In the context of my own position as a humanities scholar in the UK, in this article, I look at the way in which universities have operationalised a system in which the measures of scholarly prestige, success, and distinction are increasingly monopolised by large publishing corporations, mainly based in the West. This evolution has reinforced a productivity-driven and competitive framework of academic work, which significantly influences the subjectivities, interpersonal dynamics, and emotional landscapes of humanities scholars. Through my editorial work in the ontext of the Culture Machine special issue ‘Publishing after Progress’, I try to move away from systemic pressures on academic work and their effects. With this, I aim to create conditions under which thinking (and doing) ‘Publishing after Progress’ becomes possible, or at least plausible, as an experimental, intellectual, and political quest beyond the immediate demands of productivity-driven and competitive academic environments. My approach horizontally engages a heterogeneous range of knowledge creating actors not merely as competitive producers of research outputs but as active agents in shaping the conditions of academic work, by means of a creative, non-utilitarian, and collaborative publishing undertaking.