English

The Alliance

L’Europe, vues d’Afrique

Author(s) : Florent COUAO-ZOTTI, Jean Luc RAHARIMANANA, Boubacar Boris DIOP, Koullsy LAMKO, Fatou DIOME, Patrice NGANANG, Arezki MELLAL, Ken BUGUL, Aziz CHOUAKI, Fama DIAGNE SENE
Publishing countries : France, Mali
Language(s) : French
Price : 15 €

What image does Europe project to the outside world, this Europe who is used to gazing at herself, preoccupied with her minor or major internal quarrels? We asked this question to ten African writers. Coming from the Maghreb or sub-Saharan Africa, each of them chose one particular aspect of European culture: the question of time, femininity, technology, hospitality, the cult of the dead... From Carnac, Geneva, Germany and Senegal, Africa looks at Europe.

Year of publication: 2004

Share this article

Par-delà le féminisme (Beyond Feminism)

Author(s) : Édith SIZOO
Publishing countries : Ivory Coast, France
Language(s) : French
Price : 15 €

The advent of women in the public sphere, their federation across family and community borders, their challenge to perspectives and social practices, and their solidarity despite their differences surely represent one of the most irreversible phenomena of the 20th century.
Yet the place of women remains a major international issue.
In this work, Édith Sizoo endeavors to understand the concepts that have been challenged by women and the alternatives that developed as a result. From her immense task of reading texts on the place and role of women written by feminists and non-feminists alike from all continents, one main feature emerges: the culture of relationships.

Year of publication: 2004

Share this article

Books About Books: a new free resource center on books and publishing

From January 5, 2009 on, you are invited to discover Books About Books, a resource center specialized in “Books & Publishing” in the middle of Paris.

Books About Books is open from Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 6 pm. For any additional information, don’t hesitate to call us at +33(0)1 43 14 73 66.

Share this article

Femmes contre les guerres (Women Against War)

Author(s) : Marlène TUININGA
Publishing countries : France
Language(s) : French
Price : 15 €

In makeshift “peace correspondent” garb – flowery shirt, wide pants and scarf – Marlène Tuininga has visited around twenty countries that until now were mainly known from accounts by her male colleagues clad in the bullet-proof vests and canvas of war correspondents. For several days, she shared the lives of women who, rising up from their suffering and that of their children, patiently reweave the fabric of survival and peace. Almost totally outside the glare of the spotlight, this modest action, with surprising convergence, focuses attention on the causes of violence – hatred and fear – through new or forgotten strategies and means.

Year of publication: 2003

Share this article

Dernières nouvelles de la Françafrique (Latest news from French Africa )

Author(s) : Sayouba TRAORE, Kangni ALEM, Abdourahman A. WABERI, Engène EBODE, Dave WILSON, Ange-Séverin MALANDA, Soeuf ELBADAWI, Tanella BONI, Camille AMOURO, Yahia BELASKRI, Jean-Jacques SEWANOU DABLA, RAHARIMANANA, Diogène N’TARINDWA
Publishing countries : Burkina Faso, France
Language(s) : French
Price : 16 €

Africa.
A continent of vast riches buried under countless ills...
Words, deaths and blood...
Africa is doing badly. But who says so?
Its children. Its artists. And its writers.
Thanks to Raharimanana and Soeuf Elbadawi, African voices are unmasking the truth about French Africa through short stories. Chicanery, espionage, torture and other manipulations... Anything goes.
Thirteen writers remind us that Africa is neither deaf nor dumb. They give us the latest short stories from French Africa to show again and again the reality of what is at stake in the old French colonies, which are now considered independent.

Year of publication: 2003

Share this article

Protect or Plunder ?

