The Neo-Colonial Political Economy of Scholarly Publishing: Its UK-US Origins, Maxwell's Role, and Implications for Sub-Saharan Africa

Eve Gray

doi:10.23962/10539/31367

Abstract

The prevailing dynamics of today's global scholarly publishing ecosystem were largely established by UK and US publishing interests in the years immediately after the Second World War. With a central role played by publisher Robert Maxwell, the two nations that emerged victorious from the war were able to dilute the power of German-language academic publishing-dominant before the war-and bring English-language scholarship, and in particular English-language journals, to the fore. Driven by intertwined nationalist, commercial, and technological ambitions, English-language academic journals and impact metrics gained preeminence through narratives grounded in ideas of "global" reach and values of "excellence"-while "local" scholarly publishing in sub-Saharan Africa, as in much of the developing world, was marginalised. These dynamics established in the post-war era still largely hold true today, and need to be dismantled in the interests of more equitable global scholarship and socio-economic development.

Highlights

It is in the political aspirations and the business models that emerged in the wake of the Second World War that one finds the mechanisms that have subsequently tied journals in as a key component of the career promotion systems in academia, turning these publications into big business, and entrenching neo-liberal economic thinking into the supposedly esoteric sphere of scholarly publishing.In the middle years of the 20th century, the dominance of English-language scholarly publishing was shared between Britain and the US
At the heart of this system is the story of Robert Maxwell’s post-war career, as he was largely responsible for building up journal publication as a large-scale and very profitable business in the UK and the US, underpinned by business efficiency
Maxwell showed a high level of business skill, transforming the amateur culture of the academic business, in order to build up scholarly publishing as a major cultural-economic player, in line with linguistic and economic nationalism in the post-war period

Summary

Introduction

It is in the political aspirations and the business models that emerged in the wake of the Second World War that one finds the mechanisms that have subsequently tied journals in as a key component of the career promotion systems in academia, turning these publications into big business, and entrenching neo-liberal economic thinking into the supposedly esoteric sphere of scholarly publishing.In the middle years of the 20th century, the dominance of English-language scholarly publishing was shared between Britain and the US.

Results

Conclusion