On the need to stay open to spaces of hope
2022; Wiley; Volume: 60; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/1745-5871.12555
ISSN1745-5871
Autores Tópico(s)Political and Economic history of UK and US
ResumoIt surprises me how much happens in the months between my quarterly editorials. If I think about the news, there are sombre reminders of geopolitical distress in Ukraine and also—always—in other regions of the world where such distress may have lost ‘headline’ status and be rendered less visible. There are the biopolitics of Roe versus Wade, with all of its multiscalar echo-effects—from the thin line that marks the meeting of ovum and sperm to those that etch deep ideological divides at subnational borders in the United States. Abe’s death in Japan. International stock market fluctuations and rising interest rates and consumer prices. More floods on the east coast of Australia, the consequences of which remain to be seen. Ongoing dilemmas related to decolonisation and the Anthropocene. I could go on, and with each addition, I would feel compelled to italicise all of the geographical nuances that shape and are shaped by these activities, events, and gaps. [There is need] to bear witness to how specific hopes and acts of hoping are a quotidian, routine part of the life of different spaces … [for hope is] a necessary political and ethical virtue, especially in times of militarization, neoliberalism, and turbo capitalism. In the shadow of a hopeless world, thinking and feeling with hope promises a way of disclosing moments or instances in which things could become otherwise … [Crucially] spaces are created in and through an ecology of more or less fragile, more or less determinate, acts of hoping. (Anderson & Fenton, 2008, p. 77) Focusing on those words quotidian and routine, for me among the sources of hope in relation to our discipline and this journal are the ongoing energies that authors put into manuscripts they then entrust to us; the dedication reviewers show in relation to those submissions; the vigilant care the editorial team puts into supporting publication; and contributions made by the Institute and Wiley to those ventures and readers’ interest in our collective labours. To purloin and relocate a phrase used by Kathy Mee and Emma Power (2019), those labours point to a significant infrastructure of care, which is how I insist on thinking about academic publishing lest I fall into a slough of despond about some of its less-appealing characteristics. So, here, I want to concentrate on sharing several items of news that are hopeful. Like many scholarly journals, Geographical Research is inside a system of measures, and some of the effects of that are inside those aforementioned and less-appealing aspects of publishing. But over several years, I have come to appreciate a strong working relationship with Wiley. For example, in discussion with our journal manager, Rebecca Ciezarek, I mentioned my interest in the Declaration on Research Assessment, which now has strong international buy-in because of its commitment ‘to advance practical and robust approaches to research assessment globally and across all scholarly disciplines’ (https://sfdora.org/about-dora/). Wiley has now signed the declaration—something not to be attributed to me but indicative of its own commitments to innovation. Wiley has also been an equal and deeply engaged partner in this year’s webinars with the Institute of Australian Geographers and the journal, all of which can be freely accessed from the journal website [here]. And together and with authors and readers, we have lifted our 2-year journal impact factor from 2.823 and rank 38/85 in geography in 2020 to 5.043 and rank 12/85 in 2021. Equally pleasing is the fact that our downloads have grown from 94.95k in 2020 to 146.5k in 2021. My hope is that some of that uplift comes from Wiley’s open access agreements with organisations such as the Council of Australian University Librarians. In short, the journal’s reach expands and that is great news and a strong team effort. Thinking of teams, the journal is blessed to have an active and engaged editorial board and, noting that, it is also important to give members opportunities to change the nature of that engagement. So, every 3 years or so, we invite change. Professor Patrick Moss has been invited to move into the role of an Associate Editor and help lead ongoing innovation in our work at the borderlands of environmental and physical geography, and we welcome and thank him for taking that on. I am deeply grateful to the following outgoing members of the editorial board: Harriet Bulkeley (Durham University), Jennifer Carter (University of the Sunshine Coast), Beverley Clarke (Flinders University), Kevin Dunn (Western Sydney University), Brian Finlayson (University of Melbourne), Iain Hay (Flinders University), Christian Kull (University of Lausanne), Ruth Lane (Monash University), Monica Mulrennan (Concordia University), Jamie Peck (University of British Columbia), Bill Pritchard, (University of Sydney) and Ian Rutherfurd (University of Melbourne). I am delighted that the following members will remain on the editorial board and provide strong continuity and seniority: Robyn Bartel (University of New England), Andrew Brooks (Griffith University), Nik Callow (University of Western Australia), Gordon Clark (University of Oxford), Kerwin Datu (Architectus), David Dunkerly (Monash University), Amy Griffin (RMIT University), Lesley Head (University of Melbourne), Richie Howitt (Macquarie University), Jamie Kirkpatrick (University of Tasmania), Richard Le Heron (University of Auckland), Juliana Mansvelt (Massey University), Francis Markham (Australian National University), Kirsten Martinus (University of Western Australia), Pauline McGuirk (University of Wollongong), Yamini Narayanan (Deakin University), Britta Ricker (Utrecht University), Guy Robinson (University of Adelaide), Kristian Ruming (Macquarie University), Thomas Sigler (University of Queensland), Tim Smith (University of the Sunshine Coast), Will Smith (Deakin University), Wayne Stephenson (University of Otago), Mark Wang (University of Melbourne) and Brenda Yeoh (National University Singapore). Joining that team are several new editorial board members and warmest congratulations to them: Sara Fuller (Macquarie University), Aisling Gallagher (Massey University), Javier Leon (University of the Sunshine Coast), Catherine Phillips (University of Melbourne), Charishma Ratnam (Monash University), Sophie Webber (University of Sydney) and Miriam Williams (Macquarie University). My intention is to put out a call for expressions of interest for another six board positions during 2022. Congratulations to the authors and many thanks to Wiley. I was unable to attend the July conference but several times a day visited the Twittersphere to touch base with posts at #IAG2022. It was terrific to see how warmly attendees responded to our journal and Institute annual special offerings at these critically important meetings. This year, Gemma Sou (RMIT) gave the Wiley lecture on 5 July, focusing on her use of graphic stories and comics in work on climate change, and Sanaz Alien (University of New England) gave the Fay Gale memorial lecture on 8 July, sharing her work on spatial ambivalence, migration and identity. We look forward to learning more from them in the journal’s pages in due course. And now to celebrate the content of our third issue for 2022. We lead with Chloe Lucas’s 2020 Fay Gale memorial lecture, entitled ‘Climate friction: How climate change communication produces resistance to concern’, which has embedded videos by Chloe and which is a powerfully accessible work. Eight original papers follow, and the team and I have relished working with every one of the authors on these fascinating works. We have five compelling offerings on very different aspects of urban and regional life: skating in India (McDuie-Ra), wildland-urban interfaces in Cape Town (Christ), perceptions of willingness to pay for urban green space in Hong Kong (Cheung, Ma, Wong and Jim), urban centre revival and condominium development in Japan (Sho) and air transport, economic growth and regional inequality in China (Wong). After those are three important and insightful works about environmental flow in the Murray-Darling Basin (Jackson), hobby- and part-time farming in multifunctional landscapes (Song, Robinson and Bardsley) and Pacific organic farming and the challenges involved in governing extension and extending governance (Carter and Hollinsworth). The issue is bookended with a review of Sally Gillespie’s timely work on climate crisis and consciousness (Burton). I hope you are able to engage with all of these fine contributions to the journal. Stay safe and well.
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