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Academic Writing in a Global Context: The
Politics and Practices of Publishing in English
Theresa Lillis, Mary Jane Curry.
London/New York: Routledge, 2010. 203 pages. ISBN: 978-0-415-46883-1.
Academic Writing in a Global Context is a result of an eight year “text-oriented
ethnography”, which investigated publishing experiences and practices of
fifty scholars from two disciplines working in four countries in Central and
Southern Europe. The aim of the book is to “explore the impact of the
growing dominance of English as the global medium of academic
publications (…) where English is not the official or dominant means of
communication” (page 1). In other words, it addresses the growing global
status of English and its effects on academic text and knowledge
production, participation and access to resources. The volume makes a
relevant contribution to the discussion of the dominance of English in
academic publications and its consequences.
The volume is divided into seven chapters, each tackling a different aspect of
academic text and knowledge production. The approach, the background, as
well as key themes of the study are discussed in Chapter 1. Further
descriptions of “Methodological Tools” can be found throughout the book.
It is these, together with “Scholar Profiles”, dispersed throughout the
chapters, that are the major strength of this book, as they provide a useful
and interesting insight into the lives and experiences of individual scholars
as well as detailed descriptions of how the analyses of various texts were
performed. Additionally, all chapters also include “Text Histories”, through
which the authors exemplify different scholar practices and experiences.
The discussion of different aspects of scholars’ experiences begin in
Chapter 2, which deals with scholars’ publication practices, how they choose
to publish and how these choices are affected by pressures at different levels.
A large part of the chapter describes the different choices that scholars make
when it comes to deciding whether to publish in a national language or in
English, and whether they should intend to reach the national, international
or intranational community, as well as academic or applied community. The
chapter also investigates how publishing in English has become important in
order to receive research funding and promotion, and how these pressures
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influence the scholars when it comes to their choice of language and journal.
One theme which emerges from this chapter is “the sliding of the signifier
English towards international and vice versa” (page 59, authors’ emphasis),
which has resulted in English being attributed greater value. The authors
successfully develop and comment on this theme in the following chapters.
In Chapter 3 the authors explore scholars’ participation in local and
transnational networks. They focus on how the resources available are
different depending on what type and strength of network they participate
in. The authors conclude that maintenance of networks, especially
transnational networks, is very important, as the availability of resources
depends on them. Transnational networks are “less intense and durable than
local networks” (page 86), but they provide more opportunities for useful
feedback on research, help in publishing articles, books, and conference
papers, as well as language help.
Text and literacy brokers and the challenges the scholars face when dealing
with different types of brokering activities are the focus of Chapter 4. The
authors examine both language brokers, such as translators and
proofreaders, as well as academic brokers. It is the examination of the impact
of this second type of broker which is the most interesting in this chapter,
as this is where the authors clearly show how “unequal power relations”
(page 113) affect construction of knowledge, which is the central question
of the book.
Chapter 5 continues with the question of how knowledge is constructed and
valued by reflecting an “Enlightenment ideology of Science”. In this chapter
Lillis and Curry address locality, the relation between the local and the global,
and show that while scholars still perceive the local as being the most central
to their research, different kinds of knowledge are distributed nationally and
globally. The conclusion they draw is that “new” knowledge is published in
international journals, whereas “applied” knowledge and summaries are
published in national publications.
In Chapter 6 the focus changes to the discussion of the “more dystopic
aspects” (page 134) of knowledge construction and publishing in
Anglophone journals. Here the authors describe how centre-based
gatekeeping affects the construction of knowledge, in particular when the
scholars attempt to publish new knowledge. Locality in this context is valued
in relation to the Anglophone centre: It is either interpreted to provide
contrast and confirmation, or it is relocated within the centre. The scholars
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are thus expected “to account for locality in ways which are not expected of
knowledge that is located and produced from the default centre” (page 154).
This chapter therefore provides a useful contrast to Chapter 5, as it shows
how scholars can face great obstacles when trying to publish in major
English-medium (centre) journals.
The concluding chapter (Chapter 7) summarizes the key themes and findings
of the study, after which the different possible ways of changing centre-
based practices for the benefit of all scholars are identified. The authors
argue for the support of local publications and local languages, as well as for
the shift in criteria for judging journals from “international” towards
“internationality”, where non-centre contributions and collaboration should
be included and encouraged. Furthermore, in the final pages of the book,
Lillis and Curry effectively advocate the idea of “knowledge as a gift
economy”, where open access networks and journals and the use of Web 2.0
technology could facilitate global participation in text and knowledge
construction.
In conclusion, Academic Writing in a Global Context is a thorough exploration
of the consequences of the dominance of English in academic publishing.
It offers a good insight into the different aspects of academic text and
knowledge production and how these are influenced by the current
publishing practices. All in all, this volume is highly recommendable for
researchers and teachers whose interests lie in language and globalization and
academic writing.
[Review received March 2011]
[Revised review accepted April 2011]
Reviewed by Špela Mežek
Stockholm University (Sweden)
spela.mezek@english.su.se
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