I am Professor of Language and Literacy and now 'Life President' of the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre Www.literacy.lancs.ac.uk. I am currently interested in all aspects of language online, including the interaction of words and images, multilingual issues, changes to vernacular practices and learning. In February 2015 we started a 2 year ESRC project on Academics Writing. I am also writing about methodology, especially ethnographic approaches to literacy research. Also language and photography.
Em Linguagem online: textos e práticas digitais, David Barton e Carmen Lee investigam o impacto d... more Em Linguagem online: textos e práticas digitais, David Barton e Carmen Lee investigam o impacto do mundo online sobre os estudos da linguagem. Os efeitos do uso da linguagem no mundo digital podem ser vistos em todos os aspectos dos estudos linguísticos; e são necessárias novas formas de pesquisar a área. Neste livro, os autores olham a linguagem online de várias perspectivas, proporcionando uma sólida base teórica, um esboço dos principais conceitos e orientações práticas para fazer pesquisa. Os capítulos abordam temas da atualidade, incluindo a relação entre linguagem online e multilinguismo, identidade, educação e multimodalidade, e concluem com um olhar sobre as maneiras de investigar o uso da linguagem online. Ao longo do livro são dados muitos exemplos, a partir de uma variedade de plataformas digitais de diferentes línguas, incluindo chinês e inglês. Escrito num estilo claro e acessível, este livro é leitura essencial como introdução aos estudos da linguagem online e obra fundamental para alunos de graduação e pós-graduação nas áreas de novas mídias, letramento e multimodalidade nos cursos de letras e linguística.
Barton, D. & M. Hamilton, Local Literacies: Reading And Writing In One Community, London and New ... more Barton, D. & M. Hamilton, Local Literacies: Reading And Writing In One Community, London and New York: Routledge, 1998. ISBN 0415 171504 (p), 0415 171490 (c). Pp 320. Re-issue as ‘Routledge Linguistics Classic’ with new chapter, 2012.
Perspectives des politiques agricoles en Afrique du Nord (Options méditerranéennes, série B : Étu... more Perspectives des politiques agricoles en Afrique du Nord (Options méditerranéennes, série B : Études et Recherches 2009 N° 64) La crise alimentaire mondiale des années 2007-2008 n'a pas épargné l'Afrique du Nord. Elle n'a fait qu'y révéler des fragilités structurelles ...
... College Rethinking literacies across the curriculum Roz Ivanicˇ, Richard Edwards, David Barto... more ... College Rethinking literacies across the curriculum Roz Ivanicˇ, Richard Edwards, David Barton, Marilyn Martin-Jones, Zoe Fowler, Buddug Hughes, Greg Mannion, Kate Miller, Candice Satchwell and June Smith Page 7. First published 2009 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton ...
Barton, D., Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994... more Barton, D., Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. ISBN 0631 190899 (c), 0631 190910 (p). Pp. 257. Second edition 2007.
This book is part of the Routledge 'Literacies' series and gives a deta... more This book is part of the Routledge 'Literacies' series and gives a detailed examination of language, literacy and numeracy as social practices, with a focus on the relationship between people's lives and their engagement in learning. The chapters follow the rationale, ...
... This is expressed in different ways in different chapters (risk and stigma, diversity, equity... more ... This is expressed in different ways in different chapters (risk and stigma, diversity, equity, legitimation ... Thirdly, there is the need to incorporate the broader social context in some way when ... of language-in-use draws out areas of conflict and negotia-tion around power; and these ...
Page 1. Situated Literacies Reading and writing in context Edited by David Barton, Mary Hamilton ... more Page 1. Situated Literacies Reading and writing in context Edited by David Barton, Mary Hamilton and Roz Ivani^ Literacies Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. ... David Barton, Mary Hamilton and Roz Ivanic are all based at Lancaster University. ...
STUDIES IN WRITTEN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY Editors Brian Street Ludo Verhoeven King&#x2... more STUDIES IN WRITTEN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY Editors Brian Street Ludo Verhoeven King's College, London Nijmegen University Associate Editors Florian Coulmas Daniel Wagner Chuo University, Tokyo University of Pennsylvania Editorial Board F. Niyi Akinnaso (Temple ...
