Beyond Borders: Democratizing Knowledge in a Polarized World
Publishing—as both an industry and a practice—possesses the transformative potential to dismantle linguistic, geographical, and ideological barriers, fostering equitable information flows. The Twenty Fourth International Conference on Publishing Studies—Information, Medium & Society—invites contributions that reconceptualize access to texts, images, and data across borders and chart pathways toward a more democratic knowledge ecosystem.
Amid intensifying concerns over “fake news” and transnational disinformation, we ask: What role should publishers assume in fact-checking, source transparency, and media literacy? How can cross-border collaborations among journalists, scholars, and technologists forge resilient editorial workflows capable of anticipating and preempting harmful narratives? What political, ethical, and logistical challenges arise when moving content across national and digital frontiers? How do trade agreements, censorship regimes, and intellectual property laws govern which materials circulate and remain confined? To what extent can informal networks—diasporic presses, underground zines, guerrilla translations—provide alternative conduits that outpace or subvert state-sanctioned channels?
Finally, in an era defined by recommendation algorithms and curated feeds, how are entrenched hierarchies of “worthy” knowledge reproduced or disrupted? What responsibilities do platforms and publishers bear in structuring these systems, and how might they recalibrate traditional metrics of impact when the very legitimacy of knowledge is contested?
We welcome your insights into how publishing’s platforms, policies, and practices can transcend existing boundaries and render knowledge genuinely democratic.