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This article proposes Ullapoolism, a post-data, activist, autoethnographic epistemology for contemporary book culture studies. It begins by addressing the challenges of contemporaneity and multidisciplinarity in researching the creation, circulation and use of books. We identify a rigidity that limits existing theoretical frameworks for the study of book cultures, and a paucity in existing research modes—including those from literary sociology, the digital humanities and cultural analytics—that collect, count and model book cultures. Our alternative epistemology, Ullapoolism, draws on two modes of action developed by the Situationist International—détournements, mischievous re-inscriptions of existing cultural artefacts; and dérives, active drifts through space attuned to emotion—and addresses potential predicaments including recuperation and entanglement. The situated knowledge produced through this epistemology has practical applications. Fields are not neutral, and as mischief-making activists, we use creative critique and playful experimentalism to oppose structural inequity. Ullapoolism therefore offers a future program for both cultural analysis and scholarly activism.

This article establishes a quantitative and qualitative model of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) publisher ‘Tiers’, in order to enable researchers and cultural policy makers to have a more granular understanding of the impact of publisher size. Through an aggregated set of case studies deriving from the UK, the article also develops an understanding of how to build a cultural support model for publishing based on publisher size, sustainability and company life cycle. What the Tiers model underpins in terms of cultural policy funding for publishers is a rigorous and developmental sense of a publishing ecosystem, offering a framework which is attendant to industry and broader contexts, and enables cultural policy funding to take into account publisher development, challenge and growth.

The Frankfurt Book Fair is the leading global industry venue for rights sales, facilitating business-to-buzzness deals and international networks. In this Element, we pursue an Ullapoolist approach to excavate beneath the production of bestsellers at the Fair. Our investigation involved three consecutive years of fieldwork (2017–2019) including interviews and autoethnographic, arts-informed interventions. The Element argues that buzz at the Fair exists in two states: as market-ready media reports and partial, lived experiences linked to mood. The physical structures and absences of the Fair enact its power relations and direct the flow of books and buzz. Further, the Fair is not only a site for commercial exchange but a carnival of sorts, marked by disruptive historical events and problematic socio-political dynamics. Key themes emerging from the Element are the presence of excess, the pseudo(neo)liberal self-satisfaction of book culture, and the interplay of optimism and pessimism in contemporary publishing.

In order to explore monograph peer review in the arts and humanities, this article introduces and discusses an applied example, examining the route to publication of Danielle Fuller and DeNel Rehberg Sedo’s Reading Beyond the Book: The Social Practices of Contemporary Literary Culture (2013). The book’s co-authors supplemented the traditional ‘blind’ peer-review system with a range of practices including the informal, DIY review of colleagues and ‘clever friends’, as well as using the feedback derived from grant applications, journal articles and book chapters. The article ‘explodes’ the book into a series of documents and non-linear processes to demonstrate the significance of the various forms of feedback to the development of Fuller and Rehberg Sedo’s monograph. The analysis reveals substantial differences between book and article peer-review processes, including an emphasis on marketing in review forms and the pressures to publish, which the co-authors navigated through the introduction of ‘clever friends’ to the review processes. These findings, drawing on science and technology studies, demonstrate how such a research methodology can identify how knowledge is constructed in the arts and humanities and potential implications for the valuation of research processes and collaborations.

From 1970 onward, then, via mergers and acquisitions, the ownership of publishing companies became increasingly globalized. This chapter addresses evidence for the plurality of output in a globalized marketplace, the impact of this for the consumer, and the growing opportunities seemingly afforded by fan fiction and self‐publishing platforms. Consumption has become much easier to quantify in the post‐1970 period in some countries with the introduction of electronic point of sale systems. General book consumer surveys exist in various publishing markets, but their coverage is patchy, and they often use non‐comparable statistical bases. The variable levels of data provided via the International Publishers Association website clearly demonstrate this knowledge gap and confirm Robert Darnton's statement about the difficulties inherent in the study of reading. Moreover, given the variable ways in which readers acquire books, patterns of consumption do not strictly mirror patterns of reading.