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Worlds of Literacy/Edited by Mary Hamilton, Da... more Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Worlds of Literacy/Edited by Mary Hamilton, David Barton and Roz Ivanic. p. cm (The Language and Education Library: 5) ISBN 1-85359-196-3 (hbk). ISBN 1-85359-195-5 (pbk) 1. Literacy. 2. Literacy programs. 3. ...
This presentation discusses findings from an ERSC-funded research project investigating the writi... more This presentation discusses findings from an ERSC-funded research project investigating the writing practices of academics at three English universities. The data drawn on in this paper relate specifically to the ways in which digital technologies around writing bring issues of academic identity into sharp focus. Academics have always participated in disciplinary networks, but the gradual shift towards "social scholarship" (Greenhow & Gleason, 2014), in which social networking is part of the research, writing and publishing process, has amplified the need for connectedness. Digitisation has brought not only greater opportunities for collaborative writing, but also the expectation that academics will engage in practices such as maintaining online profiles and sharing output on digital forums. Some have argued that these activities risk crowding out the quiet time needed to get scholarly writing done and that they represent a potential threat to academics' sense of identity. Drawing on a social practice approach to literacy (Barton & Hamilton, 2000), interviews were conducted with academics from three different disciplines and institutions. These focused on the detailed processes and practices involved in academic writing, including the role of digital technologies and relationships with others in text production. Although scholarly writing is often characterised as a solitary activity, a central aspect of almost all the writing processes in this study was the importance of relationships. More and faster collaborative writing was facilitated by digital platforms such as email, Skype, and file-sharing software. However, relationships played a pivotal role even in forms of writing that were, prima facie, solo endeavours. For example, during periods of writing, informal discussions with colleagues or friends, either face-to-face or via online professional networks, could be extremely productive. Similarly, connecting with others by sharing work online was described as an important part of participants’ scholarly identity. In this sense, rather than distracting from the work of writing, relationships with others were highly valued and central to the scholarly identity our participants held dear. These findings highlight the centrality of writing relationships in academic identity and the role of digital technologies in enabling them.
Academics Writing recounts how academic writing is changing in the contemporary university, trans... more Academics Writing recounts how academic writing is changing in the contemporary university, transforming what it means to be an academic and how, as a society, we produce academic knowledge. Writing practices are changing as the academic profession itself is reconfigured through new forms of governance and accountability, increasing use of digital resources, and the internationalisation of higher education. Through detailed studies of writing in the daily life of academics in different disciplines and in different institutions, this book explores: - the space and time of academic writing; - tensions between disciplines and institutions around genres of writing; - the diversity of stances adopted towards the tools and technologies of writing, and towards engagement with social media; and - the importance of relationships and collaboration with others, in writing and in ongoing learning in a context of constant change. Drawing out implications of the work for academics, university management, professional training, and policy, Academics Writing: The Dynamics of Knowledge Creation is key reading for anyone studying or researching writing, academic support, and development within education and applied linguistics.
Em Linguagem online: textos e práticas digitais, David Barton e Carmen Lee investigam o impacto d... more Em Linguagem online: textos e práticas digitais, David Barton e Carmen Lee investigam o impacto do mundo online sobre os estudos da linguagem. Os efeitos do uso da linguagem no mundo digital podem ser vistos em todos os aspectos dos estudos linguísticos; e são necessárias novas formas de pesquisar a área. Neste livro, os autores olham a linguagem online de várias perspectivas, proporcionando uma sólida base teórica, um esboço dos principais conceitos e orientações práticas para fazer pesquisa. Os capítulos abordam temas da atualidade, incluindo a relação entre linguagem online e multilinguismo, identidade, educação e multimodalidade, e concluem com um olhar sobre as maneiras de investigar o uso da linguagem online. Ao longo do livro são dados muitos exemplos, a partir de uma variedade de plataformas digitais de diferentes línguas, incluindo chinês e inglês. Escrito num estilo claro e acessível, este livro é leitura essencial como introdução aos estudos da linguagem online e obra fundamental para alunos de graduação e pós-graduação nas áreas de novas mídias, letramento e multimodalidade nos cursos de letras e linguística.
