Open Access and Bakhtinian Dialogism

The article explores Open Access in the context of recent contributions in communication and public relations theory, notably Bakhtinian dialogism. Increasingly since the 1960s communication and public relations theory have shifted their focus away from one-way, asymmetrical to two-way, symmetrical models, thereby progressing to more equitable and interactive, multi-level conceptual models of dialogic and polyphonic communication [1]. It is in this context that Bakhtinian dialogism becomes highly relevant. The influence exerted today by the Russian literary theoretician Mikhail M. Bakhtin (1895-1975) extends far beyond literary theory into fields such as philosophy of language, linguistics, musicology, anthropology, culture studies, classic studies, history, political science and theology, communication and public relations theory, including new media [2]. Open Access is interpreted by using the Bakhtinian concepts of dialogue, polyphony and carnival, which in combination view Open Access as a healthy and sustainable, consumer-led answer to the serials crisis and a revolt against the system that has produced the serials crisis, viz. hegemonic power structures and relations of traditional, subscription-based and commercially motivated scholarly publishing