International Encyclopedia of Human Geography and Elsevier

There have recently been a number of exchanges on various
fora, including crit-geog-forum, and in the pages of
Political Geography about the reported links between
Elsevier and the arms trade.  As a group of editors working
on a major reference work with Elsevier we want to put on
the record our own concerns and actions with regards to this
issue and to detail why we are continuing to work on the
project.

The International Encyclopedia of Human Geography is a
large, international collaboration that will provide a
valuable overview of human geography.  The Encyclopedia will
include detailed entries on every field of human geography,
philosophy and theory, key concepts, methods and practices,
biographies of notable geographers, and geographical thought
and praxis in different parts of the world.  The
Encyclopedia will be available in printed form but its real
raison d'etre will be as a web resource that will evolve
over time to become a dynamic archive through which readers
will be able to see how the concepts and practices of human
geography have evolved by comparing entries.

The editor in chiefs first wrote to Elsevier in August 2006
to express concerns over reported links with military
industries.  We have since discussed extensively this issue
as group of editors and with Elsevier.  After reading the
various debates and materials we have decided to continue
with the project for three principal reasons.
 
First, Elsevier inherited this issue when they were bought
out by the Reed group, and so it is not of their making. 
Regardless, it has become clear that the part of the Reed
Elsevier group that organizes the DSEI exhibition in
question (note not arms trade fair - no arms or any other
equipment is bought or sold and major charities such as
Oxfam exhibit there) does not make arms, does not sell arms,
and does not promote arms.  It organizes conference space. 
We have asked Reed Elsevier to think carefully and seriously
about the ethics of who they organize events for and their
corporate responsibilities, and are happy with this level of
protest (rather than boycotting).  We will continue to be
proactive in our dealings with Elsevier in this regard, and
in supporting those in Elsevier who might also wish to see
these dimensions of corporate policy re-evaluated within the
wider Reed Elsevier group.

Second, although we hold our reservations on Reed Elsevier
corporate decisions, we continue to work on this project
because we believe of its great value to the discipline of
Geography.  It is a project that is truly international in
scope, with editors and authors from countries round the
world reporting on the diversity of human geographical
thought and praxis.  It is therefore helping to establish a
dialogue that bridges divides and starts to tackle issues of
Anglo-American dominance in the production of such works. 
This is we believe an important political endeavour.

Third, many hundreds of people have already written
contributions and spent many hours working on the project. 
We have a responsibility to the project, our authors and
ourselves to see the work to completion (and certainly not
to speak and act for them all). Many of the issues discussed
in various fora on military and ‘defense’ industries
will be addressed in the entries, allowing students and
fellow academics to think them through critically.

We have spent a great deal of time thinking through our
relationship with Elsevier and discussing the issue with
them. After much reflection and despite disagreements among
ourselves, we feel there are good reasons to continue and
complete the project.

Rob Kitchin, Nigel Thrift, Anssi Paasi, Brian Graham, Chris
Philo, Costis Hadjimichalis, Gill Valentine, Henry Yeung,
James Sidaway, Jeremy Crampton, Katie Willis, Kay Anderson,
Loretta Lees, Mei-Po Kwan, Mike Crang, Mona Domosh, Noel
Castree, Paul Cloke, Phil Hubbard, Sara McLafferty (editors)


Prof. Rob Kitchin
Director, National Institute of Regional and Spatial
Analysis
National University of Ireland, Maynooth
County Kildare
Ireland

+353 1 708 3372
http://www.nuim.ie/nirsa
http://www.nuim.ie/staff/rkitchin