Barton, D. & M. Hamilton, Local Literacies: Reading And Writing In One Community, London and New ... more Barton, D. & M. Hamilton, Local Literacies: Reading And Writing In One Community, London and New York: Routledge, 1998. ISBN 0415 171504 (p), 0415 171490 (c). Pp 320. Re-issue as ‘Routledge Linguistics Classic’ with new chapter, 2012.
Perspectives des politiques agricoles en Afrique du Nord (Options méditerranéennes, série B : Étu... more Perspectives des politiques agricoles en Afrique du Nord (Options méditerranéennes, série B : Études et Recherches 2009 N° 64) La crise alimentaire mondiale des années 2007-2008 n'a pas épargné l'Afrique du Nord. Elle n'a fait qu'y révéler des fragilités structurelles ...
... College Rethinking literacies across the curriculum Roz Ivanicˇ, Richard Edwards, David Barto... more ... College Rethinking literacies across the curriculum Roz Ivanicˇ, Richard Edwards, David Barton, Marilyn Martin-Jones, Zoe Fowler, Buddug Hughes, Greg Mannion, Kate Miller, Candice Satchwell and June Smith Page 7. First published 2009 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton ...
Barton, D., Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994... more Barton, D., Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. ISBN 0631 190899 (c), 0631 190910 (p). Pp. 257. Second edition 2007.
This book is part of the Routledge 'Literacies' series and gives a deta... more This book is part of the Routledge 'Literacies' series and gives a detailed examination of language, literacy and numeracy as social practices, with a focus on the relationship between people's lives and their engagement in learning. The chapters follow the rationale, ...
... This is expressed in different ways in different chapters (risk and stigma, diversity, equity... more ... This is expressed in different ways in different chapters (risk and stigma, diversity, equity, legitimation ... Thirdly, there is the need to incorporate the broader social context in some way when ... of language-in-use draws out areas of conflict and negotia-tion around power; and these ...
Page 1. Situated Literacies Reading and writing in context Edited by David Barton, Mary Hamilton ... more Page 1. Situated Literacies Reading and writing in context Edited by David Barton, Mary Hamilton and Roz Ivani^ Literacies Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. ... David Barton, Mary Hamilton and Roz Ivanic are all based at Lancaster University. ...
STUDIES IN WRITTEN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY Editors Brian Street Ludo Verhoeven King&#x2... more STUDIES IN WRITTEN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY Editors Brian Street Ludo Verhoeven King's College, London Nijmegen University Associate Editors Florian Coulmas Daniel Wagner Chuo University, Tokyo University of Pennsylvania Editorial Board F. Niyi Akinnaso (Temple ...
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Worlds of Literacy/Edited by Mary Hamilton, Da... more Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Worlds of Literacy/Edited by Mary Hamilton, David Barton and Roz Ivanic. p. cm (The Language and Education Library: 5) ISBN 1-85359-196-3 (hbk). ISBN 1-85359-195-5 (pbk) 1. Literacy. 2. Literacy programs. 3. ...
This presentation discusses findings from an ERSC-funded research project investigating the writi... more This presentation discusses findings from an ERSC-funded research project investigating the writing practices of academics at three English universities. The data drawn on in this paper relate specifically to the ways in which digital technologies around writing bring issues of academic identity into sharp focus. Academics have always participated in disciplinary networks, but the gradual shift towards "social scholarship" (Greenhow & Gleason, 2014), in which social networking is part of the research, writing and publishing process, has amplified the need for connectedness. Digitisation has brought not only greater opportunities for collaborative writing, but also the expectation that academics will engage in practices such as maintaining online profiles and sharing output on digital forums. Some have argued that these activities risk crowding out the quiet time needed to get scholarly writing done and that they represent a potential threat to academics' sense of identity. Drawing on a social practice approach to literacy (Barton & Hamilton, 2000), interviews were conducted with academics from three different disciplines and institutions. These focused on the detailed processes and practices involved in academic writing, including the role of digital technologies and relationships with others in text production. Although scholarly writing is often characterised as a solitary activity, a central aspect of almost all the writing processes in this study was the importance of relationships. More and faster collaborative writing was facilitated by digital platforms such as email, Skype, and file-sharing software. However, relationships played a pivotal role even in forms of writing that were, prima facie, solo endeavours. For example, during periods of writing, informal discussions with colleagues or friends, either face-to-face or via online professional networks, could be extremely productive. Similarly, connecting with others by sharing work online was described as an important part of participants’ scholarly identity. In this sense, rather than distracting from the work of writing, relationships with others were highly valued and central to the scholarly identity our participants held dear. These findings highlight the centrality of writing relationships in academic identity and the role of digital technologies in enabling them.
