Daftar Isi:
  • In this thesis I examine the relationship with literacy constructed by the users of public libraries, such as, in this case, the José Vasconcelos Library in México city. As a central dimension of the ethnographic study, I analyze reading in groups as a social practice. I show how the José Vasconcelos Library as a public space is signified through various uses beyond the traditional practices to which many Library spaces are subjected. I describe some examples of the appropriation of public spaces and show how diverse practices are produced that involves literacy and written culture. I then analyze the relationships that are woven between different manners of reading and the activities and practices undertaken by several groups or collectives of readers who use the library as a meeting point to study, to read or to perform different activities in places that are available to the public. To approach this problem, I take into account a sociocultural concept of reading, which emerged from the New Literacy Studies. I considered “reading” not only as a cognitive competence, but also as a social tool.