The Erlangen Book Studies course continues building on and professionalising the field of the modern book trade. This progressive and largely applied style of research gives great momentum not only to teaching in the subject but also to the book trade.

Researchers analyse market events of the past, present and future from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective. This affords them the opportunity to work with a number of external partners – some from the book industry, others from different academic disciplines.

Through interdisciplinary discussion and by examining the results of contemporary studies, researchers develop solutions to problems in the publishing and book trading industries.

As well as being particularly relevant for research work in the field, specialising in trade is important in the fields of politics and economics. Both cultural and economic matters are covered, though economic issues are handled in the greatest depth.

 

Projects

The key project Socio-Demographic Change and the Book Industry aims to explore the meanings and effects of demographic and social change on organisations and supply/demand within the book trade.

The project examines these issues from three angles: from the points of view of production and distribution in the book trade, with particular emphasis on marketing, and from that of human resources in the German book industry.

Researchers study the numerous changes – particularly those of structure and strategy – brought about by progress in digitalisation and the internet. The goal is to create business models and solutions for the book industry.

One sub-project looks at what business options are available to existing market players following recent technical innovations – in particular E-books. To answer this question researchers compare, among other things, E-commerce in Germany's distributive book market with E-commerce in more developed markets such as that of the United States. Both research and teaching have developed to focus on international book industry relationships as well as individual foreign book markets.

In complement to the economically-orientated approach mentioned earlier, the sub-project Literary Life uses all of the skills from the Erlangen Book Studies course to examine systematically the cultural dimension of the book trade. Hereby the expression, which is mostly used in an everyday way in philologies, is media theoretically based and the elements and factors of literary life, such as institutions of mediation or literary criticism in their systematic coherence, are regarded in their interactions and dependencies. The aim is then to look at the elements and factors of literary life (e.g. distribution companies, critics) in their contexts within the system, and to understand their interactions and dependencies.

Many questions create or accentuate connections to other areas of particular importance – in particular to media socialisation. In all Book Studies teaching, reference is constantly made to both the main area of interest and to individual topics of focus.

 

Members of the Research Group

  • Professor Kerstin Emrich
  • Dr Günther Fetzer
  • Anna-Maria Seemann MA
  • Simon Hiller MA

Contact

Professor Kerstin Emrich

Publications

  • Kerstin Emrich: Konzentration im Sortimentsbuchhandel. Diagnose, Prognose und Handlungsempfehlungen. Wiesbaden 2011.
  • Kerstin Emrich: Zum Strukturwandel im Buchhandel der Gegenwart – ein Markt- und Strategieanalyse der deutschen Filialunternehmen (Alles Buch XX). Erlangen 2007. URL: http://www.alles-buch.uni-erlangen.de/Emrich.pdf
  • Günther Fetzer: Das Ende des Publikumsverlags. Eine These und vierzehn Anmerkungen. In: Die Struktur medialer Revolutionen. Festschrift für Georg Jäger. Hrsg. von Sven Hanuschek u. a. Frankfurt 2000, S. 178–184.
  • Simon Hiller: Die Auswirkungen der digitalen Ökonomie auf die Buchbranche – eine Analyse anhand der Entwicklungen in der Musikindustrie. (Alles Buch XL). Erlangen 2010. URL: http://www.buchwiss.uni-erlangen.de/AllesBuch/40_Hiller.pdf