This chapter examines the gatekeeping orientation, evaluative processes, and decision-making role of the publisher’s commissioning editor through a conceptual framework of sensing the novel, seeing the book, and selling the goods. This framework incorporates the affective, and often bodily processes, of reading novels (‘sensing’), alongside the matching of taste to communicative processes and an envisioning of the material book-as-product (‘seeing’), culminating in the commercial impetus of books-as-goods (‘selling’). Through semi-structured interviews, the chapter examines the sensory and passional ways in editors recount their experiences of commissioning as a lived, felt experience but also as a professional discourse and an economic practice. As such, the chapter argues that sensing-seeing-selling is a networked praxis in which aesthetic objects, individual professionalized readers, emotional labor, publishing processes, company formations, material embodiments, and market environments come together.

Book awards are a pervasive aspect of contemporary book culture, attracting both substantial media and scholarly attention. They confer prestige, create marketing opportunities, push sales, and contribute to the early stages of canon formation. Yet, beyond occasional media splashes when judges break ranks and disagree, there is little insight into the administrative and decision-making processes inside book awards. This article draws on the autoethnographic experiences of two academic researchers, who were simultaneously participants (as administrator and judge) for the Saltire Society Literary Awards. In so doing, the article gives insight into particular moments within the administration and judging of the awards, such as changes instigated by research findings and debates surrounding gender imbalance in Scottish literary award culture. It also examines some of the challenges of operating as embedded researchers. The article analyses what autoethnographic methods can bring to an understanding of the Saltire Society’s Literary Awards and other cultural awards, and the implications of embedded research and collaborative autoethnography for 21st century book culture scholarship more widely. It reflects upon modes of embedded research by making evident the challenges and dilemmas of researching from the ‘inside’. The ethical framework for such research is far from simple, but in exploring particular moments with perspectives from both inside and outside the judging processes, and in interrogating the practices of literary consecration, the article casts light upon this particular ‘judging club’ and its practices, and illuminates ways in which researchers might consider, orientate, and carry out further research into processes of cultural consecration.

The book festival provides an intriguing instance of the overlapping cultural, social and economic dimensions of contemporary literary culture. This article proposes the application of a new conceptual framework, that of game-inspired thinking, to the study of book festivals. Game-inspired thinking uses games as metaphors that concentrate and exaggerate aspects of cultural phenomena in order to produce new knowledge about their operations. It is also an arts-informed methodology that offers a mid-level perspective between empirical case studies and abstract models. As a method, our Bookfestivalopoly and other games focus attention on the material, social and ideological dimensions of book festivals. In particular, they confirm the presence of neoliberal pressures and neocolonial inequalities in the “world republic of letters.” Our research thus makes a contribution to knowledge about the role of festivals within contemporary literary culture, and provides a model for researchers of cultural phenomena who may want to adopt game-inspired, arts-informed thinking as an alternative to traditional disciplinary methods., Le festival du livre constitue un exemple intéressant quant à la manière dont les dimensions culturelle, sociale et économique se chevauchent dans la culture littéraire contemporaine. Le présent article propose l’application d’un nouveau cadre conceptuel à l’étude des festivals du livre, celui de la réflexion inspirée par le jeu. Dans cette dernière, les jeux agissent comme des métaphores qui concentrent et exagèrent certains aspects de phénomènes culturels afin de produire un savoir inédit sur leurs mécanismes. Il s’agit aussi d’une méthodologie nourrie par les arts et qui offre une perspective à mi-chemin entre études de cas empiriques et modèles abstraits. Ainsi, notre « Bookfestivalopoly » (littéralement : Festivaldulivropoly) et les autres jeux dont nous nous inspirons ramènent l’attention sur les dimensions matérielle, sociale et idéologique des festivals du livre. Plus particulièrement, ils confirment la présence de pressions néolibérales et d’iniquités néocoloniales à l'oeuvre dans « la république mondiale des lettres ». Nous souhaitons, par nos travaux, contribuer à la connaissance du rôle des festivals au sein de la culture littéraire contemporaine et soumettre un nouveau modèle aux chercheurs qui s'intéressent aux phénomènes culturels et aimeraient adopter une approche inspirée par le jeu et les arts plutôt que les approches disciplinaires habituelles.

