act that gives access to and pro motes the production of culture, knowledge and power. The author analyses this question on the light of his praxis in an action research project developed in Vila Paranoá, Brasília, Brazil. The study is mainly based on Geertz' concepts of culture, on Gramsci 's concept of ideology and contra-ideology and on Foucault's concept of power.