Author(s) : Vandana SHIVA
Publishing countries : Benin, Cameroon, Canada, Ivory Coast, France, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Switzerland, Tunisia
Language(s) : English , French
Price : 15 €

Intellectual property rights, TRIPS, patents - they sound technical, even boring. Yet, as Vandana Shiva shows, what kinds of ideas, technologies, identification of genes, even manipulations of life forms can be owned and exploited for profit by giant corporations is a vital issue for our times. In this readable and compelling introduction to an issue that lies at the heart of the socalled knowledge economy, Vandana Shiva makes clear how this Western-inspired and unprecedented widening of the co. . .

Also available in English : “Protect and Plunder” ; Zed Books publishing.

Year of publication: 2003, 332 pages
English cover {JPEG}

Collection Global Issues

12 francophone publishers deal with different issues on the challenges of globalization (natural resources, development aid, North-South relations, etc.). An international collection for another globalization: “Global Issues” also exists in English and in Portuguese. Short essays, conveying diagnoses and proposals, perspectives for action, accessible to a large public. Bearing the “Le Livre équitable” (Fair Book) label, this collection is subject to fair and solidarity-based trade agreements.

Share this article

Les batailles de l’eau

Author(s) : Mohamed Larbi BOUGUERRA
Publishing countries : Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Canada, Ivory Coast, France, Guinea, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Switzerland, Tunisia
Language(s) : Arabic , French , Portuguese
Price : 15 €

Water has become a major political and geostrategic issue that is discussed in global summits and alternative forums. In fact, this vital resource controls the development of human societies. For some people, it is an ordinary good that should generate profits. For others, it is a common good of humanity with an exceptional symbolic weight in all cultures and all religions. Does water have a price? Is water a right or a need? Is there enough water for everyone despite demographic growth? Is there a water crisis? Will there be water wars tomorrow? Will technical solutions be enough to keep water pollution in check? This work shows that the management and uses of water pose essential questions to people on their way of living, their ethics and their relationship with nature and with the biosphere. It pleads for a water-efficient society and for global, united water management.

Year of publication: 2003,
240 pages

Collection Global Issues

12 francophone publishers deal with different issues on the challenges of globalization (natural resources, development aid, North-South relations, etc.). An international collection for another globalization: “Global Issues” also exists in English and in Portuguese. Short essays, conveying diagnoses and proposals, perspectives for action, accessible to a large public. Bearing the “Le Livre équitable” (Fair Book) label, this collection is subject to fair and solidarity-based trade agreements.

Share this article

The Development Myth

Author(s) : Oswaldo DE RIVERO
Publishing countries : Benin, Cameroon, Canada, Ivory Coast, France, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Switzerland, Tunisia
Language(s) : English , French
Price : 15 €

Face reality. Though long-promised and laboured for, Third World Development will not now come. The necessary investment is unavailable. Modern technology will not give work to the swelling tens of millions in the cities of the South. And the environment cannot tolerate further industrialization. Instead states are collapsing into “Ungovernable Chaotic Entities” under the control of warlords and mafias. State-driven, communist and neoliberal development models have all failed most of the people.

Year of publication: 2003, 244 pages
English cover {JPEG}

Collection Global Issues

12 francophone publishers deal with different issues on the challenges of globalization (natural resources, development aid, North-South relations, etc.). An international collection for another globalization: “Global Issues” also exists in English and in Portuguese. Short essays, conveying diagnoses and proposals, perspectives for action, accessible to a large public. Bearing the “Le Livre équitable” (Fair Book) label, this collection is subject to fair and solidarity-based trade agreements.

Share this article

Give & Take

Author(s) : David SOGGE
Publishing countries : Benin, Cameroon, Canada, Ivory Coast, France, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Switzerland, Tunisia
Language(s) : English , French
Price : 15 €

Foreign aid has existed for fifty years. Billions are spent each year. Tens of thousands employed. The purpose is ostensibly selfless and benign. And some Third World countries depend on it to a remarkable extent. Yet as this introduction shows, it is hardly without controversy. Does money actually flow to the South once collapsing prices for Third World exports, past debts, repatriated profits and corruption have been accounted for? How much aid, anyway, should there be?...

Translated from English. Original title : “Give and Take”, Zed Books Publishing.

