Communication in geography : the role of the New Zealand geographical society

Abstract

When one reflects on the Jubilee of Geography in the New Zealand university system, the con- tribution of the New Zealand Geographical Society, formed in 1944 by the same small group of people who were involved in its introduction, deserves comment. This paper reviews the role of the Society as a publisher, the problems that are encountered in attempting to meet its objectives, the response to those problems, and finally, the possible directions for future initiatives. - New Zealand objective of "promoting and stimulating the study of geography" and, particularly for the Geographer as a primary journal, of providing a "channel of communication among scientists"; and (ii) a tension between using "author- direction" and a "reader-direction" in expressing the Society's objectives. Throughout this discussion the term primary will be used when referring to the Geographer, not to identify its primacy within the overall publishing activities of the Society, but to emphasise the particular role the journal plays in communicating the results of primary research to a wider community of scientists. In this respect the proceedings of conferences fulfil a similar role. In geography, as in many disciplinary fields, this role has fallen to learned societies almost by default because of the failure of other publishers to accept responsibility. This review will first consider how successfully the Society has dealt with these tensions. There are important constraints that the Society and its editors face in maintaining existing, or initiating new publications, constraints that are, in fact, endemic to all scholarly publishing. The internal constraints arise first, from the Society's commitment to a number of different activities and the consequent need to spread itsutono. all resources responsibly among these. In 1945 a note on the inside cover of the Geographer described the Society as 'principally a publishing organisation' with other activities being mainly in the hands of branches. Although the balance has shifted, the publication of the two journals Geographer and New Zealand Journal of Geography - together with the Proceedings of conferences and the less regular specialad publications, remains a central activity of the Society. A little under half the current expenditure goes directly to the cost of printing the two journals. Meanwhile, the branches receive about four per cent and theand Board of Geography Teachers a little under 10d per cent of the total. The Geography Resource Centre operates largely on its own resources. But for some members these other functions and activities are more important than the Society's 'primary' serial publications, so that there are resource constraints that even the most energetic and innovative editors must accept.