The Spatial Variable: Professor Ron Johnston’s Inaugural Lecture (University of Sheffield, 1975)

This paper presents a recently transcribed copy of Ron Johnston’s inaugural lecture that he gave in 1975 following his appointment as Professor of Geography at the University of Sheffield. Entitled ‘The Spatial Variable’, it is published for the first time, with a foreword by one of Ron’s subsequent colleagues at the University of Bristol, highlighting the lecture’s continued relevance to contemporary geographical praxis – especially quantitative geography – as well as Ron’s own interest in studying the histories of geographical thought. The lecture is offered as an intellectual tour de force that reverberates with Ron’s deep knowledge of and passion for the discipline of geography, and is infused with a belief in its social and academic validity; a validity that the lecture showcases with a wide range of examples, many in topics that Ron would continue to study throughout his career. Underpinning the lecture is recognition of the challenges but importance of geographical explanation to understand the (re-)production of socio-spatial inequalities. The lecture richly demonstrates Ron’s fascination with ‘the spatial variable’, the study of which would be a life-long pursuit and, in his pioneering approaches to its understanding, cement Ron’s recognition as one of Geography’s most prolific and respected practitioners.