The problem of anglophone squint
The limited attention given by anglophones to the literature in other languages is a
notable long-term condition, and Aalbers (2004) has quite volubly brought to the
attention of readers of Area some of its manifestations and consequences.
‘Anglophone squint’, as it has been dubbed, is very evident in geography journals
emanating from the English-speaking world (Whitehand 2003), as Aalbers made
clear in different terms. The increasing dominance of the English language in several
types of geographical communication over the past 100 years has been spelled out
with characteristic thoroughness by Harris (2001). Fortunately, the distorted vision
that has accompanied this trend is at last being recognized as a serious impediment
by a sizeable number of researchers (Garcia-Ramon 2003), though the grounds for
concern that have been expressed have tended to be more political than intellectual
(Gregson et al. 2003). My purpose here is to rehearse briefly a few facts and
speculations that bear on the problem and then identify some pointers in the search
for remedies: for though we may differ in our grounds for concern there is surely
common ground in the pursuit of solutions.
Short et al. (2001) and Gutiёrrez and Lopez (2001) have demonstrated the limited
sense in which the large majority of the most visible human geography and general
geography journals might be regarded as international. While many of them purport
to be international, the reality is that they are at best international only within the
English-speaking world. In most cases the majority of authors emanate from the
country in which the journal is published (the USA or the UK). Similarly anglophone
authors have been heavily over-represented in citations at least since the 1960s: there
was a marked increase in the citing of articles by American geographers, relative to
those by French and German geographers, in the first 3 post-war decades (Whitehand
and Edmondson 1977). More recently the lopsided pattern of international
communication that developed has been compounded by the increasing emphasis
that indexing organizations have given to English-language journals. From its