Abstract
Progress in Human Geography last year reached a milestone. Created in 1977 out of what was previously Progress in Geography, the journal has occupied a virtually unique place in the landscape of geography publishing, along with its ‘twin’, Progress in Physical Geography. It publishes reviews of fields of research, seeking to advance knowledge by mapping, linking, constructively criticizing, and suggesting new avenues for ongoing areas of inquiry. A great many of its regular papers, so too its regular progress reports, have exerted considerable influence. They are widely read and engaged with across the discipline, often many years after first publication. Progress's many editors over the years can, together, take credit for steering the journal along a very fruitful path. So can the thousands of reviewers who have helped authors improve first, second and sometimes third versions of submitted articles.
In recognition of the extremely rich archive of articles, reports, and other material (such as ‘Forums’), in recent years virtual issues have been published on the Progress website (http://journals.sagepub.com/page/phg/collections/phg-virtual-issues-homepage). They started with a commemoration of Neil Smith, who published several pieces in the journal. Subsequently, different editors identified pieces worthy of being revisited, and wrote a framing introduction. Sarah Elwood’s (2014) virtual was entitled ‘Straddling the Fence: Critical GIS and the Geoweb’; Rob Kitchin’s (2014) ‘From Mathematical to Post-Representational Understandings of Cartography’; Chris Philo’s (2016) ‘“Healthy Debate” and “Healthy Ferment”: Medical and Health Geographies’; and Pauline McGuirk’s (2015) ‘Geographical Theorizing for a World of Cities’. All the virtuals can be found at the above web link. They testify to the enduring relevance of many older pieces published in PiHG and the quality of newer pieces.
The latest virtual issue has been edited by Christian Berndt, entitled ‘Uneven Development, Commodity Chains and the Agrarian Question’ (http://journals.sagepub.com/page/phg/collections/virtual-issue/uneven-development). It connects the themes of spatial inequality, commodity chains and farming, as well as ‘development’ in its several forms. In the years to come, our newest editors, Louise Amoore, Nina Laurie and David Manley, will each look back at the archive and identify a selection of key pieces relating to a theme of continuing importance.
The future for Progress is exceedingly bright. Submissions are growing in number, without any loss of overall quality. The journal’s many reviewers continue to furnish authors with detailed, constructive assessments of their submissions. The editorial team has recently been refreshed and represents the unusual intellectual diversity characteristic of human geography today. And the SAGE team support the journal very well. As it enters its fifth decade, Progress continues to help human geographers make sense of, and steer, their discipline, in part by questioning what constitutes ‘progress’ in our understanding of the world’s many human geographies.