The Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice is soliciting contributions for its upcoming special issue focused on access to knowledge to be published in 2013.
Access to Knowledge and Social Justice
In this Special Issue of the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, we will explore the theme of access to knowledge within a social justice paradigm and invite contributions from a broad range of disciplines and perspectives.
The increased commodification of ideas, innovations and knowledge through international trade and international intellectual property agreements has been met with strong resistance. Resistance has taken multiple forms. Direct challenges to the hegemony of the current international trade and international intellectual property regimes have manifested themselves in the establishment of a development agenda for WIPO and the Doha Declaration for the WTO. In addition, scholars have been arguing for greater balance between international trade and access to knowledge imperatives by advancing more expansive interpretations of exceptions and limitations on intellectual property rights, especially copyright. Other initiatives position access to knowledge within international human rights agreements (ex: article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and similar international instruments. Still others focus on new international agreements on access to knowledge issues to counter-balance the international trade and international intellectual property agenda (ex: UNESCO Convention on The Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions). At the grass-roots advocacy level, counter-hegemonic initiatives like the “A2K movement” have emerged bringing together civil society groups, NGOs, consumers rights advocates, among others in the call to situate knowledge within a social justice framework.
We invite submissions dealing with social justice in access to knowledge in the broadest sense. Without limiting the scope of the subject-matter and its treatment, we would especially welcome timely and topical papers that focus on access to knowledge and its intersection with development issues, cultural rights, intellectual property rights, international human rights, international trade, open access publishing, the A2K movement or any combination thereof. Deadline for submissions is MAY 31, 2013.
The flyer is available here and the full source for the call for papers is available here.
