The academic book as socially-embedded media artefact

Thomas Mole

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract / Description of output

For as long as it has existed in its modern form, the academic book has operated in what Jerome McGann calls ‘a double helix of perceptual codes: the linguistic codes […] and the bibliographical codes’. It unites a particular discursive genre with a particular material format. But now the double helix is starting to unravel as new, genetically modified digital formats force us to rethink what the academic book can be. This moment of media change meshes with shifts in the funding and assessment of research, developments in researchers’ intellectual agendas and the challenges of Open Access. As disciplinary boundaries become more porous and scholarly outputs more varied, these changes will affect every stage in the life-cycle of the academic book, from research, collaboration and writing through publication, marketing, reading and preservation, whether it is a monograph, a scholarly edition, a collection of essays or a record of creative endeavour. This contribution aims to bring a book history perspective to these debates. Book history, through its attention to the material circulation of books, can offer a distinctive understanding of the affordances and limitations of the academic monograph, in order to discern the extensive implications of changed formats and practices on all areas of academic life, as well as the specific features of the material book as a unit of knowledge production that are worth preserving in the future.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Academic Book of the Future
EditorsSamantha Rayner, Rebecca E. Lyons
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
ISBN (Print)9781137595768
Publication statusPublished - 13 Nov 2015

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • book history
  • research output
  • promotion
  • hiring
  • assessment
  • funding
  • format
  • academic book

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