Welcome to, for readers in the Northern Hemisphere (NH), the summer issue, and for readers in the Southern Hemisphere (SH), the winter issue of Self & Society. We are particularly delighted to have an old friend of the journal’s, Prof. Keith Tudor from Aotearoa New Zealand, guest editing a special theme issue on a subject pertinent to us all: ageing. Keith, with the help of his contributors and our regular columnists, has made the whole issue, and not just the theme symposium articles, ageing-related, and we think this makes for an unusually coherent and well-rounded issue on a theme that is currently and increasingly ‘hot’ as more and more people live to an advanced age. Keith, by organizing the whole issue, has made our life as editors a lot easier and we thank him, his contributors and our regular columnists for this. We hope it may inspire more submissions on the ageing theme, particularly with respect to the differing experiences and societal messages we have on ageing depending on our gender and other particular societal positions. We’ll leave Keith to expertly introduce the journal contents himself.
On other matters and as mentioned previously, the Winter (NH)/Summer (SH) issue 45.4 will mark the last one in which Manu Bazzano presides over the Book Reviews section. We will be paying a more fulsome tribute to Manu in that issue but as a result we will shortly have a vacancy for this very interesting post, a post that gives the person responsible ‘first dibs’ at a whole range of new psychology/sociology books. Do contact one or other of us if you have any interest in taking this on. The editors will happily offer support to the new reviews editor, so previous experience is by no means essential.
We’d also like to thank all those of our readers who’ve taken the time to respond to letters from Anne Goodhew of the AHP Board, relating to payments of subscriptions. Thanks to Anne and Adrian Barker in particular, the Board is making considerable headway in dealing with the previously malfunctioning database, and as a result information is now finally being brought up to date and helping to put the Association on potentially a firmer organizational and financial footing. Your subscriptions are the Association’s sole source of income and so it’s you the readers who are directly keeping this journal, now in its 45th year, alive and kicking! If you believe as we do that it’s particularly vital at a time of transition like this – a time that poses multiple threats to the values and practices that humanism, liberalism and socialism helped to establish and that we have taken for granted now for many decades – for the humanistic voice to continue to be heard, do please continue to support us in this venture. Our thanks to the many of you who already have. If readers have any suggestions about how the journal could be improved, we would be delighted to hear from you.
In this issue, we are also delighted to be introducing our new student pages, which we hope will increase interest for and submissions from students of counselling and psychotherapy. We hope you enjoy the issue as much as we have.