Some months ago I left the editorial board of one journal after decades of involvement and having just lodged a referee report with Urban Policy and Research, offered my services in the naïvely optimistic view that I would have a bit more time on my hands. I’m delighted to say that my offer was accepted and I now find myself the Editorials Editor with an obligation to write the first editorial of this new regime myself. In preparation for this I have read some recent editorials, especially those that address themselves to the state of the discipline, the field or however we might conceive the nexus of urban policy and research.