ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the unbidden learning and practice of writing by ordinary people in disempowered communities, mostly during the 19th and 20th centuries in mainly, but not only, Britain. Writing in the community has long historical roots. It burgeoned in the early 19th century as the patterns of community life changed and the status and levels of literacy rose. During the 19th century, community-based writing developed as a social practice, in a tense and constantly evolving relationship with official and school literacies, whereas the establishment sought to discourage, contain, or assimilate it. Empirical research and cultural theories, together with first hand accounts, are used to illuminate this relationship. It is also important to celebrate the fertility of writing as a creative, social, and practical expression of the culture of communities.
