Open Book Publishers

An image of the book next to text that says: Make/Unmake: Play at the Centre of Culture Change by Anna Beresin Anna Beresin’s 'Make/Unmake' is an engaging and deeply original exploration of children’s play as a powerful cultural force. Drawing on ethnographic research and vivid travel writing, the author journeys to the Midlands region of England to observe three remarkable play-based programs. At a moment when children’s opportunities for material play are shrinking, this book confronts urgent questions: Who gets to play? Who is left out? By centring under-resourced communities, gender equity, and cultural representation, this volume reframes play as both a process of making and unmaking the world—an act of resilience, creativity, and collective transformation. This book will appeal to scholars and students in childhood studies, play studies, education, and cultural anthropology, as well as practitioners, teachers, policymakers, and all who are committed to protecting children’s right to play.

NEW BOOK | Make/Unmake: Play at the Centre of Culture Change by Anna Beresin

Read online freely or buy a copy: www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...

#OAbooks #OpenAccess

Join Thoth, @rupertgatti.bsky.social (@openbookpublish.bsky.social) & @emmabooth.bsky.social (@uomlibrary.bsky.social) @cilipmdg.bsky.social #MetaFutures Conference. We'll present "Fixing the Leaky Pipeline: Metadata Challenges & Open Community Solutions for Open Access Books"👩🏻‍🔧💧🔩📚 lnkd.in/eDDi2WGQ

Also very happy to talk all things @openbookpublish.bsky.social and @oabooksnetwork.bsky.social...!

A copy of the book next to text that says: Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present edited by Håkon Aamot Caspersen and Jon Røyne Kyllingstad. Intelligence testing has shaped modern society in profound ways, influencing education, psychology, law, and governance. This volume offers the first comprehensive study of the history of IQ testing in a Nordic country, shedding new light on its development, adaptation, and societal impact in Norway. By tracing the evolution of intelligence tests—from their role in schools and special education to forensic psychiatry and criminal law—the book uncovers the tensions surrounding their use. Are these tests instruments of empowerment or tools of control? How have they shaped access to education, healthcare, and legal rights? How have they been adapted in different national contexts? This volume challenges assumptions about IQ testing, placing practices of testing and the tests themselves at the center of historical analysis. By examining the Norwegian case, it contributes fresh insights to international scholarship, offering essential perspectives on the global history of intelligence measurement.

NEW BOOK | Historicizing IQ Testing: Intelligence Assessments and their Role in Norwegian Society from the 1900s to the Present, edited by Håkon Aamot Caspersen & Jon Røyne Kyllingstad

Access freely online or buy a copy: buff.ly/LgEJlco

#OAbooks

A crowd of delegates, arranged in a rough semi circle, looking up at the camera, some cheering

Two delegates talking to each other during a coffee break, both smiling, other delegates in the background

Caroline Ball speaking, holding a lapel mic, with Fatimah Abduldayan, Martina Benz, and Sarah Thompson sitting alongside, with Martina looking up and back at a screen off camera

View from the back of a tiered lecture theatre, showing around 100 delegates seated in rows looking at a screen at the front, showing a remote delegate speaking, with four other speakers sitting below and to the left

1/ We did it.. the first ever Copim community conference ... done! Approx 250 people joining on and offline, over two days, with delegates representing every continent and 49 countries. Inevitably our discussions centred on the futures of #OAbooks...

What did the #CopimConference spark for you? Stay engaged with @copim.bsky.social and feed in to what's next!

Join the Jiscmail and stay tuned 📻

www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/weba...

A call to arms from @rupertgatti.bsky.social for all attendees at #Copimconference to keep engaging with @copim.bsky.social and to feed into what's next for #openaccess & #openinfrastructures - join the Jiscmail! copim@jiscmail.ac.uk

Thoth 1.0 offers a website hosting service with catalogue pulling directly from Thoth such as the ones used by @openbookpublish.bsky.social and @openbookcollective.bsky.social #CopimConference

We're looking forward to the #CopimConference tomorrow! We'll be ready to talk all things #OAbooks and open infras 🤓

The EU Energy Transition: Doing More with More In a context marked by economic and geopolitical tensions, the European Union is called upon to make energy a pillar of its strategic autonomy. Accelerating on the adoption of renewables is essential.

