ABOUT IN CONTEXT

Hello, I'm Robert Gilman, the founder and editor of IN CONTEXT. I'd like to share some background with you about this journal because it may well not be what you expect. Indeed, many people have told us it is unlike any other publication they have experienced.

No one feature of IN CONTEXT makes it totally unique, but taken all together they create a whole which is hard to compare to other publications. For example:

• Each issue focuses on a theme. Each issue brings you articles, interviews, and resource material all woven around a major broad thread -- many voices and many perspectives creating a whole system understanding.

• IN CONTEXT has no advertising. The whole 64 pages is purely articles, interviews, and other editorial content. No commercialism intrudes, subliminally or otherwise, on the direct communication between authors and the reader.

• The authors were always asked to write as if they were "speaking to an intelligent friend". The result feels like the kind of peer-to-peer communication you have with seasoned friends.

• We have always been solution-oriented rather than problem focused. You will find good analysis of why change is needed, but this is only the beginning. Mostly you will find real-world examples of people exploring a more sustainable way of living, and sharing their experience with what it takes to get there.

• In the short stretch of overlap between the start of the Utne Reader Alternative Press Awards and the end of IN CONTEXT's print phase, we were honored four times: as finalist for "General Excellence" in publications under 10,000 circulation (1989); as finalist for "Best Publication" in publications under 15,000 circulation (1990); as winner for "Coverage of Emerging Issues" (1991); and again as winner for "Coverage of Emerging Issues" (1994). Our reputation among our peers was always very high.

• As these awards for "Coverage of Emerging Issues" suggest, IN CONTEXT has always been ahead of the times. That's why issues written a decade or more ago are still fresh, relevant, and forward looking today -- and probably will be years from now as well.

• Our belief in the possibility of a positive future is clear in every issue. Many people said that reading IN CONTEXT gave them hope. Quite a few said that it changed their lives. You've now been warned -- it could happen to you too!

The bookstores and newsstands that used to sell IN CONTEXT never quite knew where to put us. Our scope was too broad and too whole. Our approach was too unclassifiable. Our fabric included environmental and social concerns, but we weren't simply activists. There were always spiritual threads, but they were worn lightly and we just didn't' fit in the New Age box. Many of the articles had scholarly sophistication, but we weren't an intellectual publication. We were whole people engaged with all the dimensions of life -- and there just wasn't a category for that!

You can explore the text of IN CONTEXT here on this website and you can purchase printed copies of many of the issues at our Web Store. What is different with the printed journal is the overall feel (the pictures, the layout, etc.) and the fact that you can hold it in your hands, show it to friends, give it as a gift, and all the wonderful things you can do with real print.

If this appeals to you, please explore this site and the Web Store. I doubt you will be disappointed.