British geographer (1941?2020)
Ron Johnston at the 1999 International Geography Festival
Ronald John Johnston
,
OBE
,
FAcSS
,
FBA
(March 30, 1941 ? May 29, 2020) was a British
geographer
, known for elaborating his discipline's foundations, particularly its history and nature, and for his contributions to urban social geography and
electoral geography
.
[1]
[2]
His broad scope is illustrated by the fact that he made extensive use of quantitative methods, while
critically
dealing with subjects of social and political relevance.
[2]
Johnston authored or co-authored more than 50 books and 800 papers, and edited or co-edited a further more than 40 books (if translated and revised editions are counted separately).
[3]
[4]
He edited
The Dictionary of Human Geography
and for the first four editions was its main editor.
Academic career
[
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]
After receiving his bachelor's and master's degrees from the
University of Manchester
in 1962 and 1964, respectively, he moved to
Monash University
in
Melbourne
,
Australia
. There, Johnston obtained a
PhD degree
, and came in contact with what has become known as the
quantitative revolution
of geography.
[2]
He also wrote his first paper on urban social geography during that time. From 1967?1974, he was part of the academic staff at the
University of Canterbury
in
Christchurch
, New Zealand, where his interest in electoral geography began to develop. Johnston then was appointed professor at the
University of Sheffield
. In 1979,
Geography and Geographers
, which he updated and expanded every few years, and whose various editions have been translated into four languages,
[4]
was published. Johnston became co-editor of the two journals
Progress in Human Geography
and
Environment and Planning A
that same year. In 1981, the first edition of
The Dictionary of Human Geography
, to which Johnston contributed hundreds of articles,
[4]
was published. It has maintained its status as the discipline's authoritative dictionary ever since.
[5]
After serving as pro-vice-chancellor for academic affairs of the University of Sheffield, he became vice-chancellor of the
University of Essex
in 1992.
[6]
From 1995, Johnston was a professor at the
University of Bristol
. He retired from the editorial boards of both
Progress in Human Geography
and
Environment and Planning A
in 2006.
Recognition
[
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]
Johnston was one of the most cited geographers for decades.
[note 1]
Among the most prestigious awards Johnston received were the
Murchison Award
(1985) and the
Victoria Medal
(1990) by the
Royal Geographical Society
, the
Prix Vautrin Lud
at the International Geography Festival 1999, and a lifetime achievement award from the
Association of American Geographers
(2009).
[3]
Furthermore, he held honorary doctorates from the University of Essex (D.Univ. 1996),
[6]
Monash University (LL.D. 1999),
[7]
the University of Sheffield (Litt.D. 2002)
[8]
and the
University of Bath
(Litt.D. 2005).
[9]
He was elected a founding Academician (later renamed fellow) of the
Academy of Social Sciences
(FAcSS) in 1999, and was elected an ordinary fellow of the
British Academy
in 1999.
[1]
Johnston was appointed
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
(OBE) in the
2011 Birthday Honours
for services to scholarship.
[10]
Campanology
[
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]
Johnston was an active bell-ringer. He published two books on aspects of
campanology
, "Change-Ringing: the English Art of Bell-Ringing" and "An Atlas of Bells", and was co-compiler of three editions of "
Dove’s Guide to the Church Bells of Britain
". Johnston served as ringing master of the Sheffield Cathedral Company of Ringers from 1980 to 1992, as president of the Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers from 1990 to 1992, and as president of the
Central Council of Church Bell Ringers
from 1993 to 1996.
[11]
Selected publications
[
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]
Monographs
[
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]
- Johnston, R. J. (1971): Urban Residential Patterns: An Introductory Review. London (G . Bell & Sons).
ISBN
0-7135-1675-5
- Johnston, R. J. (1978): Multivariate Statistical Analysis in Geography: A Primer on the General Linear Model. London (Longman).
ISBN
0-582-48677-7
- Taylor, P. J.
and R. J. Johnston (1979): Geography of Elections. Harmondsworth (Penguin).
ISBN
0-7099-0056-2
- Johnston, R. J. (1979): Geography and Geographers: Anglo-American Human Geography since 1945. London (Edward Arnold).
ISBN
0-7131-6239-2
(7th edition announced for publication in 2010)
- Johnston, R. J. (1991): A Question of Place: Exploring the Practice of Human Geography. Blackwell (Oxford).
ISBN
0-631-15603-8
Edited Collections
[
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]
- Johnston, R .J. et al. (eds.) (1981): The Dictionary of Human Geography. Oxford (Blackwell).
ISBN
0-631-10721-5
(5th edition published in 2009)
- Johnston, R. J., P. J. Taylor and
Michael Watts
(eds.) (1995): Geographies of Global Change: Remapping the World in the Late Twentieth Century. London (Blackwell).
ISBN
0-631-19327-8
Notes
[
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]
- ^
In an analysis of citation records based on the
SSCI
and the
SCI
, he was identified as the second most cited geographer for 1981?1985, and the third most cited one for 1986?1990 (Bodman, A. (1992): Holes in the Fabric. More on the Master Weavers in Human Geography.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
17 (1): 108?109). In another citation count that covered more than 20 years (1981 ? October 2002), this time based on the SSCI and the
A&HCI
, Johnston was listed as one of twelve geographers who had been cited more than 1000 times (Yeung, H. W. (2002): Deciphering citations.
Environment and Planning A
34 (12): 2093?2102).
References
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]
External links
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]
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