NEW BLOG POST | 'The EU Energy Transition: Doing More with More' by Floriana Cerniglia & @fsaraceno.bsky.social

'In a context marked by economic and geopolitical tensions, the European Union is called upon to make energy a pillar of its strategic autonomy'

Find out more👉️ buff.ly/6kHbMRB

#OAbooks

Join us for the Copim Conference 2026! Exploring the future of community-led open access books - Copim Join us in 2026 for the Copim Conference! This will be a hybrid event (26-27 February) focusing on the future of community-led open access books.

We're looking forward to attending the #CopimConference on Thurs & Fri -- say hello if you'll be there too! 👋

@rupertgatti.bsky.social & @alittleroad.bsky.social are part of the programme; Alessandra Tosi & other members of the team will be there in person. If you see us, say hi!

The “Charm” of Objectivity Anita Frison’s open access book Africa in Russian Imperial Culture: Race, Empire, and Representation (1850–1917) unmasks how pre-Soviet Russia produced exotifying portrayals of Sub-Saharan Africa…

NEW BLOG | The “Charm” of Objectivity by Tricia De Souza

This post explores how Anita Frison's book 'Africa in Russian Imperial Culture: Race, Empire, and Representation (1850-1917)' probes the instability of the 'objective' viewpoint.

Read now: buff.ly/ynDUSmy

#OAbooks

An image of the hardback book alongside text that says: Africa in Russian Imperial Culture: Race, Empire, and Representation (1850–1917) by Anita Frison This volume uncovers how Sub-Saharan Africa was imagined in Russian culture from 1850 to 1917. Drawing on travelogues, ethnographic studies, fiction, and museum collections, Anita Frison reveals how Russia—though lacking formal colonies in Africa—nonetheless engaged deeply with Western colonial discourse. Organized around themes of Strangers, Lands, Bodies, Collectors, and Disguises, the book explores how Russians represented African peoples, landscapes, and artifacts to negotiate questions of race, empire, and national identity. Challenging the notion of Russian ‘exceptionalism’, this book demonstrates that imperial attitudes toward Africa often prefigured Soviet anticolonial rhetoric, whilst simultaneously relying on the colonial paradigm. Richly documented and interdisciplinary, this study offers fresh insights for scholars of history, literature, and postcolonial studies, while remaining accessible to curious general readers.

OUT NOW | Africa in Russian Imperial Culture: Race, Empire, and Representation (1850-1917) by Anita Frison

Explore how Sub-Saharan Africa was imagined in Russian culture from 1850 to 1917 in this new #OpenAccess book.

Read freely or buy a copy: buff.ly/2bgvoGU

#OAbooks

A card with an image of the book on a colourful background next to this text: A Society of Meta-Organizations by Héloïse Berkowitz Our contemporary societies are made of meta-organizations—organizations composed of other organizations—that have become a defining feature of how actors coordinate, govern and make collective decisions. But what exactly makes them distinct, and why do they matter both in theory and in practice? This book delves into the importance, characteristics and diversity of meta-organizations. It explores four interrelated perspectives: meta-organizations as a widespread, heterogeneous empirical phenomenon in contemporary society, as a conceptual framework that raises specific methodological challenges, as part of a broader theory of decision-based social orders, and ultimately as arenas where hegemonic and counter-hegemonic dynamics may unfold. By bridging theory and practice, this work offers new insights into how meta-organizations operate, how they can be studied and understood, the problems they raise and what they can achieve under certain conditions. It is essential reading for practitioners, students, scholars, and policymakers alike.

Our third #OpenAccess book published this month is 'A Society of Meta-Organizations' by Héloïse Berkowitz: it examines how meta-organizations operate, how they can be understood, the problems they raise & what they can achieve.

Read freely or buy a copy: buff.ly/V5PQdo0

#OAbooks #MetaOrganizations

🧵 from Marijn van Putten, author of al-Dānī's al-Taysīr fī al-qirāʾāt al-sabʿ: A Translation with Linguistic Commentary

www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...

