The Ritual of Academic Publishing

Petra Brouwer

doi:10.5334/ah.366

Abstract

The volume of Architectural Histories published in 2018 was the first to appear under its new editor-in-chief, leading to a reflection on the ‘ritual’, in line with Eric Hobsbawm, that we call academic publishing. What values and norms does Architectural Histories stand for? How can the journal reflect the current state of research of our field? What role can the journal play in our academic thinking and working practices?

Highlights

The volume of Architectural Histories published in 2018 was the first to appear under its new editor-inchief, leading to a reflection on the ‘ritual’, in line with Eric Hobsbawm, that we call academic publishing
Last June, at the biannual meeting of the European Architectural History Network (EAHN) in Tallinn, I officially took over the editorship of Architectural Histories from Maarten Delbeke, founding editor in chief
The calls for papers, the annual business meetings, the themed conferences, the conference dinners, the keynote lectures, the interest groups, the by-laws of the EAHN, the blind peer-review reports, the indexing of the journal, the EAHN Publication Award for best article in Architectural Histories—all are part of the formalization and ritualization of a set of practices that are governed by rules, which, as Hobsbawm put it, ‘seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour’

Summary

Introduction

Last June, at the biannual meeting of the European Architectural History Network (EAHN) in Tallinn, I officially took over the editorship of Architectural Histories from Maarten Delbeke, founding editor in chief. The volume of Architectural Histories published in 2018 was the first to appear under its new editor-inchief, leading to a reflection on the ‘ritual’, in line with Eric Hobsbawm, that we call academic publishing. The calls for papers, the annual business meetings, the themed conferences, the conference dinners, the keynote lectures, the interest groups, the by-laws of the EAHN, the blind peer-review reports, the indexing of the journal, the EAHN Publication Award for best article in Architectural Histories—all are part of the formalization and ritualization of a set of practices that are governed by rules, which, as Hobsbawm put it, ‘seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour’.

Results

Conclusion