In this chapter, Janneke explores recently developed alternatives to academic publishing as it is presently structured. Some of these alternatives are focused on increasing equitable access and raising questions about the “material nature of books, authorship, copyright, originality, responsibility, and fixity” (159). Janneke approaches these alternatives as part of their strategy of experimenting with and re-imagining the future of the scholarly book. They offer two strategies for intervening in current cultures of knowledge production and re-imagining the book: one focused on the institutions and modes of material production relevant to the book, and the other focused on scholars’ own research, communication, and publishing practices. In offering these strategies, Janneke draws distinctions between neoliberal visions of open access (attached to the notion of innovation) and radical open access (attached to the idea of experimentation).
“Experimenting is very much an affirmative speculative practice, a means to reperform our existing scholarly institutions and practices in potentially more ethical and responsible ways; opening up spaces for otherness and differentiation beyond our hegemonic conceptual knowledge frameworks; and exploring more inclusive forms of knowledge, open to ambivalence and failure" (Janneke, 2021:159).
