Writing and publishing language studies in the Arab region [Khitabaat Journal]

Abstract

This article investigates both universal and relative aspects of sociolinguistic academic writing and reading. It engages with Wolfgang Klein's (1989. Schreiben oder Lesen, aber nicht beides, oder: Vorschlag zur Wiedereinführung der Keilschrift mittels Hammer und Meißel. Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 74. 116-119) article. Klein starts from an implicit assumption that writing and reading are individual activities and suggests that (individual) writers must decrease their production to enable their (individual) readers to read it. I argue that the contemporary world transformed reading and writing from individual to institutional activities. This means that the importance and feasibility of contemporary academic research are not linked to the individualistic reading but rather to the institutional reading that transforms its results into policies, procedures, applications, and laws. Despite worldwide shared academic writing, reading, and publishing practices, the politics of writing and reading vary over time, disciplines and cultures. I argue that Arab knowledge production on sociolinguistics is highly affected by sociopolitical peculiarities, such as academic freedom restrictions, lack of resources and loose academic practices.