One element of my work I don’t talk about as much on this blog is my role as co-editor of the Community Development Journal. We put out four issues every year featuring amazing research from across the world, so I’m hoping to highlight this a bit more in future posts.

Volume 59, Issue 3 is out now and features articles on a range of topics from violent protest, to public art, to academic/voluntary partnerships – with contributions from South Africa, the Philippines, the UK, India, Canada, Vietnam, Mexico, Portugal, and Italy. As ever, it’s been hugely exciting to work with and learn from such a broad range of insight and expertise.

In addition to overseeing the peer review process, myself and co-editor Kirsty Lohman write an editorial for every issue. This editorial – one of five freely available articles in the latest issue – celebrates the launch of the new CDJ Plus website and reflects on the privileges and limitations of academic publishing. In particular, we discuss the importance and limitations of using our platform to speak out about the ongoing colonial violence in contexts such as Gaza and Ukraine.

You can read that editorial here:

Academic publishing and the privilege of a platform
by Ruth Pearce and Kirsty Lohman