Year of publication: 2003, 332 pages
JPEG

Collection Global Issues

12 francophone publishers deal with different issues on the challenges of globalization (natural resources, development aid, North-South relations, etc.). An international collection for another globalization: “Global Issues” also exists in English and in Portuguese. Short essays, conveying diagnoses and proposals, perspectives for action, accessible to a large public. Bearing the “Le Livre équitable” (Fair Book) label, this collection is subject to fair and solidarity-based trade agreements.

Share this article

Dialogue

Author(s) : François CHENG
Publishing countries : China, France
Language(s) : Chinese , French
Price : 10 €

“Fate would have it that from a certain moment of my life, I would become a bearer of two languages, Chinese and French. Was this solely due to fate? Or did a dose of deliberate will enter into it after all? Regardless, I took up the challenge by assuming, in my own manner, both languages, all the way to the extreme consequences. Two complex languages, commonly considered ‘major’, so rich in history and culture. And above all, two such fundamentally different languages separated by the largest chasm imaginable.
Nothing surprising in what since then, at the heart of my linguistic adventure oriented toward love for an adopted language, has become a major theme: dialogue...”
F.C.

Year of publication: 2002

Collection Near and far

In this collection “Near and Far”, two authors, one Chinese, the other French, meet and exchange on topics chosen for their relevance in our daily life and in human relations. They tell us about their own experience and explore the roots of their respective civilizations to discuss how philosophers, writers and poets spoke of these topics.

Share this article

1 | ... | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | ... | 37

Bibliodiversity Observatory

The “Fair Trade Book”

The label “Fair Trade Book” is attributed by the International Alliance of independent publishers to works published in the context of international publishing agreements that respect each other’s particularities: fair co- publishing. These fair copublishings enable the sharing of costs linked to intellectual and physical production of books and therefore ensure an economy of scale; an exchange of professional know-how and a common experience, while respecting the publishers’ cultural contexts and identities; and a distribution of works on a broader scale by adjusting prices for each geographic zone.

Share this article

Guidelines for Fair Publishing Partnerships

Over the past few years, the predation of large companies from the North on the book trade in Africa has undergone some partnership-related changes. An evolution of practices is observable amongst the large publishing companies from the North, who do not solely rely on local publishing houses’ acquisitions, but also on establishing partnerships with local publishers. How can we guarantee that these partnerships are balanced and fair? How can we ensure that publishers from the South do not “sell their souls” through collaborations with large companies from the North? To accompany these changes, the Alliance has drafted a handbook of practical guidelines for its members, which serves as a reminder on essential checkpoints to look out for.

Should you have comments, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The Alliance thanks Double ponctuation for writing the vademecum.

Share this article

Digital publishing in developing countries

In partnership with the Prince Claus Foundation, the Alliance commissioned Octavio Kulesz, a digital publisher in Argentina, to carry out a study on digital publishing in developing countries. This first-ever study, the result of eight months of research, is available in French, English and Spanish on the website: http://alliance-lab.org/etude/?lang=en

Who are the new digital players in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab world and in Russia, China and India? Can digital publishing develop autonomously in the emerging economies, independently from the rich countries? What support policies are required to stimulate the growth of this new industry and help the traditional publishing sector adapt to the changes? Based on interviews, questionnaires and meetings, Octavio Kulesz provides an overview of digital publishing in these six regions and puts forward concrete proposals aimed at independent publishers. Digital publishing experience in the South offers an insight into the major opportunity that new technologies present for developing countries — especially when it comes to distribution — as long as local entrepreneurs seek innovative models suited to the concrete needs of their communities.

This online study is ongoing and interactive. We invite your contributions and feedback.

The study is also available in PDF, EPUB and MOBI.

Year of publication: 2011; ISBN French version: 978-2-9519747-5-3; ISBN Spanish version: 978-2-9519747-4-6; ISBN English version: 978-2-9519747-6-0

Visit the Alliance Lab to read the update to the study written by Octavio Kulesz in 2016 (available in French and in Spanish).