Background Parents with past and current eating disorders (ED) have been shown to report troubles nourishing their infants. This could increase the risk of infant feeding problems linked to maternal anxiety and depression. It is not clear how mothers’ eating difficulties before pregnancy and at the time of birth can affect infant’s feeding. We aimed to specify the impact of eating disorders on mothers’ adaptation and sensitivity to their offspring during feeding, by comparing a population of mothers with eating disorders and controls. Methods Twenty-eight women agreed to participate in interviews and filmed mother-baby interactions. Pregnant women consulting at an obstetric unit for care follow-up were screened and tested for symptoms of eating disorders with the EDE-Q Questionnaire (Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire) and the EDE Interview (Eating Disorders Examination Interview). Infant functional troubles and mothers’ sensitivity were investigated through the Symptom Check List. Reciprocal adaptation during feeding with their new-borns was filmed and analysed with the Chatoor Infant Feeding Scale. Before pregnancy, two women suffered from anorexia, three suffered from bulimia, three had binge eating symptoms and two were diagnosed with EDNOS (Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified). Results Mothers suffering from ED tended to show more difficult interactive patterns in terms of dyadic reciprocity when feeding their babies compared with mothers with no symptoms of eating disorders. In the interviews, other than the behavioural data gathered, ED mothers expressed feeling more dissatisfaction and uneasiness during feeding. Conclusions Pregnancy seems to be an useful period for interviewing women on eating disorders, allowing for the design and implementation of prevention programmes based on mothers’ narratives and infant/mother observations and treatment.

International audience; The knowledge of popular beliefs and traditions about death, birth, masculinity, and femininity is explored through notions such as unconscious motives, Oedipus, incest prohibition, and generational differences. We will examine magic thinking in anthropological and psychoanalytic studies about maternity and birth. We will question whether trauma transmission and unresolved mourning are better understood through a psychoanalytic interpretation of magic thinking. Then we will point out how a stillbirth can lead a mother to experience anxiety and a state of psychic contamination in the following pregnancy, and how this leads to archaic psychological mechanisms in her subsequent child.; La connaissance des croyances et coutumes d’autres traditions concernant la mort, la naissance, le masculin et le féminin est éclairée par la considération des pulsions, de l’œdipe, de l’interdit de l’inceste ou des différences de générations. Nous examinerons la pensée magique dans certains travaux anthropologiques et psychanalytiques sur la maternité et la naissance d’un enfant. Ensuite, nous nous demanderons si la transmission des traumatismes, des phénomènes de répétition, des deuils non élaborés à des enfants est éclairée par l’interprétation psychanalytique des mécanismes de pensée magique. Enfin, nous montrerons comment la coïncidence de la mort et de la naissance chez une mère ayant connu une mort in utero peut la conduire à se trouver, lors de la naissance d’un enfant suivant, dans un état d’angoisse et de contagiosité psychique conduisant à des mécanismes de pensée archaïque chez son enfant.

International audience; An Essay on Gamete Donation.The question of lifting the anonymity of donors in medically assisted procreation procedures, involving artificial insemination with sperm donation or fertilisation of an oocyte donated by a third party, is at present the subject of heated debate in France. It is rooted in a train of thought underpinned by children trying to trace their paternal or maternal filiation and aims at making this easier, thereby promoting the child’s ‘right’ to gain knowledge of their own origins. Elective filiations such as these refuel the nature/nurture debate and the representations they go hand in hand with within the framework of reproductive medicine. Technical possibilities sometimes seem to far outdo the psychic capacity to cope with the consequences of infertility.; La possible levée de l’anonymat des donneurs dans le cadre des procréations médicalement assistées avec insémination des spermatozoïdes ou fécondation d’un ovocyte d’un tiers est débattue en France. Elle s’inscrit dans le courant initié par des recherches en paternité ou en maternité visant à la « traçabilité » des origines et du « droit » des enfants à connaître leurs origines. Ces filiations électives relancent le débat nature/culture et les représentations qui les accompagnent dans le domaine de la médecine de la reproduction. La technique semble parfois dépasser les possibilités psychiques de supporter les conséquences de l’infertilité.

