About the Journal
Focus and Scope
Fast Capitalism is an academic journal with a political intent. We publish peer reviewed scholarship and essays about the impact of rapid information and communication technologies on self, society and culture in the 21st century. We do not pretend an absolute objectivity; the work we publish is written from the vantages of viewpoint. Our authors examine how heretofore distinct social institutions, such as work and family, education and entertainment, have blurred to the point of near identity in an accelerated, post-Fordist stage of capitalism. This makes it difficult for people to shield themselves from subordination and surveillance. The working day has expanded; there is little down time anymore. People can 'office' anywhere, using laptops and cells to stay in touch. But these invasive technologies that tether us to capital and control can also help us resist these tendencies. People use the Internet as a public sphere in which they express and enlighten themselves and organize others; women, especially, manage their families and nurture children from the job site and on the road, perhaps even 'familizing' traditionally patriarchal and bureaucratic work relations; information technologies afford connection, mitigate isolation, and even make way for social movements. We are convinced that the best way to study an accelerated media culture and its various political economies and existential meanings is dialectically, with nuance, avoiding sheer condemnation and ebullient celebration. We seek to shape these new technologies and social structures in democratic ways.
We invite contributions on these and related issues. Some papers will stick close to the ground of daily life and politics; others will ascend the heights of theory in order to get the big picture. The work we publish is both disciplinary and interdisciplinary, bridging the social sciences and humanities. Culture and capital are keywords. We are also interested in cities, the built environment and nature, and we encourage people who theorize space to submit their work.
Peer Review Process
When Ben Agger and Timothy W. Luke founded Fast Capitalism, they were frustrated by traditional so-called refereed journals that use peer reviewing as a political shield. We are convinced that editing is undecidedly authorial work, which is to say that editors have a great deal of control over what they publish-picking reviewers, reading and interpreting reviews, passing advice back to authors, making final editorial decisions. The process is far from objectively grounded in a Platonic notion of quality or merit. It is, as all readings are, political. We resist and deplore the editorial will to power, which pretends that there is an Archimedean standard of quality that is external to the busy, muddy literary work that underlies intellectual life. We expose submitted papers to multiple sets of reviewer eyeballs, but we never pretend that peer review is a value-free, positivist process certain to extrude "excellence" from authors.
Open Access Policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Open access is a fundamental aspect of Fast Capitalism. We do not charge authors to make their articles open access - we feel charging is anathema to open access.
Institutional Repositories
Fast Capitalism allows authors to deposit versions of their work in an institutional repository. Authors may deposit any version of their manuscripts (the submitted version, accepted version and/or the published version) in an institutional or other repository. Authors must acknowledge publication in Fast Capitalism using a citation and link to the published version.
Journal History
Founding editor Ben Agger established FAST CAPITALISM. Since its inception, the journal has been co-edited by Agger and Timothy W. Luke, University Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Virginia Tech in 2005. Over the past ten years, the journal has published 16 issues with one or two coming out every year. Two issues have been republished, with further editing and additional material, as successful print books. Today, the journal is edited by David Arditi, Associate Professor of Sociology at UTA and co-edited by Timothy Luke.
ISSN: 1930-014X