Collection État des lieux de l’édition

Share this article

Proteggere il libro (Protect the Book, Italian version)

Language(s) : italien

““Protect” the Book” by Markus GERLACH, a report from the collection “Reports on the Publishing World”, is now available in Italian from the Italian Federation of Independent Publishers (FIDARE), which translated and published this new edition.
This reference book has been translated into several languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian).

Year of publication: 2010, 68 pages, 15 X 21 cm, 8 euros.

Collection État des lieux de l’édition

Share this article

Communiqué in support of Txalaparta Publishing following attacks on “El manual del torturador español” and on freedom of expression, December 2010

Paris, December 2010

It is with great concern that the International Alliance of Independent Publishers has noted the recent censorship of a book in Spain, and the threats made against the independent publishing house Txalaparta, member of the Alliance’s Spanish-speaking network.

The book in question, “El manual del torturador español” (The Spanish Torturer’s Manual) – by Xabier MAKAZAGA denounces the torture carried out by the Spanish police. The book was withdrawn from a public library (in the Basauri town council), following a request by a political party and certain Madrid newspapers to remove it from all libraries where it was made available to readers. However the practices described in this book support the accusations already made in reports by Amnesy International and by the UN Recorder on Human Rights. The campaign against this book has already been publicly denounced by public librarians. Furthermore the Basque Country Human Rights Observer (Behatokia) sent a letter of protest to Frank de la Rue, Special Recorder on Human Rights and Freedom of Expression with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, whose headquarters are in Geneva.

The International Alliance of independent publishers, whose objectives include defending freedom of expression and denouncing all forms of censorship, also has a duty to respond publicly when attacks or infringements are directed – for ideological reasons – against independent publishers, whose very job it is to encourage the dissemination of ideas and to contribute to forging the identity of people and their culture.

One has only to examine Txalaparta’s publishing catalogue to appreciate the vast range of literary works and essays which constitute an undeniable contribution to bibliodiversity, while reflecting a clear editorial policy.

This is why we independent publishers are appealing to the Spanish authorities to respect the work of independent publishers and to encourage respect for fundamental rights and democracy.

We also appeal to independent publishers, booksellers, librarians and readers to follow the development of this matter closely and to express their support to Txalaparta Publishing in order to defend and respect the right to information that is true and diverse.


The Spanish-language network of the International Alliance of independent publishers

Share this article

Preferential postage rates for books: urgent for Latin America, August 2010

Massively used by small publishing firms to distribute their products to bookstores, libraries, and readers, the postal service is the most popular means of circulating books throughout the world. However, the absence, suppression or questioning of special postage for books is an impediment to bibliodiversity in many countries.
In Latin America, with a huge territory to cover and limited circulation, a large share of publishers ensures the delivery of their products themselves. For these publishers, preferential postage rates for shipping books are all the more vital.

Share this article

Children’s book trade between France and francophone Africa

In this remarkable document, Marion Van Staeyen highlights the persistent imbalance in the book trade between France and francophone Africa, between North and South, specifically concerning children’s books. Some alternatives are appearing, however, to promote access to northern markets for African publishers. Many stakeholders in the sector – among them the International Alliance of independent publishers – are calling for an active and direct redress of the trade imbalance between North and South. A graduate in sociology and editing, Marion Van Staeyen is a second-year master’s student at University of Paris XIII, majoring in the book trade. She is currently attending classes at Sherbrooke University in Quebec, thanks to a partnership between the two universities.

Documents in French.

Share this article

Solidarity with Iranian publishers, August 2009

Publishing countries : Iran

In view of the worrying situation in Iran and the attacks on freedom of expression, the publishers of the Alliance wish to express their solidarity with their Iranian colleagues. They demand the right to publish freely and call for increased cultural and editorial exchanges with Iran.

Share this article

1 | ... | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

{#ENV{titre},#SELF,sujet}