Announcement Calenda 1232663
The journal Cahiers d'Études africaines initiates a cycle of reflections on the issues and challenges facing humanities and social science journals in African studies within a scientific geopolitics characterized by strong academic and epistemic asymmetries. Under the title "Des revues sous les projecteurs. Publier en études africaines", these three meetings scheduled for 2025 aim to lift the hood of these journals, which are key players in the production, validation and dissemination of knowledge about African worlds. They also aim to re-situate the editorial life of these journals in the light of the structural constraints that weigh heavily on publication strategies and on the modalities and capacities for handling scientific articles.
Taking French and African journals in particular as the object and field of investigation, we first look at the scientific writings themselves and the editorial activity that accompanies them up to the point of publication (or refusal), integrating into the analysis the role played by the various contributors to these texts and the standards applied to them. A second point of entry is the experience of the players involved in the editorial process: authors under pressure to publish more and more, publishing professionals affected by worsening working conditions, as well as reviewers, editors-in-chief and editorial board members. Finally, the meetings will focus on the history of the journals, the scientific sociabilities that drive them, the scientific projects they support and the obstacles they face. The case of African journals will be particularly explored, as they are caught between the desire to produce knowledge by and for Africa, on the one hand, and to invent an autonomous editorial scene, on the other, and the structural difficulties specific to publishing teams and infrastructures based in Africa.
These meetings accompany the preparation of a special issue of Cahiers d'Études africaines on the scientific and editorial challenges facing African studies journals, due to be published in spring 2025.