Academics Writing recounts how academic writing is changing in the contemporary university, trans... more Academics Writing recounts how academic writing is changing in the contemporary university, transforming what it means to be an academic and how, as a society, we produce academic knowledge. Writing practices are changing as the academic profession itself is reconfigured through new forms of governance and accountability, increasing use of digital resources, and the internationalisation of higher education. Through detailed studies of writing in the daily life of academics in different disciplines and in different institutions, this book explores: - the space and time of academic writing; - tensions between disciplines and institutions around genres of writing; - the diversity of stances adopted towards the tools and technologies of writing, and towards engagement with social media; and - the importance of relationships and collaboration with others, in writing and in ongoing learning in a context of constant change. Drawing out implications of the work for academics, university management, professional training, and policy, Academics Writing: The Dynamics of Knowledge Creation is key reading for anyone studying or researching writing, academic support, and development within education and applied linguistics.
This paper highlights the importance, when researching writing across the lifespan, of addressing... more This paper highlights the importance, when researching writing across the lifespan, of addressing a range of aspects of social context which change over time, particularly focusing on tools, values, relationships and identities. It illustrates this argument by drawing on a range of empirical studies exploring different aspects of writing in university settings, working with adults at a range of levels from Masters through doctoral study to academics’ working lives, and reflects on the implications of this research for lifespan writing studies more generally. The projects drawn on include a study of multimodal feedback on postgraduate student writing and students’ responses to this; a detailed study of academics’ writing practices in the context of structural changes in Higher Education; and an interview study with PhD students participating in writing retreats, reflecting on their writing experiences. Drawing on findings from this work, we argue that shifts in material, social and institutional dimensions of context have a significant impact on what individuals write and on the writing practices that they develop. We particularly highlight the role of changing tools for writing and values around writing, and the importance of transformations in identity and relationships. We argue that the tradition of literacy studies research, drawn on by all the projects described in this paper, provides the theoretical and methodological resources to approach such aspects of academic writing development across the lifespan, by adopting a holistic perspective on writing which locates writing as situated practice and thereby provides insight into these social and contextual influences.
This paper explores the variety of uses people make of the tagging feature on the photo-sharing s... more This paper explores the variety of uses people make of the tagging feature on the photo-sharing site Flickr. The site developers intended uses are primarily to build a taxonomy to make the images on the site easily searchable. Data from examples of Flickr tags and interviews with selected users reveal that some tagging fits with this aim, whilst other uses challenge and subvert the intended uses. Tagging is used to do at least the following: identifying existing information in a photo; adding relevant new information; expressing affective stance towards the images; addressing specific audiences; making unrelated 'asides'; and for creative play. The discussion is then broadened by examining a dispute between Flickr and its users about changes being made to the site: this act as a 'telling case' (Mitchell, 1984) as people articulate what the site enables them to do and what it hinders. The dispute generated a thread of more than 29,000 comments, making a corpus of 1,774,401 words. Using corpus linguistics tools the paper demonstrates how users contribute to curating this site, including their uses of tagging. Steps involved in curating the site are identified, including a focus on verbs of curation. Overall, the paper contributes to the analysis of a set of ‘new’ literacy practices and to understanding digital curation. The methods of the two studies reported here productively combine detailed methods of qualitative research with the breadth of quantitative analysis.
Almost every aspect of an academic’s role involves specialised forms of writing, and the range of... more Almost every aspect of an academic’s role involves specialised forms of writing, and the range of digital platforms used to produce this has increased. Core genres such as the journal article and monograph remain central, but the ways they are now commonly produced via file-sharing software and online submission systems are changing them. Digital media also allows academics to stay up to date with their field, connect with others, and share research with wider audiences. Furthermore, academics are increasingly expected to maintain online identities via academic networking sites, and to create and disseminate knowledge via hybrid genres such as tweets and blogs. However, these platforms also represent a potential threat to academics’ values and sense of identity. This paper reports on an [name of funder] research project investigating the writing practices of academics across different disciplines at three English universities. Through academics’ accounts of their experience with and feelings about the role of digital media in their professional writing, this paper explores the factors that complicate their engagement with new genres of writing. The findings reveal a tension between the values of social media, which see knowledge as user-generated and decentralised, and the forms of knowledge creation that are rewarded in academia.
