Speeding up to allow time: launching the topical special issue concept in Space and Polity

Special issues are an important publication format, especially in social sciences where research is as much about presenting empirical results as it is about discussing the approaches, methodologies, theories, philosophies, ethics, epistemologies, and ontologies of the research. Offering an interdisciplinary platform for such collections, Space and Polity has always published special issues along with regular issues, totalling over 20 thematic guest edited issues since the establishment of the journal in 1997. Such special issues can provide a productive platform for bringing into dialogue a range of perspectives on a specific place—as in our recent special issue on Mostar, where a diverse set of work on the city is brought together to raise critical questions about how ‘ethnically divided cities’ are studied (Carabelli et al., 2019). They can also be a site where a new theoretical approach or longstanding conceptual debates are given space to develop across a broad range of empirical contexts—as in a past special issue on neo-liberalism and crisis (Featherstone et al., 2015). They can, as well, chart a relational and comparative course across important phenomena that raise pressing theoretical and political questions, as in recent special issues on youth politics in Asia (Lam-Knott & Cheng, 2020) or the pedagogies of peace and citizenship (Staeheli, 2017). Through special issues a journal can also encourage the development of new scholarly fields, such as political geographies of childhood and youth (Kallio & Häkli, 2013; Lam-Knott & Cheng, 2020; Philo & Smith, 2003). Many special issues are based on a conference session or a thematic seminar—a combination that offers opportunities for early career scholars to learn some of the key elements of academic work, in their roles as event organizers and guest editors, or as presenters and authors. Further, while submitting a paper for peer review is always a learning experience, the crucial role of expert and engaged guest editors in special issues can, when processes work well, allow for especially focused and constructive editorial feedback for authors. There are also reasons to think that special issue papers are more likely to be read and cited, and they can set out productive research agendas for others to build on. Thus, through special issues, journals contribute to international research training and mentoring, while taking forward scholarship in important ways. Because of these important contributions, we are excited to launch a new option for special issues that, we hope, can carry forward many of the potential benefits of the format, while also responding to some of the challenges it can pose. In doing so, we have sought to learn from what other journals are doing. Recent years have seen innovative use of virtual special issue concepts across fields. While there are variations across publishers and journals, these virtual special issues often curate already published papers addressing an urgent issue and make them readily available through social media promotion and, often, a time-limited period of free access. In our own field, Political Geography has launched a virtual forum format that allows for a dialogical collection of shorter viewpoint articles that are gathered online, including both invited contributions and open responses, with each article also published individually in a regular issue (Nagel, 2021). In both cases, these formats allow for a collection