The Geographical Journal

Contents

The Geographical Journal The Geographical Journal is a long-established periodical associated with the Royal Geographical Society, publishing research, reports and commentary on exploration, cartography and regional studies. Founded in the nineteenth century, it has chronicled voyages, surveys and debates involving figures such as David Livingstone, James Cook, Alexander von Humboldt, Alfred Russel Wallace and Ernest Shackleton. Its pages have hosted contributions linked to institutions including the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, London, the Royal Society and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

History

The journal originated amid nineteenth-century interests in colonialism, Victorian era exploration and the professionalization of geography under patrons like the Royal Geographical Society and the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Early editors and contributors included explorers and scholars who participated in events such as the Scramble for Africa, the Opium Wars era expansions, and scientific voyages like those of HMS Beagle and HMS Challenger. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the journal published accounts connected to expeditions led by figures such as Henry Morton Stanley, Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, Fridtjof Nansen and Thor Heyerdahl. In the interwar and postwar periods its pages reflected debates associated with the League of Nations, the United Nations and the decolonization movements involving territories like India, Kenya and Nigeria. More recent decades saw work entwined with conferences and reports from organizations such as the International Geographical Union, the World Bank, and the European Union.

The journal covers empirical studies and thematic essays on regions including Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Antarctica and the Arctic. Articles address fieldwork tied to sites like the Amazon River, the Himalayas, the Sahara Desert, the Andes, and the Great Barrier Reef, and they engage with case studies involving cities such as London, New York City, Mumbai, Beijing and São Paulo. Contributions intersect with disciplinary debates influenced by thinkers and texts connected to Carl Ritter, Paul Vidal de la Blache, Halford Mackinder, Richard Hartshorne and Yi-Fu Tuan. The journal publishes work on topics linked to treaties and projects such as the Antarctic Treaty, the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, the Three Gorges Dam and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Field reports often reference expeditions tied to names like Henry Hudson, James Cook and Vitus Bering as historical context.

Published by the Royal Geographical Society with institutional links to universities such as University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, London School of Economics, University College London and University of Edinburgh, the journal appears on a regular schedule with editorial oversight provided by scholars affiliated with research councils like the Economic and Social Research Council and funding bodies such as the European Research Council. Editorial boards have included academics with connections to departments at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Toronto, the Australian National University, the National University of Singapore and the University of Cape Town. Peer review procedures align with standards promoted by organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics and publishing partners including academic presses with ties to the Oxford University Press network.

Across its run the journal published influential expedition narratives and methodological papers that engaged with works by figures involved in major events such as the Battle of Waterloo era cartographic reforms, the mapping efforts surrounding the Crimean War, and twentieth-century studies tied to World War I and World War II theatres. Seminal pieces have addressed landscape interpretations influenced by Alexander von Humboldt and policy-relevant studies referencing agencies like the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Monetary Fund. Contributions have documented fieldwork from sites like Mount Everest, the Gobi Desert, the Okavango Delta and Lake Baikal, and have featured analyses of urban transformations linked to projects in Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The journal also ran first-hand accounts and obituaries concerning explorers such as John Franklin, Vitus Bering, Charles Darwin’s contemporaries and twentieth-century polar leaders like Shackleton and Amundsen.

The Geographical Journal has been cited across scholarly debates and policy discussions involving bodies like the United Nations Development Programme and the World Health Organization. It has influenced curricula in geography departments at institutions such as King's College London and the University of Cambridge, and has been reviewed in periodicals tied to the Times Literary Supplement and the Geographical Magazine. The journal's long record of expedition reporting and regional analysis has shaped public perceptions of expeditions associated with names like David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley and Robert Falcon Scott, and informed heritage work at museums such as the National Maritime Museum and the Science Museum, London.

Category:Geography journals