The Role of Digital Humanities in the Democratization of Knowledge

Abstract

Arguably, the recognition that the printed word is no longer the main medium for knowledge production and distribution and the increasing importance of digital and web-based media rendered it necessary for contemporary academia to seek alternative outlets for knowledge production and dissemination. This paper builds on the interesting developments and advances in the publishing industry in humanities in particular and knowledge, in general, to argue that the digitalization/digitization of humanities set the stage for the emergence of alternative publishing media and techniques to the conventional print and subscription publishing. The paper argues that the newly emergent digital web-based technology empowered the democratization of knowledge within the relatively novel Open Access Publishing. Two major values and practices signal the democratic mood of digital humanities and digital publishing. Those values are access and participation. The author draws on his relative experience in editing and publishing within the electronic Open Access tradition to argue that digitalized and web-based dissemination of knowledge/humanities empowered the “subaltern” to speak and expressed the views and perspectives of postcolonial authors within/versus a largely Western hegemonic publishing industry.