[p2p-research] Open letter to Routledge

[Johan Söderberg]

Hi Michel, and everyone else.

I'm glad to hear that you liked the book (so far). I dont know if my signature on the letter would be for better or worse, since it might then seem as if I had orchestrated the whole thing. Also, as you rightly pointed out, Im sort of complicit in keeping the text locked up  in the publisher's tresure-trove... 

However, it was not the prospect of furthering my academic career that led me to the decision to send the manuscript to Routledge. At the time I was not part of academia at all but an unemployed artist (which is also what it says in the author's presentation of me) mostly supported by the swedish welfare system, or what remains of it. My ambition was to write Hacking Capitalism in a year and then move on to a childrens' book (still in the drawer, since it took me five years instead of one). Anyway, and this connects to the more general discussion under this topic, I made the decision to sign over the manuscript because I guessed that since I lack credibility/brand name of my own, I needed to pass an academic gatekeeper, or otherwise no-one would care to read the text. To the extent that someone would have read the book, it would circulate among the Internet-savvy people that already are thinking along the same lines. In order to reach the people that I most wanted to have exposed to the argument in the book, i.e. leftist/marxist-academics, I didnt see any other way. 

sincerely
Johan