International audience; The Destiny of Perinatal Bereavement – a Clinical Case.This article presents a clinical case which illustrates how the complexity of perinatal clinical practice permanently throws into question the role of child psychiatrists working in liaison with maternity wards, in terms of holding, protective shielding, thirdness, conferring meaning and the transformation of psychic processes.; Un récit clinique illustre la manière dont la complexité de la clinique périnatale impose un questionnement permanent quant au rôle des pédopsychiatres de liaison en maternité, se déclinant en termes de contenance, pare-excitation, tiercéité, mise en sens et transformation des processus psychiques.

International audience; Beside traditional medical indications of assistance to procreation, like extreme Fallopian tube sterility or spermatic insufficiencies, new requests of children appear in situations of relative infertility, related to age or close to margins of allowed social standards. However, the more the requests of assisted procreation emanate from extreme existential situations, the more they seem to reveal fragile people; indeed, the psychopathological factoften appears in extreme cases of the social, biological or legal standards... thus the teams of procreation medical assistance are led to be cautiousand submit these requests within a framework where the psychologist and the psychiatrist have their place.; A côté des indications médicales traditionnelles d’aide à la procréation, comme la stérilité tubaire ou les insuffisances spermatiques extrêmes, de nouvelles demandes d’enfants apparaissent dans des situations d’infertilité relatives, liées à l’âge ou bien aux marges des normes sociales admises jusque là. Or, plus les demandes de procréation assistée émanent de situations existentielles extrêmes, plus elles semblent révéler des personnes fragiles ; en effet, le fait psychopathologique apparaît souvent aux limites des normes sociales, biologiques ou juridiques... ainsi les équipes de procréation médicalement assistée sont conduites à s’entourer de précautions et à soumettre ces demandes à un encadrement où le psychologue et le psychiatre ont leur place.

International audience; In scientific literature, the link between eating disorders and pregnancy has remained very little explored, despite the many questions it raises. Women suffering from eating disorders can become mothers without their disorders being taken into account by health care professionals. Moreover, the mental and physical adjustments and changes to eating patterns associated with pregnancy make it a particularly critical moment for this vulnerable group. The aim of this research, then, was to carry out a systematic study into the eating patterns of pregnant women in order to identify possible eating disorders and subclinical forms. The first results of the study revealed a major preoccupation with their food intake on the part of pregnant women, most of them reporting changes in their eating patterns and fears of losing control of the quantities ingested. The importance of early screening for these disorders is thus highlighted as is the need for a multidisciplinary team to take into account the psychological impact of all that surrounds giving birth.; En la literatura científica, la relación entre TCA y embarazo está poco investigada a pesar de su interés. Efectivamente las mujeres con TCA pueden llegar a ser madres sin que su trastorno sea tomado en consideración por parte de los profesionales de la salud. Por otra parte las transformaciones psíquicas y físicas y las modificaciones de la conducta alimenticia asociadas al embarazo hacen que este periodo sea particularmente crítico para estas personas vulnerables. Es la razón por la cual esta investigación tiene como objetivo estudiar sistemáticamente las conductas alimenticias en las mujeres embarazadas para diagnosticar las eventuales TCA y las formas sub clínicas. Los primeros resultados del estudio han evidenciado la gran preocupación de las mujeres embarazadas por su alimentación, la mayoría de ellas indican cambios en sus conductas alimenticias y el miedo de perder el control de las cantidades ingeridas. Queda pues demostrado el interés evidente del despistaje precoz de estos trastornos y la importancia de que un equipo pluridisciplinario tome en consideración los aspectos psicológicos durante el embarazo.; Dans la littérature scientifique, le lien entre TCA et grossesse semble particulièrement inexploité, bien que riche de questionnements. En effet, les femmes atteintes de TCA peuvent devenir mères, et ce, sans que leurs troubles soient pris en compte par les professionnels de santé. D’autre part, les remaniements psychiques et physiques et les modifications du comportement alimentaire associés à la grossesse en font un moment particulièrement critique pour cette population vulnérable. D’où l’ambition de cette recherche d’étudier systématiquement les conduites alimentaires des femmes enceintes en vue de repérer d’éventuels TCA et formes subcliniques. Les premiers résultats de l’étude ont mis en évidence la préoccupation majeure des femmes enceintes pour leur alimentation, la majorité rapportant des changements dans leur comportement alimentaire et des craintes de perdre le contrôle des quantités ingérées. Il est ainsi montré l’intérêt évident d’un dépistage précoce de ces troubles et d’une meilleure prise en compte psychologique de l’environnement de naissance par une équipe pluridisciplinaire.

