What Is a Book?

The panel will open the question whether it is still possible to define a book and what does the problem with the definition of the book mean for fiscal and cultural policies.

How can we define the book in the age of streaming platforms and the variety of digital and print formats in which textual content appears? Is the inability to clearly define a book the reason for the problems with publishing statistics? How is the definition of the book related to this statistical problem? Are we entering an era in which – because of the fluidity of text media – publishing statistics becomes an impossible task? Should we return to a conservative print-based definition of the book or invent a new one that also covers a range of digital textual products?