Barton, D. (2012) Ethnographic approaches to literacy research. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.). The Enc... more Barton, D. (2012) Ethnographic approaches to literacy research. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.). The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
International Multilingual Research Journal, Jan 1, 2011
This article reports on a study of user-generated multilingual writing activities on the photo sh... more This article reports on a study of user-generated multilingual writing activities on the photo sharing site, Flickr.com®. It discusses how Flickr users deploy their multilingual resources when interacting with international audiences, the factors affecting their language choice, and how new multilingual identities are constructed. An exploratory content analysis of the photo sites and profiles of 100 Flickr users was followed up by an online questionnaire survey and focused online interviews of Chinese and Spanish users. This article shows that Flickr is a highly multilingual Web 2.0 space, where language choice is affected by the users' situated linguistic ecology, their imagined audience, the content of their photos, and the perceived functions of Flickr. Our findings also reveal new relations between the local and the global. The article concludes by arguing that multilingual writing practices are crucial in negotiating “glocal” identities and widening participation in Web 2.0 spaces such as Flickr.
In this article, we examine the characteristics of vernacular literacies on Web 2.0, focusing on ... more In this article, we examine the characteristics of vernacular literacies on Web 2.0, focusing on the writing activities performed on the photo-sharing site Flickr.com. This site provides people with many possibilities for writing, ranging from individual tags to extensive profiles. The study investigates these forms of writing to address questions about people's contemporary everyday literacy practices: the extent to which these are new practices and how the notion of vernacular literacies is changing in a global context. Data for the research come from a sample of 100 Flickr sites, along with online interviews with 30 active multilingual Spanish-speaking and Chinese-speaking users of Flickr. The study shows that people draw upon a wide range of multilingual and multimodal resources to project new global identities. The writing practices found on Flickr are often changing and new ones are created out of existing ones. The article concludes by redefining the concept of vernacular literacies, showing how they are now more valued and how people are using local resources to participate in global writing practices.
... In discussions of the globalizing effects ofnew technologies, research-ers such as Koutsogian... more ... In discussions of the globalizing effects ofnew technologies, research-ers such as Koutsogiannis and Mitsikopoulou (2007) have referred to glocalisation, making the global local, as when a brand is localized to local conditions, such as when a coffee company adapts their ...
... Redefining vernacular literacies in the age of web 2.0. Applied Linguistics View all referenc... more ... Redefining vernacular literacies in the age of web 2.0. Applied Linguistics View all references). ... 7. Barton, D. and Lee, CKM Forthcoming. Redefining vernacular literacies in the age of web2.0. Applied Linguistics; 8. Baynham, M. and Prinsloo, M., eds. 2009. ...
Academics’ everyday professional writing practices are very extensively mediated through email. ... more Academics’ everyday professional writing practices are very extensively mediated through email. In our recently completed ESRC-funded research project, The Dynamics of Knowledge Creation, email was by far the most commonly mentioned digital platform for writing across our 75 interviewees. As one of them told us, “Everything is done by email now.” Given this ubiquity of email in the ecology of academics’ communication, and particularly given that email has been a feature of the academy for at least 20 years, we might assume that established expectations and patterns around working with emails would have developed by now. However, our research reveals an enormous diversity in practices and attitudes around email. This paper explores specific aspects of this diversity in the way interviewees in our data discussed their engagements with email. In particular, we will explore people’s affective responses to email, and the evaluative stances they adopt (“I email far, far too much”); the range of metaphors our participants used to describe email (“this spectre that hangs over academic life”); and their ascription of agency, responsibility and guilt around email communication (often individualising a problem which clearly has more systemic roots). Systematic analysis of how people talk about email can provide important insights into the implicit understandings and cultural expectations around emails which are prevalent in academic life. Identifying and clarifying diversity in expectations and practices can address some of the unspoken reasons why email can be such a problematic feature of many academics’ professional lives and can provide a point of comparison with other digital resources. Implications can also be drawn more widely for other professional contexts in which email communication is significant.
