This sense of The Dictionary of Human Geography as both mirror and goad, as both reflecting and provoking work in our field, has been retained in all subsequent editions. The pace of change within human geography was such that a second edition (1986) was produced only five years after the first, incorporating significant revisions and additions. For the third (1994) and fourth (2000) editions, yet more extensive revisions and additions were made. This fifth edition, fostered by our publisher Justin Vaughan, continues that restless tradition: it has been comprehensively redesigned and rewritten and is a vastly different book from the original.