Abstract
Starting from a position within the New Literacy Studies and based on data from an ethnographic study of literacy, this paper argues that in order to further a sustainable Lifelong Learning strategy for literacy we need to pay serious attention to three areas of knowledge creation:

- the details of literacy learning and use in local communities

- the process of vernacular learning in community contexts

- the institutional processes that priviledge certain kinds of knowing and expertise to the exclusion of others.

In doing this, we need to see learning as a social, relational process, where the individual is not isolated from others, and where issues of learning environment, process and resources are considered together as an integral part of a systems approach to lifelong learning policy.