The worlds of cultural journals: A new Eurozine focal point

Eurozine is inviting contributions from partner journals to the new focal point ‘The worlds of cultural journals’. The focal point will be published in collaboration with the Working Group on Periodical Studies, a Eurozine Associate.

Outline

Cultural journals – a somewhat awkward placeholder term for periodicals between the arts, the sciences and politics – have played a crucial role in the formation of the public spheres in Europe. From the scholarly journals of the Republic of Letters and the periodicals and pamphlets of the Enlightenment, to the revues of the ‘age of the press’ and the zines and theory journals of the long 1960s, journal-making has been an important ‘cultural technology’ that deeply influences the way we argue, narrate, write and think. While cultural journals retain a strong presence in public spheres and, in the digital ecosystem, have diversified significantly, there is also uncertainty about their form and sustainability.

Despite cultural journals’ influence, they have only recently become an area of research. Today, historians, literary scholars and sociologists are asking questions such as what it means to write for a journal (as opposed to writing a book, for example), how groups form around journals, how journals shape and are shaped by intellectual history, and what conditions cause them to thrive or struggle. These new studies consider journals – political, cultural, artistic, literary or scientific – as media actors in their own right. What may have been evident to journal editors and publishers all along has finally gained ground in research: journals do a lot more than ‘carry texts’ or ‘mirror social change’.

In order to understand where cultural journals are headed, we need to take stock of where they have come from. The collaborative focal point ‘The worlds of cultural journals’ intends to contribute to this debate among journals and their readerships internationally. Alongside contributions from the Working Group, Eurozine is inviting proposals from partner journals. Topics could include:

• How cultural journals have addressed the challenges of multilingualism, translation and transnational audiences.
• Elite and popular journals, elite and popular culture: a changing relationship?
• The role of journals in political movements and campaigns.
• Samizdat and its legacy in central and eastern Europe.
• Female editors, feminism and cultural journalism.
• Journals, cultural policy and cultural diplomacy.
• Journals and intellectual history.
• The impact of digitization on writing and genres in cultural journals.
• Individual and collective histories of cultural journals.

Procedure and funding

The focal point will be an editorial collaboration between you, the partner, Eurozine and the Periodical Studies Working Group. Journals will be paid 300 € per contribution.

Step 1. Submit a proposal for one or more articles. Please outline the topic of the article and include information about the author. Please note that articles will not yet have been commissioned or published.

Step 2. Members of the Periodical Studies Working Group and the Eurozine editors will select proposals.

Step 3. The commissioning and editing will be done by you, the journals. The article will be published in your journal or another journal in the original language.

Step 4. The article will be translated into English, edited and published by Eurozine, together with the original.

The deadline for proposals is 31 March. Publication is planned for the first half of this year.

Please email your proposals to Roman Schmidt at: RomanLeandre.Schmidt@kwi-nrw.de and to Simon Garnett at: s.garnett@eurozine.com