With apologies to those not interested in this....
Subscribers to this list may recall an exchange concerning the decision of
the Association of American Geographers to split its core journal, the
Annals of the AAG, into several sections (four in all, plus a book review
section) from 2001. My feeling was that key areas of geographical inquiry,
notably a rich tradition of nature-society or human-environment work, might
be marginalised under the proposed new arrangement. I managed to draw a
mildly vitriolic response from the AAG President (Reg Gollege) on this, that
you can find in the C-G F archives (late Aug 1999).
Despite being chastised for expressing my view, it appears the AAG has
indeed re-visited this issue. The change of heart, agreed at a meeting in
September, probably had little to do with the discussions on this Forum, but
the latest 'AAG Newsletter' (Dec 1999, p7) lists a revised set of
sub-sections for the Annals to come into effect from the March 2001 issue.
These are now
1) Environmental Sciences
2) Methods, Models and Geographic Information Sciences
3) Nature and Society and
4) People, Place, Region.
It seemed the previously published sections titles (Environmental Sciences,
Geomatics and Visualization, People, Places and Society, Synthesis and
Synergy) have been quietly withdrawn.
Although I believe this to be a more equitable slicing of topical areas,
others may of course disagree.
The apparent rethink and re-advertisement for Annals section editors is
welcome, since it must have cost time and energy - as well as, hopefully, a
new round of inclusionary debate - to see through.
The requirement for the new Editors to exhibit "intellectual
entrepreneurship" is still there; as is the odd statement that the journal
"represent the very best thinking in American geography" which, as I said
last time, could put off some contributors not working in that regional
tradition (although this was denied by the AAG).
As I said, a rather esoteric issue, perhaps. Yet only a few months ago there
were plans to split up the Annals into different sections, or even to merge
the Annals with the Professional Geographer.
Dr. Simon Batterbury
Development Studies Institute
London School of Economics (LSE)
Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK.
fax (44 0)20-7955-6844,
telephone (+44 0)20-7955-7771 (direct) 7425 (DESTIN)
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/geo/simon.html
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