Articulation Theory in Activist Literacy Research

Abstract

This article discusses Chantal Mouffe's articulation theory in relation to recent research into urban youth organizing and activism. Unlike many schemas for meaning making around social scientific data, Mouffe's framework offers a post-structuralist political theoretical lens through which to intersubjectively undertake scholarship, foregrounding situated temporality to produce a powerfully generative tool for framing activist literacy research. Using Mouffe to discuss a recent critical literacy study with five urban youth organizers in New York City, this article maps the articulation of the youth as activists. Dialogue around approaches to literacy learning and articulations of activism produced rich data for polyvocal write-ups of shared and divergent trajectories of youth as human rights activists and organizers.