User:Manfred.isaac

ARCHITECTURE_MEDIA_POLITICS_SOCIETY is an academic forum and associated open access online journal. It was established in 2011 and the journal was launched in 2012. It is dedicated primarily to the study of architecture but examines it in the context of what it refers to as the mediated environment of contemporary culture. It examines the relationship between architecture and the related disciplines of the media, politics and society. It is also known as Architecture_MPS or simply AMPS.

It was set up after a 2011 research bid to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, AHRC, for the research project it currently hosts; "Architecture as Political Image". It has been covered at various academic conferences including the 2011 Oxford University Visual Literacies conference and has been the subject of numerous book articles. The journal is based in London, but is also run in affiliation with a number of universities. Principally, it is associated with Ravensbourne, London, and Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida.

The journal publishes one article per month online, has a resource repository and is regularly reviewed, announced    and discussed on academic forums such as Humanities and Social Sciences online and the Joint Information Systems Committee. It also functions as a platform for one international research project each year. Currently, this project is "Architecture as Political Image"; an examination of the use and appropriation of architecture in political campaign images. Its focus is campaigns in the United States and the United Kingdom and the special relationship. In this regard, it references on the writings of Christopher Bartlett.

Architecture_MPS has also developed a new genre of writing; the ‘interview-article’-an adaptation of the standard interview format and the academic article. It was launched with a piece by Kenneth Frampton. It is a variation on the interview genre in which theoretical background is added for the reader through extensive and discursive notation that expand on the arguments and references made by the interviewer or the interviewee. It is an explanatory / descriptive adaptation of the standard interview format that makes it a hybrid academic literary form.

Journal theme
The journal keeps its subject areas and interests deliberately open so as to encompass a range of subjects related to architecture. The themes of architecture, media, politics and society are interpreted broadly but the principal aim characteristic has been described as encouraging an “examination of how architecture operates in tandem with other cultural factors”.

Articles about the use of architecture in political campaigns in the United States have been published alongside articles about the use of modernist architecture as a political tool in post revolutionary Mexico and the political role of the architecture of the 'cultural industries' in the UK. Its international perspective is reflected in its global editorial team and its appearance and collaboration with other international journals and forums. Its combination of journal, reader feedback outlets and resource repository have led to it being labeled as an “innovative” and “new” approach to academic publishing. The journal also publishes a range of interviews with leading academics, architects and critics.



Hosted projects
The journal hosts one research project on a rotating basis. In 2012 that project was entitled “Architecture as Political Image” and investigated the appropriation of architecture in political campaign imagery in the United States and the United Kingdom. It uses a 3 part model to analyse the relationship between politics, advertising and architecture and has been covered in various international conferences and articles.. It underlines the argument that the strategies used in political communication emerged from the PR and advertising industries and, as a result, the political use of architectural imagery is similar to that found in commercial promotion. In this light, politics and architecture are seen as intertwined with what the project defines as a game of images. The project outlines a historical narrative that traces this appropriation of architectural imagery back to the 18th century but primarily examines Post World War II elections in the US and the UK. These elections are examined alongside the most recent elections; the Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008, the United Kingdom general election, 2010 and the United States elections, 2012.

Resource repository
The Resource Repository of AMPS operates as a forum and data source for researchers and information specialists in the fields of architecture, design and urbanism primarily, but also covers the other fields of interest to the overall journal project. It is described as a unique collaboration between academics and information specialists. It is characterised by a number of features:

1.	Discussion forum and networking venue A paper written by an information specialist will be published every two months. This will set the theme of a discussion forum between members of the Information Services Committee and external participants.

2.	Archive of websites The repository will have an extensive archive of current and past websites dealing with issues related to journal's theme. The intention is to make it an internationally accessible research source.

3.	Review section It will offer reviews of various materials of interest to researchers, information specialists and academics. Examples include reviews of recently published books, but it will also include other relevant reviews; films, documentaries etc.

4.	Current Events section The aim is to provide an extensive and up-to-date list of current events relevant to both academics and researchers, information specialists: exhibitions, conferences, calls for papers etc.

5.	Bibliography of sources An extensive bibliographic source with listings of books and articles related to journal's themes.

Editorial policy
All articles published on the journal are subject to double-blind peer review. One article is published on-line each month. They have a limited word length, use the MLA citation system and are written in English. However, the journal also accepts dual language publications. It is accompanied by a printed publication every two years in which selected authors from a given editorial cycle publish extended articles. It is open access so that all material can be freely available. The journal uses the BOAI definition of open access.

Editorial Committee
The editorial committee is made up of architects, landscape architects, interior designers, academics, researchers, historians and critics. They ensure full peer reviewing of journal content and advise on themes, issues and editorial policy. The team is made up of people from twenty countries including: Dominican Republic, UK, USA, Gambia, México, China (Hong Kong), India, Cuba, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Portugal, Greece, Brazil, Australia, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Singapore and Italy.