[Commlist] CfP: Distribution

We would like to draw your attention to our current Call for Abstracts 
for Issue #8 (Winter 2019) on "Distribution," also to be found here: 
https://www.on-culture.org/submission/cfa-issue8/ 
<https://www.on-culture.org/?email_id=12&user_id=150&urlpassed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub24tY3VsdHVyZS5vcmcvc3VibWlzc2lvbi9jZmEtaXNzdWU4Lw&controller=stats&action=analyse&wysija-page=1&wysijap=subscriptions>

Deadline is March 31, 2019.

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    Call for Abstracts for Issue #8 (Winter 2018): 'Distribution'

Deadline: March 31, 2019

This issue of On_Culture aims to explore the concept 
of distribution across disciplines, opening the scope from media studies 
and global history to the study of culture at large. By combining it 
with broader issues such as agency, digitality, or knowledge production, 
the issue will seek to capture distribution in its multiplicity of 
(political) implications, contexts, infrastructures, and applications.

As a concept and topic for the study of culture, distribution, from 
Latin distribuere (= to scatter, to deliberately share, or to hand out a 
unit of something to some recipients), can point to a variety of flows 
of objects. These may range from material goods and media formats to 
ephemeral opinions, but can also point from power structures or the 
dissemination of knowledge to the traveling of cultural works and 
theoretical concepts. Distribution is thus ideally situated to grasp 
changing landscapes of cultural production, academia, knowledge 
institutions, and social relations more generally. How is distribution 
conceptualized, how is it structured, and which agents can influence the 
direction of movement? Distribution opens up associations to 
hierarchical systems and traditional forms of supply. It, however, also 
allows to broaden the scope to non-linear processes of circulation, to 
egalitarian forms of sharing and mobilities against the grain.

In recent years, media studies have shifted questions of distribution 
into sharper focus, especially in regard to media productions and the 
emergence of digitally distributed audiovisual content. Points of 
interest have not only been the narrative innovations this entailed, but 
also the power structures which these new networks of content 
dissemination inevitably include – and the possible means of subversion. 
This complex also includes the establishment of new economies that rely 
on self-distribution, as for example YouTube or Twitch performers 
navigate dynamic media ecologies seamlessly. Moreover, content has 
become accessible through highly transmedial story-worlds that make use 
of multi-faceted distributing systems, from toys, websites, and comics 
to TV series, video games, and various avenues of feature films. This 
poses questions of media specificity and challenges the ways we can 
address this specificity across formats, platforms, and materialities.

Distribution, from the perspective of the study of culture, can also 
help to shed light on varied processes in the political realm in the 
last years, touching upon the ubiquity of “fake news,” walled-off filter 
bubbles, live-streaming of protests and altercations with police, or 
other forms of non-hierarchical sharing. These processes, although 
different in form, all point towards a revolution of means of 
distribution of knowledge, experiences, and ideologies – be it via 
algorithms, personal preference, or innovations in technology. New media 
distribution opportunities and patterns carry with them a great 
emancipatory potential, as they allow for the breaking up of traditional 
power structures, possibly even for the reversal of long-standing power 
hierarchies. For the case of the distribution of knowledge, this extends 
well into the digital realm: Disruptive elements such as, for instance, 
the open access and open science movements that call for a 
democratization of access to knowledge shake up traditional forms of 
knowledge distribution by powerful publishing houses with their 
long-established gate-keeping mechanisms.

Such current processes can be placed within a historical lineage of 
increasing global exchanges and circulations of people, ideas, and 
resources. The international or global turn in the study of history has 
emphasized a focus on transnational connections and on negotiations 
taking place between global and local scales. Many historical examples 
need to be seen against the background of highly hierarchical colonial 
models of distribution, with mobility between continents determined by 
Western economic and political interests. Taking major historical 
transformations since then into account, the continuing exertion of 
neo-colonial power is nonetheless still reflected in questions of 
political interference, migration, and access in the digital age – and 
thus central to the issues under discussion.

