Situated

Sociology

Pedagogy

Digital storytelling

Social science

Literacy

Knowledge management

Political science

Artificial intelligence

Multinational corporation

Negotiation

Digital literacy

Public relations

Computer science

Media studies

Learning Media and Technology

This article shares research facilitated by a multinational technology provider, converging mobile networked technology (tablets) used across school and home, a technology enhanced community 'third space' providing workshops for students aged 6–9 with their parents/carers. The approach taken avoids the instrumental measurement of functional digital literacy competences, but instead seeks to negotiate a more nuanced and complex understanding of the 'uses of literacy' [from Hoggart, R. 1957. The Uses of Literacy. London: Pelican] in digital contexts and in a deeply situated, specific local setting. Working with our findings, we later put Amartya Sen's concept of capability [Sen, A. K. 2005. "Human Rights and Capabilities." Journal of Human Development 6 (2): 151–166; Sen, A. K. 2008. "Capability and Well-Being." In The Philosophy of Economics, edited by D. M. Hausman, 3rd ed., 270–293. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] to work on our data in order to provide a discussion on how the digital literacy community might distinguish digital competences as functionings from the 'uses' of such competences for a broader range of capabilities.

The uses of (digital) literacy