This presentation discusses findings from an ERSC-funded research project investigating the writi... more This presentation discusses findings from an ERSC-funded research project investigating the writing practices of academics at three English universities. The data drawn on in this paper relate specifically to the ways in which digital technologies around writing bring issues of academic identity into sharp focus.
Academics have always participated in disciplinary networks, but the gradual shift towards "social scholarship" (Greenhow & Gleason, 2014), in which social networking is part of the research, writing and publishing process, has amplified the need for connectedness. Digitisation has brought not only greater opportunities for collaborative writing, but also the expectation that academics will engage in practices such as maintaining online profiles and sharing output on digital forums. Some have argued that these activities risk crowding out the quiet time needed to get scholarly writing done and that they represent a potential threat to academics' sense of identity.
Drawing on a social practice approach to literacy (Barton & Hamilton, 2000), interviews were conducted with academics from three different disciplines and institutions. These focused on the detailed processes and practices involved in academic writing, including the role of digital technologies and relationships with others in text production.
Although scholarly writing is often characterised as a solitary activity, a central aspect of almost all the writing processes in this study was the importance of relationships. More and faster collaborative writing was facilitated by digital platforms such as email, Skype, and file-sharing software. However, relationships played a pivotal role even in forms of writing that were, prima facie, solo endeavours. For example, during periods of writing, informal discussions with colleagues or friends, either face-to-face or via online professional networks, could be extremely productive. Similarly, connecting with others by sharing work online was described as an important part of participants’ scholarly identity.
In this sense, rather than distracting from the work of writing, relationships with others were highly valued and central to the scholarly identity our participants held dear. These findings highlight the centrality of writing relationships in academic identity and the role of digital technologies in enabling them.
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Drawing on findings from this work, we argue that shifts in material, social and institutional dimensions of context have a significant impact on what individuals write and on the writing practices that they develop. We particularly highlight the role of changing tools for writing and values around writing, and the importance of transformations in identity and relationships. We argue that the tradition of literacy studies research, drawn on by all the projects described in this paper, provides the theoretical and methodological resources to approach such aspects of academic writing development across the lifespan, by adopting a holistic perspective on writing which locates writing as situated practice and thereby provides insight into these social and contextual influences.
The discussion is then broadened by examining a dispute between Flickr and its users about changes being made to the site: this act as a 'telling case' (Mitchell, 1984) as people articulate what the site enables them to do and what it hinders. The dispute generated a thread of more than 29,000 comments, making a corpus of 1,774,401 words. Using corpus linguistics tools the paper demonstrates how users contribute to curating this site, including their uses of tagging. Steps involved in curating the site are identified, including a focus on verbs of curation. Overall, the paper contributes to the analysis of a set of ‘new’ literacy practices and to understanding digital curation. The methods of the two studies reported here productively combine detailed methods of qualitative research with the breadth of quantitative analysis.
Academics have always participated in disciplinary networks, but the gradual shift towards "social scholarship" (Greenhow & Gleason, 2014), in which social networking is part of the research, writing and publishing process, has amplified the need for connectedness. Digitisation has brought not only greater opportunities for collaborative writing, but also the expectation that academics will engage in practices such as maintaining online profiles and sharing output on digital forums. Some have argued that these activities risk crowding out the quiet time needed to get scholarly writing done and that they represent a potential threat to academics' sense of identity.
Drawing on a social practice approach to literacy (Barton & Hamilton, 2000), interviews were conducted with academics from three different disciplines and institutions. These focused on the detailed processes and practices involved in academic writing, including the role of digital technologies and relationships with others in text production.
Although scholarly writing is often characterised as a solitary activity, a central aspect of almost all the writing processes in this study was the importance of relationships. More and faster collaborative writing was facilitated by digital platforms such as email, Skype, and file-sharing software. However, relationships played a pivotal role even in forms of writing that were, prima facie, solo endeavours. For example, during periods of writing, informal discussions with colleagues or friends, either face-to-face or via online professional networks, could be extremely productive. Similarly, connecting with others by sharing work online was described as an important part of participants’ scholarly identity.
In this sense, rather than distracting from the work of writing, relationships with others were highly valued and central to the scholarly identity our participants held dear. These findings highlight the centrality of writing relationships in academic identity and the role of digital technologies in enabling them.