Materiality and Post-Digital Storytelling

Abstract

In the context of book publishing, cultural capital can be acquired in relation to material qualities, and the growth in the market for collectible print publications appears to be part of a post-digital desire for “slow publishing” and analogue culture (Cain, The Guardian, 2017; Flatt, Bookseller, 2017; Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, 2017). As Sherry Turkle suggests, while we are “tethered” to our phones, we are conscious of the need to be free in our analogue lives (Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, 2017). Similarly, with the increase of online home-working, many consumers are seeking alternative forms of consumption in their leisure time. As Barrios O’Neill puts it: “(post-)consumers are emerging who are looking for less, smaller, deeper, slower, more interesting products and services, and are willing to pay for them” (Barrios O’Neill, Post Growth Publishing: Renaissance or Reckoning? 2020).