Systemic Approach to Digital Publishing

E-books, E-Journals and digital publishing technologies in general are young technologies and are still evolving very rapidly. I argue that approaching the field with a theory of socio-technical change will help us to understand better the phenomenon. A social constructivist approach is proposed to tackle on the stage of evolution of digital publishing technologies and to propose some possible directions of future development. A descriptive map of the socio constructivist analysis of the artifact e-book is presented. 1 Systemic Approach to Digital Publishing E-books, E-Journals and digital publishing technologies in general are young technologies and are still evolving very rapidly. Up to now we can distinguish two main type of studies in this field: one that approaches technical problems and the other that analyzes the emergence of digital publishing technologies through the lens of innovation theories. I argue that is much needed a study that overcomes the technological determinism, typical of the popular press, but also some limitations of the principal theories of economic innovation I argue that approaching the field with a theory of socio-technical change will help us to understand better the phenomenon. This kind of study will take into account economic, technological, organizational and social aspects to shad some light on the opportunities and on the developmental trajectories of e-books and related digital publishing artefacts, in their interaction with society. E-books will not evolve under the impetus of their inner technological usefulness but will evolve in response to different social, economic and technological forces or requirements. Some social groups will try to shape it in a way, some others in a different one. A social constructivist approach is proposed to tackle on the stage of evolution of digital publishing technologies and to propose some possible directions of future development. Some key concepts are the relevant social group, that explains how a technology is not only shaped by engineers, but mainly by social interactions within and through social groups, the interpretive flexibility, that highlights how different social groups give different meanings to the same technological artefact and the concept of stabilization and closure (of the interpretive flexibility) that demonstrates how specific meaning become recognized and socially accepted (Bijker 1987, 1992, 1998). Using a social constructivist approach is particularly useful at the microlevel of analysis, but to obtain a better understanding of the interactions of digital publishing technologies and society, I propose to develop an integration of these concepts with a systemic and network analysis. A systemic approach, as proposed by T. Hughes and A. Gras among others or the network or actor-network theory as proposed by M. Callon and B. Latour is useful to take into account the organizational, economic and macro social aspects of e-books and digital publishing technologies. In these brief pages I will just propose a visual representation of a socio-constructivist approach to digital publishing and ebooks in particular (Figure 1).