Peer review discussion

Posted on November 23, 2010 by stuartelden

The discussion in the comments after the original post I linked to are worth reading – find them here.

Posted in Publishing, Universities | Leave a comment

The value(s) of peer review

Posted on November 22, 2010 by stuartelden

In the Middle has the preprint text of “What is a Scholarly Journal?, The Place of Peer Review” by  Bonnie Wheeler, forthcoming in Journal of Scholarly Publishing.

I read this with disappointment and a feeling that it was asking the wrong questions. As an editor, the only time I feel ‘guilty’ about asking someone to review for us is if they are retired or a non-academic. As far as I’m concerned, any academic, at whatever stage of their career, should be willing to review for journals. And they should do this without any kind of need for recognition, reward, payment, credentials, etc. It’s a shared system where their work generates the need for reviewers; and they review in turn. It’s not generosity: if the system changes, someone will ‘pay’, and that someone will ultimately be the author. Unless authors and reviewers are separate groups of people, which of course they currently are not, this is self-defeating.

I posted on similar ideas back in June, itself trading on arguments I made in an editorial for Society and Space two years ago available (open-access) here.

Posted in Publishing, Society and Space | 2 Comments

Australian National University visiting fellowships

Posted on November 22, 2010 by stuartelden

This is the scheme under which I have a fellowship in 2011 – the call is now open for the 2012 fellowships.

Ecological Enlightenment – 2012 Annual Theme – deadline 15 March 2011

For more information:

Guidelines, application and referees report forms

Posted in Travel, Universities | 1 Comment

Antonsich-Elden exchange

Posted on November 20, 2010 by stuartelden

The exchange on my ”Land, Terrain, Territory” paper is now available online. You can read Marco Antonsich’s critique here, and my reply here. All three pieces are in Progress in Human Geography.

Posted in My Publications, Territory | 1 Comment

The Territorial Trap Fifteen Years On

Posted on November 20, 2010 by stuartelden

The latest issue of Geopolitics has a section of essays on John Agnew’s essay ‘The Territorial Trap’. Pieces by Simon Reid-Henry, me, Fiona McConnell, Alexander Murphy, David Newman, and a response by Agnew. The event came out of a workshop held at Queen Mary, University of London last year.

The issue also has pieces by Jonathan Mendel, Alison Williams and James Sidaway, among others. You can find the issue here.

Posted in My Publications, Territory | Leave a comment

Roundup – Key Thinkers, Browne report, RPA, Tom Waits

Posted on November 20, 2010 by stuartelden

Key Thinkers on Space and Place is now available in a second edition. A valuable, albeit partial, resource.

Nina Power on the Brown report here

Devin Shaw offers some thoughts on the Radical Philosophy Association conference here.

Tom Waits in concert, from 2008 – listen to it free on NPR here.

Posted in Conferences, Music, Politics | Leave a comment

Derek Gregory Miliband Lecture

Posted on November 20, 2010 by stuartelden

Ralph Miliband series on the restructuring of World Power

War in the borderlands

Derek Gregory

Professor Gregory discusses the evolving character of conflicts in the borderlands of former empires and the blurring of the conceptual borders of war itself.

Wednesday 1 December 2010 , 6.30 – 8.00 p.m.

Old Theatre, Old Building, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London

This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis.

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Sloterdijk Now cover

Posted on November 19, 2010 by stuartelden

Posted in My Publications, Peter Sloterdijk | Leave a comment

A busy week

Posted on November 19, 2010 by stuartelden

Gave a workshop on publishing with graduate students in geography at University of Washington on Monday, plus a few follow-up meetings. I was invited to come to a class in the Geopolitics course at UW, where the students had been reading my Terror and Territory, for a question and answer session. Then a trip to the University of Victoria to have a discussion over some of my more recent conceptual and historical work on territory. Tomorrow I move onto Vancouver for the weekend. I’m giving a talk at University of British Columbia on Tuesday and have meetings there on Monday with Jamie Peck and Trevor Barnes to discuss the Environment and Planning volumes we are doing for Sage.

In between I’m still working on Chapter Four, which is coming together slowly. The special collections library at University of Washington has some very interesting things, and some books I struggled to find in London are here. So I found a copy of the 1551 edition of Baldus de Ubaldis’s commentary on Gregory IX’s Decretales, which enabled me to finalise a few references. This one has been causing problems for some time. Also dealing with a huge amount of journal work. 218 submissions so far this year, which is a substantial increase on last.

But the talk at UBC is the last speaking commitment of 2010. The next ones are in Australia in the new year.

Posted in Baldus de Ubaldis, Conferences, Society and Space, Terror and Territory, Travel | Leave a comment

Mark Blyth on austerity

Posted on November 17, 2010 by stuartelden

This is a terrific video of Mark Blyth explaining and criticising ‘austerity’ (via here). Although the animations help, this is really good counter-argument to people who think you cannot achieve anything in a 20 minute conference slot. This is just over five minutes and achieves more than most people do in several times that amount.

Posted in Politics | Leave a comment