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P275


Transforming knowledge formats. Media imaginations of time, space, and scientific discourse beyond print 
Convenors:
Phillip Roth (RWTH Aachen University)
Ana María Guzmán Olmos (RWTH Aachen University)
Alin Olteanu (RWTH Aachen University)
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Format:
Combined Format Open Panel

Short Abstract:

This panel explores how media formats enable and limit the formation and communication of knowledge by framing discourses on roles, approaches, and commitments to science and society epistemologically, politically, and materially, and thereby determine imaginations of science and research.

Long Abstract:

Scientific discourse is mostly imagined through media formats that idealize print culture, such as the journal article and book. These formats bias the formation of knowledge by framing discourses on roles, approaches, and commitments to science and society epistemologically, politically, and materially. Media create the space and time in which knowledge is produced and circulated, while formats combine technical forms and social protocols arranging the presentation of media. This panel explores how media formats enable and limit the formation and communication of knowledge and thereby determine imaginations of science and research.

Expressing knowledge through articles and books is biased towards notions of scientific activity as represented in “active contributions to research” and “authorship”, effectively displacing knowledge forms that do not fit in these formats, such as those by amateurs and lay practitioners, citizen scientists, or bearers of indigenous and local knowledges. Prioritizing knowledge forms based on ideas of the scientist as researcher and author, these format imaginaries reinforce an established ecology and economy of research and communication. While the digital revolution opens up possibilities for conducting research through various media technologies, research remains imagined as a discrete succession of self-contained projects with stable and finite results, generated through accepted scientific methods. This imaginary delegitimizes knowledge forms that are not easily submitted to publication, or question the modern liberal author.

We are interested in contributions that highlight how formats other than the book or journal article may play a role in forming knowledge (e.g., software, conferences, preprints); how formats not generally considered as means of academic knowledge expression can be imagined as such (e.g., poetry, online forums, social media); or which conceptualize formats that recognize specific or local insights as knowledge forms. The panel takes a combined format, welcoming both traditional academic papers and other contributions (artistic interventions, demonstrations, workshops, etc.).

Accepted contributions:

Session 1
Session 2