'Embedded publishing' manual

The Embedded Publishing manual is out!

The manual contains case studies from 10 organisations from South East and Central Europe, their progressive, though precarious, practices. The aim of the manual is to inspire other organizations and individuals to either examine their own publishing practices through this lens, or initiate new ones with the same impossible but necessary task to bring publishing closer to communities of care. It was edited by Miljenka Buljević and published by Kulturtreger.

You can find it on this link.

"As a part of the European collaboration on the project Peripheral Visions, we tried to research and systematize publishing practices that are present on the periphery of the European cultural space and the publishing field in general. By periphery we mean positions with respect to various cultural, political, financial and commercial centers of power in Europe and in individual countries, as well as in specific cultural scenes. This is an open-ended process that started in Malaga in February 2023 and continued in Rijeka in July 2023. In research labs their participants examined publishing practices, the contexts in 
which they emerge and the effects they have. This publication brings case studies of such practices from organizations of South East and Central Europe.

One of the aims of this publication is to out line a publishing ecosystem that hasn’t been recognized as such by either its members and the professional milieu or by decision makers and the audiences. This system is not radical, niche, or small-scale publishing, even though it has some characteristics of each one of them. We call it embedded publishing. Another aim is to under stand what this kind of publishing produces for the organizations engaged in it as well as for the social, cultural and political contexts they are resolved to impact. Finally, the case studies illustrate different characteristics and accents of embed
dedness. Sometimes these qualities are unique and sometimes common, but they are always organically linked to the production processes and contexts they are situated in. They raise questions related to various aspects of publishing: from design and editorial processes to funding and distribution, from the motivation to publish to its public impact, and from organizational capacities to public imperatives put on them.   

Embedded publishing is an umbrella term that covers diverse publishing practices and draws inspiration from the term embedded journalism. These practices treat publishing as a vehicle for a critical intellectual debate and are embedded in the artistic, cultural and intellectual context where the text is published. They often range between radical publishing, multimedia publishing, and intellectual engagement, as well as publishing in some other way with regard to both topics and media. These practices are often characterized by specific social, intellectual or artistic motivation, editorial and design choices and methods, organizational and financial constraints, collaborative and multilingual imperatives, alternative distribution systems, or political ethos. Embedded publishing is often a byproduct of cultural and artistic production that exists outside academic and commercial publishing. It can be seen as an integral or organic part of bottom-up social and cultural movements that stem from the need to complement, educate or legitimize them. Embedded publishing refers to a specific combination of motivations, practices and ambitions that publishing has or intends to have in a certain context." (From the introduction written by Miljenka Buljević.)

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Projekt 'Peripheral Visions' sufinancira Ministarstvo kulture i medija Republike Hrvatske.