Sixty Years of The Cartographic Journal: Advancing the World of Mapping

Summary

Marking the sixtieth anniversary of The Cartographic Journal, this editorial reviews the publication’s development since its establishment by the British Cartographic Society in 1964 and outlines priorities for the future of cartographic research. Drawing on critical reflection, publication patterns, and examples from the journal’s archive, the authors examine how cartography has evolved from a specialist visual discipline into a globally circulated field shaped by digital visualization, large-scale data infrastructures, automated systems, and interdisciplinary practice. They argue that public enthusiasm and nostalgia for maps remain valuable but cannot alone sustain the discipline, particularly when many contemporary maps are produced outside explicit cartographic traditions or designed for machine rather than human interpretation. The journal should therefore engage more directly with urgent societal challenges—including climate change, public health, inequality, racial injustice, migration, occupation, and misinformation—through collaboration with relevant domain experts. The editorial also identifies the persistent underrepresentation of feminist, queer, Indigenous, decolonial, abolitionist, critical-race, and disability perspectives, calling for broader participation by historically marginalized scholars and mapmakers. Storytelling is highlighted as a durable and productive research area connecting cartography with the geohumanities, spatial data science, and community-engaged inquiry. The authors conclude that future cartographic scholarship must critically investigate how maps are produced, interpreted, and mobilized, whose knowledge they privilege, and which power structures they reproduce or challenge. By embracing epistemological diversity, ethical reflection, technological innovation, and cross-disciplinary exchange, The Cartographic Journal can remain a leading forum for research addressing the world’s increasingly complex problems.