Economic History in Times of Transition

This issue coincides with my retirement as one of the (co-)editors of the Scandinavian Economic History Review. It has been a great pleasure and a real privilege to work for this journal over the last six years, and I am grateful that Jari Ojala, editor-in-chief since 2015, invited me to reflect upon the development of the Journal since 2011. After a few acknowledgements, I present a brief survey of strategic ideas that guided the editors and of some achievements of the last six years. Then I take the opportunity to indicate how in my view academic journals in our fields may become even more interesting (the short answer is ‘red’ – relevance, engagement, debate). And finally, I introduce to the articles appearing in this number of the Journal. A journal is teamwork. Many people, from the authors who submit their papers to the publisher’s copyeditors, contribute to the success of a journal. Most of all, I am grateful for the enjoyable collaboration with Jacob Weisdorf (we edited SEHR together for four years) and with Janette Rawlings who ran the secretariat and enabled us to focus mainly on content. Copenhagen Business School and the Department for Management, Politics, and Philosophy generously supported my term. Many thanks to Jari Ojala, who became the first editor-in-chief of this journal in 2015, and to the other co-editors with whom it was my pleasure to cooperate, Camilla Brautaset, Sverre Knutsen, Lars Magnusson, and Espen Storli. The engagement of the publishing team of Taylor & Francis was a pleasant experience: Victoria Babbit, ElisaBeth Alexis, and Calum Petrie were outstanding – it would be nice, though, if job turnover in the publishing industry were less frequent. Last but not least, without the support of our associate editors and the members of the advisory board, particularly Stephen Broadberry, Geoffrey Jones, Kevin O’Rourke, and Marco H.D. van Leeuwen, the journal would look different today; they helped in many ways.