Publish

Posted on | September 2, 2008 |

A couple of publishing things to share! I am so happy to see that ‘The Normalization of Flexible Female Labour in the Information Economy’ has just been published in the latest Feminist Media Studies. I haven’t been making a habit of on-blog spruiking lately, but right now, a little overwhelmed by a number of half-finished, ‘be patient’ and ‘nearly there’ projects, pls allow me the conceit of dwelling on having something I cared about done and out.

The paper provides an old school semiotic analysis of recent ICT advertising promoting ‘working from home’ and ‘flexible work’ to set the scene for two wider observations. Firstly, the mainstream media’s role in normalising preferred uses of new media technology for work purposes. (This argument actually pre-dates its earlier appearance in my article from last year, ‘Freedom to Work: The impact of wireless on labour politics’ - part of the special issue on ‘wireless cultures’ in Media International Australia). Secondly, how this process contributes to wider discourses limiting the aspirations of middle-class feminist politics to an individual level (the neoliberal mandate of ‘personal choice’). In conclusion, the paper seeks to question the ethical horizon of new media advertising as well as the feminist and labour politics upon which its appeal relies.

The individual horizon for labour politics in information jobs is a theme I’ll be developing in my talk next week, so seeing this is a nice reminder that I’m not straying too far from the original motivations for my research. But meanwhile if you’d like a copy of the paper and don’t have access, I can help out ;-)

Also, a while ago I mentioned a great article on the research assessment culture currently affecting the Anglophone academy. It’s by Guy Redden and it’s just come out in the 10th anniversary issue of M/C. M/C is a journal that has not only pioneered online publishing in tough conditions but in the process introduced and disseminated the work of many local friends who would have been waiting years for academic publications and an audience otherwise. Peta Mitchell’s article in the issue gives an insider’s account of the changing terrain for scholarly publishing over the period of M/C’s life, while David Marshall writes about the journal’s origins in a UQ Honours course.

Congratulations to Peta and David Marshall, and all those involved. Especially, it must be said, on the occasion of the anniversary, Axel Bruns: a driving force and consummate professional without whose formidable work ethic the journal may not have made it this far. I’m sure all of us who have published in M/C wish many more years of its success.

Category: Publications, Reading

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