International audience; When the question of a woman’s desire to have a child later in life is raised, the first reasons that are put forward to explain this are sociological. But this female model of pregnancy after the age of 35 is having difficulty getting established. besides, these rational factors are often highlighted, whereas unconscious determiners are an important constituent of this desire.; Le désir tardif d’enfant d’une femme s’explique par des raisons sociologiques évidentes (travail précaire, fragilité des unions...), toutefois ce modèle féminin d’une grossesse après trente-cinq ans a du mal à s’imposer. Les techniques médicales permettent de mieux suivre ces grossesses,marquées par ne relative infertilité mais avec les procréations médicalement assistées, les situations fragiles sont émergentes. Il apparaît en suivant les histoires singulières que l’ambivalence à l’égard de la grossesse et ses effets inconscients agit pour une bonne part dans ce désir.

L’anticipation prenatale d’un enfant, dans le contexte d’une mort perinatale anterieure, risque d’etre figee. Inversement l’attente d’un autre enfant peut permettre un travail psychique reparateur. Le vecu psychologique des femmes enceintes a la suite d’une grossesse ayant abouti a une mort in utero a ete recueilli au cours d’entretiens cliniques et les premiers liens avec les enfants suivants ont ete observes. Il s’agit donc d’une recherche clinique en psychopathologie et particulierement d’un point de vue psychanalytique associee a une observation naturaliste et comparative des interactions parents-enfants, afin de prevenir l’impact de relations mal engagees avec l’enfant. Sur le plan metapsychologique, le modele freudien du deuil est en question au-dela du domaine de la perinatalite : comment penser le deuil a propos de l’enfant mort avec qui la relation est fortement investie mais non representable ? La mort in utero n’offrirait-elle pas une forme de figuration d’un objet narcissique de nature melancolique ? Quel est l’effet de la violence exercee sur le corps maternel sur le feminin ?

This article argues that research into literary prizes can potentially be extremely pertinent in the understanding of the material and ideological conditions of the production and reception of literature and literary value. As such, the analysis of prizes awarded is similar to the wider project of book history and publishing studies, and in their fusion of cultural and economic capital, literary prizes are thus part of the larger environment in which books are produced, distributed and consumed. Through an examination of the impact of eligibility requirements and the reception of prize-winning books, particularly within the European context, this article examines the vital role of prizes in the creation of communities of writers and the development of communities of readers. The article considers a variety of methodologies for the study of literary prizes. It calls for an analysis both quantitative and qualitative, and that pays attention to both the histories and development of individual prizes, and the wider negotiations book prize culture makes with the publishing industries and culture in general, both on the "common ground" of European and global prize cultures, and in its regionaland national differences. Članek postavlja tezo, da je raziskovanje literarnih nagrad zelo pomembno za razumevanje ideoloških in materialnih pogojev, v katerih se dogajata produkcija in recepcija literature in literarnih vrednot. Kot taka, sodi analiza literarnih nagrad v podobno polje kot neprimerno širše zastavljene založniške študije in zgodovina knjige: skozi fuzijo kulturnega in ekonomskega kapitala so literarne nagrade del širšega okolja, v katerem so knjige proizvedene, distriburirane in konzumirane. Skozi analizo vpliva kriterijev primernosti knjige za podelitev nagrade in skozi percepcijo nagrajenih knjig predvsem v Evropi, skuša članek analizirati izjemno pomembno vlogo, ki jo imajo nagrade pri nastanku skupnosti piscev in pri razvoju skupnosti bralcev. Članek obravnava številne metodologije, ki so primerne za raziskovanje literarnih nagrad. Zavzema se za kvalitativno in kvantitativno analizo in se usmerja tako v zgodovino kot v razvoj posameznih nagrad, ter v analizo razmerja med kulturo nagrad na eni in založniško industrijo ter kulturo v širšem pomenu besede na drugi strani.