#OAbooks #OpenAccess

One of the bycatches if doing the translation of the Taysir, is that one thing has become clear to me concerning the Taysir. It was clearly written *after* the al-Dani's big book Ǧāmiʿ al-bayān, and to some extent is a recomposition/condensation of said text. Let me explain. 🧵

A card with an image of the book on a colourful background next to this text: A Society of Meta-Organizations by Héloïse Berkowitz Our contemporary societies are made of meta-organizations—organizations composed of other organizations—that have become a defining feature of how actors coordinate, govern and make collective decisions. But what exactly makes them distinct, and why do they matter both in theory and in practice? This book delves into the importance, characteristics and diversity of meta-organizations. It explores four interrelated perspectives: meta-organizations as a widespread, heterogeneous empirical phenomenon in contemporary society, as a conceptual framework that raises specific methodological challenges, as part of a broader theory of decision-based social orders, and ultimately as arenas where hegemonic and counter-hegemonic dynamics may unfold. By bridging theory and practice, this work offers new insights into how meta-organizations operate, how they can be studied and understood, the problems they raise and what they can achieve under certain conditions. It is essential reading for practitioners, students, scholars, and policymakers alike.

Our third #OpenAccess book published this month is 'A Society of Meta-Organizations' by Héloïse Berkowitz: it examines how meta-organizations operate, how they can be understood, the problems they raise & what they can achieve.

Read freely or buy a copy: buff.ly/V5PQdo0

#OAbooks #MetaOrganizations

A blog post summarising the main messages of #epio2025, “more with more”
Link to the whole report on the @openbookpublish.bsky.social page: www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...

Some Reflections on How 'Shépa: The Tibetan Oral Tradition in Choné' Was Received by the Choné Tibetan Community The act of returning the book was understood not simply as a gesture of completion but as a form of accountability. The book is a form of recognition that the stories, knowledge, and insights…

NEW BLOG POST: Some Reflections on How 'Shépa: The Tibetan Oral Tradition in Choné' Was Received by the Choné Tibetan Community

"The act of returning the book was understood not simply as a gesture of completion but as a form of accountability."

buff.ly/X4uo6mB

#OAbooks #OpenAccess

A screenshot from the video showing a man sitting in a bright room on a winter's day, wearing a smart jacket and spectacles and gesturing in explanation. Text on the screen reads 'Krist Vaesen: Associate Professor, Philosophy of Innovation (IE&IS)' and a subtitle reads 'As an academic I had spent two years writing one research'

How do we fight the problems that beset contemporary science?

Listen to author Krist Vaesen explain in this short introduction to his new book, 'Neomania': buff.ly/3ZxG3Rx

Read the book online: buff.ly/MusJ0eb

The book jacket on a colourful background alongside text that says: Neomania: How Our Obsession With Innovation is Failing Science, and How to Restore Trust by Krist Vaesen Contemporary science faces a profound poly-crisis: replication failures, weak theories, poor generalizability, and declining public trust. Neomania contends that these symptoms stem not merely from flawed practices or institutional pressures, but from a deeper cultural pathology—our collective obsession with innovation. This valorization of the new for its own sake has reshaped the scientific enterprise, privileging novelty over reliability and fragmentation over coordination. Drawing on metascience as well as the philosophy and sociology of science, this book offers a critical analysis of how this ethos has permeated the norms and institutions of modern science, and advances a constructive vision for rebuilding science as a coherent and truth-oriented system. Combining philosophical depth with institutional analysis, Neomania addresses students, scholars, policymakers, and practitioners concerned with the organization of knowledge production in an era of epistemic crisis. It is both a critique of contemporary scientific culture and a normative proposal for its renewal.

NEW TITLE | Neomania: How Our Obsession With Innovation is Failing Science & How to Restore Trust by Krist Vaesen

Worshipping the new has fractured science; Vaesen presents a constructive case for rebuilding research around reliability & truth.

Read freely or buy: buff.ly/pSS0nFa

#OpenScience

essential 🧵 for Quranic studies

So my translations of al-Dani's Taysir is out! So what is this text about?

It is a description of seven canonical reading traditions of the Quran authored by the Andalusi polymath ʾAbū ʿAmr ʿUṯmān b. Saʿīd al-Dānī (371/981–444/1053).

