Resumen de Acceleration, capitalist temporalities and collective challenges in academic publishing [Language Policy]

Miguel Pérez Milans , Kate Menken

• This article engages with Wolfgang Klein’s (1989. Schreiben oder Lesen, aber nicht beides, oder: Vorschlag zur Wiedereinführung der Keilschrift mittels Hammer und Meißel. Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik) invitation in Schreiben oder Lesen, aber nicht beides, oder: Vorschlag zur Wiedereinführung der Keilschrift mittels Hammer und Meißel to think about the emergence of the knowledge industry and the extent to which it makes it impossible for readers of scientific journals to keep up with overproduction. Taking acceleration as a key economic property that governs contemporary academic capitalism, we explore some inner workings of this industry but also examples of collective (and prefigurative) initiatives that have attempted to undermine such workings in non-academic settings, in order to reflect more specifically on the possible implications for academic publishing. In so doing, we identify some relevant features as to how capitalist temporalities organise scientific editorial work, and provide a few focal points of consideration with the hope of contributing to wider conversations on how to begin (re)imagining alternative ways of doing academic publishing.