Analyze narratives of parents intending to conceive a second child by donor insemination, with reference to their infertility history, the course of the first donation and the child's affiliation, aiming at a sounder grasp of conscious and unconscious aspects of sperm donation procedures.

While there are multiple approaches to researching cultural events, predominant academic frames tend to be either sociological or situated within a creative industries discourse. Neither of these approaches have supported sustained engagement with individual, interior experience at book festivals. Creative writers have imaginatively depicted these sites of author-reader interaction, and developing scholarship focuses on autoethnography and the phenomenological. In this article, we extend and materialise these approaches through a series of creative, arts-informed interventions: @AuthorsYurt, a personification on Twitter of the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s green room; Paper Dolls, a series of cut-out-and-dress dolls depicting audience members at a variety of book festivals across Europe, North America and Australia; and ClueButeDo, a satirical reworking of the audience feedback form at a small island crime festival in the UK. Each of the three experiments reveals aspects of personhood at book festivals, engaging with ideas of interiority, individuality, and experientiality, as well as of inclusion and exclusion. In pursuing this aim, we are guided by the autoethnographic slogan, “No Insight Without Inside, No Inside Without Outside” (Nunu Otot)., Bien qu’il existe de multiples approches en matière de recherche sur les activités culturelles, les cadres universitaires prédominants ont tendance à être sociologiques, ou encore inspirés de la manière dont on aborde les industries créatives. Ceux-ci ne permettent pas de prendre véritablement en compte l’expérience individuelle et intérieure vécue lors de festivals du livre. Des écrivains ont dépeint ces lieux d’interaction entre l’auteur et le lecteur; de son côté, la recherche actuelle tend à s’axer sur l’autoethnographie et la phénoménologie. Dans l’article, nous prolongeons et rendons plus tangibles ces approches en nous appuyant sur diverses interventions créatives, inspirées des arts : @AuthorsYurt, une personnification, sur Twitter, de la salle verte du Festival international du livre d’Édimbourg; Paper Dolls, des poupées de papier à habiller représentant des membres du public présent à divers festivals du livre en Europe, en Amérique du Nord et en Australie; et ClueButeDo, une reformulation satirique des commentaires de participants à un festival du roman noir tenu sur la petite île de Bute au Royaume-Uni. Chacun de ces exemples révèle des aspects de la personne telle qu’elle se situe dans un festival du livre, à partir des notions d’intériorité, d’individualité et d’expérientialité, ainsi que d’inclusion et d’exclusion. Nous sommes ici guidées par le slogan autoethnographique « No Insight Without Inside, No Inside Without Outside » (« Pas d’intériorité sans intérieur, pas d’intérieur sans extérieur ») (Nunu Otot).

First paragraph: Until early this year, an individual interested in, or professionally involved with, the twenty-first-century world of books could travel the globe incessantly, attending book fairs, writers’ festivals, and readers’ conventions. Our roving reader, writer, publisher, or other agent in the communications circuit of the book is a literary Carmen Sandiego, darting from country to country, crossing genres, finding herself at a festival on a ferry, a canal boat, or a train. Occasionally Carmen’s passage, and thus the whole communications circuit itself, might be inhibited by the consciousness of her carbon footprint, impeded by immigration policy and visa restrictions, or cancelled due to pandemic disease.