Come join us for this conference -- in-person registration closes in less than a week 🔜

Book cover: Science in the Salon: Atoms and Animals in Madeleine De Scudery's Conversations (1680-92) An Essay and Translation Helena Taylor The cover shows a print of a late seventeenth century gallery, with courtiers admiring art works.

Book cover and blurb: Science in the Salon: Atoms and Animals in Madeleine de Scudery's "Conversations" (1680-92). An Essay and translation by Helena Taylor

An exciting new translation of de Scudéry from CultPhil PI Helena Taylor @openbookpublish.bsky.social!

Science in the Salon: Atoms and Animals in Madeleine de Scudéry’s 'Conversations' (1680–92) An Essay and Translation

Available open access here: www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...

An image of the book against a colourful background next to text that says: al-Dānī's al-Taysīr fī al-qirāʾāt al-sabʿ: A Translation with Linguistic Commentary by Marijn van Putten Al-Taysīr fī al-Qirāʾāt al-Sabʿ by the 11th century Andalusian scholar ʾAbū ʿAmr al-Dānī is one of the most influential descriptions of the seven reading traditions of the Qurʾān. It is the work on which the later didactic poem by al-Šāṭibī was based, which still stands as the basis for the teaching of the reading traditions among Muslim specialists. This book makes the highly technical genre of the Qurʾānic reading traditions accessible through a rigorous translation of al-Dānī’s work with extensive elucidating footnotes. Besides a full translation of the text, the book also includes an in-depth introduction, which lays out the history of the reading traditions, details of their transmission, the technical terminology of the Qirāʾāt genre, and summarises the linguistic principles of the reading traditions using modern linguistic terminology and illustrative tables.

NEW BOOK: Our first title in February is an addition to the Cambridge Semitic Languages & Cultures series, al-Dānī's al-Taysīr fī al-qirāʾāt al-sabʿ: A Translation with Linguistic Commentary by Marijn van Putten!

Read freely online or buy a copy: buff.ly/L2oMcBN

#OAbooks #SemiticSeries #OpenAccess

An image of the book jacket next to text that says: Science in the Salon: Atoms and Animals in Madeleine de Scudéry’s 'Conversations' (1680–92). An Essay and Translation by Helena Taylor Madeleine de Scudéry (1607–1701) was a celebrated seventeenth-century novelist and essayist, yet her engagement with natural philosophy and the sciences has been largely overlooked. This volume presents the first English translation of 'The Story of Two Chameleons' (1688) and situates it within Scudéry’s broader scientific and philosophical writing. Beyond this seminal text, the book explores her reflections on atomism, natural history, and epistemology, revealing her critical engagement with cutting-edge theories of her time, including a challenge to the Cartesian ‘animal-machine’ hypothesis. With a critical introduction and extensive commentary, this open access edition makes Scudéry’s work widely available to scholars and students in early modern studies, French literature, philosophy, animal studies, and the environmental humanities. It is a timely contribution to ongoing efforts to recover women’s intellectual history and reassess the intersections of literature, science, and philosophy in early modern Europe.

NEW TITLE | Science in the Salon: Atoms and Animals in Madeleine de Scudéry’s 'Conversations' (1680–92): An Essay and Translation by Helena Taylor

Read freely online, or purchase a copy: www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...

#OAbooks #OpenAccess

Excited to finally have the official cover of my forthcoming book, which will be in Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures Series (Open Book Publishers). For a blurb, see link below. No official date for publication yet, but hopefully within a month or so!

If all goes well, February 4th will be the day that my translation of al-Dani's Taysir comes out (and if not then, very very soon). It was a lot of work, but I'm very happy with the end result.

And best of all: It'll be Open Access!

www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...

A card with the book jacket and text that says: Praise for Eliza Orme’s Ambitions: Politics and the Law in Victorian London [T]his book is an excellent addition to the field. It serves as a model for the kinds of exploratory scholarship that are now possible with digital databases like the British Newspaper Archive. Moreover, it offers an excellent jumping off point for new research on the history of women’s rights, Liberal politics, and British legal history. Courteney Smith, Boston University

PRAISE for Leslie Howsam's 'Eliza Orme's Ambitions: Politics and the Law in Victorian London'

This book fills out earlier scant accounts of Orme's intriguing life, while speculating about why it has been overlooked.

Read freely online: buff.ly/TP2ysLM

#OAbooks