Aims and History
Aims
Antipode is an academic journal but also more than this. It publishes peer review essays on geographical issues such as place, space, landscape, scale, human- environment relations, uneven development, boundaries, borders and connections. These essays further the analytical and political goals of a broad-based Left-wing geography. The perspective can be Marxist, post-Marxist, feminist, anti-racist, queer, anarchist or green. Antipode also publishes short commentaries (Interventions) and book reviews and review symposia. The journal funds an annual postgraduate scholarship and sponsors annual lectures at major international geography conferences. Recent speakers include Tariq Ali, David Harvey, Gill Hart, Eric Sheppard, Doreen Massey, Ray Hudson, Bob Jessop and Gerry Pratt.
History
Antipode has never been a journal which exists in a vacuum, nor has it been the journal of choice for ivory-tower scholars. From its very origins it has been inspired by, engaged with, and responded to, the world around it. To get a sense of Antipode’s connection with its wider context below we have developed a timeline of landmark events in the journal’s history.
1969 First Issue of Antipode printed at Clark University in August, edited by Ben Wisner (who also edited the second issue). Launch comes against tumultuous backdrop of unrest in the USA and beyond such as opposition to the on-going Vietnam war, May 1968 riots across the world, the Watts race riots (1965), suppression of student dissent by the military such as that at Kent Sate University (1970), and activity by proto revolutionary groups such as the Weather Underground and their Days of Rage riots (1969). David Harvey’s Explanation in Geography published the same year.
1970 William Bunge’s Detroit Geographical Expedition and Institute developed and reported on in Antipode in subsequent years.
1970 Richard Peet at Clark becomes editor after editing special issue on Geography of Poverty (and remains editor for 15 years).
1972 David Harvey publishes ground-breaking essay ‘Revolutionary and counter revolutionary theory in geography and the problem of ghetto formation’ in Antipode.
1973 David Harvey’s Social Justice and the City published. Doreen Massey publishes pioneering critique of industrial location theory in Antipode.
1974 Milton Santos publishes germinal Antipode article on Geography, Marxism and underdevelopment while exiled from Brazil. Union of Socialist Geographers founded in Toronto, 1974.
1978-1980 Phil O'Keefe and Kirsten Johnson edit Antipode while Richard Peet is on leave in Australia.
1978 Myrna Breitbart edits special feature on Anarchism featuring historic articles by Kropotkin and contemporary writers such as Murray Bookchin.
1980 Antipode introduces more formal refereeing and uses typesetting for first time. The political tide begins to turn against the ‘old’ Left in much of the Anglophone world. Neil Smith and Phil O’Keefe publish work on Geography, Marx and Nature.
1983 Antipode publishes Denis Cosgrove’s article 'Towards a Radical Cultural Geography', and poet and anti-apartheid activist Dennis Brutus’s poem ‘The Guerillas’.
1986 Blackwell takes over publishing Antipode. New investment is brought to publishing the journal, which appears three times a year.
1986-1991 Joe Doherty and Eric Sheppard become editors. Joe Doherty stays on until 1993.
1988 Julie Graham publishes seminal work in Antipode on 'Post modernism and Marxism'.
1990 Liz Bondi’s article ‘Feminism postmodernism and geography: space for women’ published.
1991-1999 Dick Walker at Berkeley, USA, takes over editing Antipode and the journal is published four times per year.
1991 Antipode features Neil Smith’s ‘What’s left? A lot’s left’ article.
1993-1999 Linda McDowell joins Dick Walker as co-editor, bringing a strong feminist dimension to complement Marxist-anarchist strands.
1996 Alain Lipietz’s ‘Geography, Ecology and Democracy’ is published in Antipode.
1999 ‘Battle of Seattle’ and signs of a renewal of Left/radical thought and activism in the wider world.
1999–2003 Jamie Peck and Jane Wills take over as editors writing provocative pieces including ‘Geography and its Discontents’ and ‘Progress or retreat? Antipode and the radical geography project’. The journal goes to 5 issues per year, with the size also increasing. Antipode book series and postgraduate scholarship launched, as well as the journal’s ‘Interventions’ section and the Antipode lectures, the first one by activist and writer Tariq Ali at the 1999 annual meeting of the Institute of British Geographers. Themes of neoliberalism, politics beyond the academy, political economy and political ecology develop strongly in the journal.
2000 Mike Davis’s ‘The origin of the third world’ is published as well as the classic by Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift ‘What kind of economic theory for what kind of economic geography?’
2001 First World Social Forum in Brazil sees increase in writing on the global social justice movement in Antipode.
2002 Ground breaking special issue on Neoliberalism published in Antipode including Jamie Peck and Adam Tickell’s ‘Neo liberalising space’
2004 Melissa Wright and Noel Castree take over as co-editors. Imperialism, resistance, war and neoliberalism continue as strong themes in the journal.
2005 The ‘What’s Left?’ section is kicked off by Nigel Thrift and Ash Amin.
2006 Development work for Antipode-Online, the journal’s website, undertaken by Noel Castree and Paul Chatterton.
2007 Website is launched
2007 First Antipode Summer Institute for Graduate Students (SIGS), organised in association with the International Critical Geography Group (ICGG).
2008 Melissa Wright to be replaced as co-editor by Wendy Larner