Further possible topics include but are not limited to:

• Historical surveys of distribution patterns – from material goods to 
cultural artefacts

• State regulation of distribution and censorship

• Subversive forms of distribution: counter-publics, fan cultures, black 
markets

• Forms of distribution and their ability to shape, alter, or arrange 
content

• New critical and theoretical approaches to distribution, e.g. platform 
studies

• Global circulations from a historical perspective: e.g. knowledge 
exchange, colonial negotiations

• Labor of distribution

• Digital distribution and questions of access (Open Access, Open 
Science, Open Data, etc.) and critical responses

If you are interested in having a peer reviewed academic article 
featured in the next issue, please submit an abstract of 300 words with 
the article title, 5–6 keywords, and a short biographical note to 
(content /at/ on-culture.org) <mailto:(content /at/ on-culture.org)> (subject line 
“Abstract Submission Issue 8”) no later than March 31, 2019. You will be 
notified by April 15, 2019 whether your paper proposal has been 
accepted. The final date for full paper submissions is July 15, 2019.

Please note: On_Culture also features a section devoted to shorter, 
creative pieces pertaining to each issue topic. These can be interviews, 
essays, opinion pieces, reviews of exhibitions, analyses of cultural 
artifacts and events, photo galleries, videos, works of art … and more! 
These contributions are uploaded on a rolling basis, also to previous 
issues. Interested in contributing? Send your ideas to the Editorial 
Team 
<https://www.on-culture.org/?email_id=12&user_id=150&urlpassed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub24tY3VsdHVyZS5vcmcvZWRpdG9yaWFsLXRlYW0v&controller=stats&action=analyse&wysija-page=1&wysijap=subscriptions> at 
any time: (content /at/ on-culture.org) <mailto:(content /at/ on-culture.org)>

*About On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture*

On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture (ISSN: 2366–4142) 
is a biannual, peer-reviewed academic e-journal edited by post/doctoral 
researchers and professors working at the International Graduate Centre 
for the Study of Culture (GCSC) Giessen. It provides a forum for 
reflecting on the study of culture. It investigates, problematizes, and 
develops key concepts and methods in the field by means of a 
collaborative and collective process. On_Culture is dedicated to 
fostering such engagements as well as the cultural dynamics at work in 
thinking about and reflecting on culture.

The journal consists of three sections: peer-reviewed academic 
_Articles, _Essays, and the 
aforementioned _Perspectives. On_Culture brings new approaches and 
emerging topics to the (trans)national study of culture ‘on the line’ 
and, in so doing, fills the gap _____ between ‘on’ and ‘culture.’ There 
are numerous ways of filling the gap, and a plurality of approaches is 
something we always strive for.

Contributions to the _Perspectives Section are possible at any time. So 
if you’re interested in contributing also to one of the previous issues, 
please get in touch with our Editorial Team at (content /at/ on-culture.org) 
<mailto:(content /at/ on-culture.org)>. Find our Call for Abstracts Archive 
here: https://www.on-culture.org/submission/call-for-abstracts-archive/ 
<https://www.on-culture.org/?email_id=12&user_id=150&urlpassed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub24tY3VsdHVyZS5vcmcvc3VibWlzc2lvbi9jYWxsLWZvci1hYnN0cmFjdHMtYXJjaGl2ZS8&controller=stats&action=analyse&wysija-page=1&wysijap=subscriptions>

Please note: *As a commitment to the open access to scholarship, 
On_Culture does not charge any Article Processing Charges (APCs) for the 
publication of your contribution!*

Visit our website for more information: www.on-culture.org 
<https://www.on-culture.org/?email_id=12&user_id=150&urlpassed=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5vbi1jdWx0dXJlLm9yZy8&controller=stats&action=analyse&wysija-page=1&wysijap=subscriptions>







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