Environment and Planning A, 1985, volume 17, pages 711-722

Reviews

The new service economy: the transformation of employment in industrial societies by

J I Gershuny, I D Miles; Frances Pinter, London, 1983, 281 pages, £16.00 (UK prices only)
The long-term future of work in advanced economies is inextricably linked with the performance
of services; their demand for different types of labour, their response to information technology,
their ability to recognise and to supply new markets, or the extent to which they are vulnerable
to shifts in the mode of consumption. There are indications that information technology is
retarding the demand for labour by some services, and public services, which are subject to the
vagaries of their political masters, are now an uncertain source of future employment growth.
Such is the diversity of services and the social, economic, and political factors likely to
determine their contribution to future employment that a multidimensional approach which
recognises, for example, changes in the distribution of output between sectors of the economy,
the changes in the organisational and technological context of service activities, or changes in the
demand for services is essential.
Gershuny and Miles have valiantly adopted this approach The result, although never
lacking in intrinsic interest, is a very intricate and closely argued analysis of the process, at the
macroscale, of transition to a postindustrial economy in which it is sometimes difficult to isolate
cause from effect. The book is divided into two principal sections, the first of which deals with
an attempt to improve our understanding of the nature of employment in the services, and the
second with an exploration of the future for services. In a concluding section, in which the
arguments developed earlier are brought together, the authors offer three scenarios for the
future and a new theory for the process of economic development in which the orthodox three-
sector model is questioned.
The platform for developing their arguments is data, standardised as far as possible, from
countries within the European Economic Community (EEC), mainly for the decade of the 1970s.
There is only somewhat limited discussion of the quality of the data, and the variations in
present employment structures and other related attributes between the member states are not
explored in detail. However, the authors suggest that the patterns of employment change in
each EEC state are broadly similar even if there are underlying differences in employment
structure. The subsequent analysis, which includes a long chapter on the relationship between
new technologies and service employment, is predicated on the view, first signalled by Gershuny
(1978), that social innovations in the way that services are utilised are at least as significant for
understanding past and future trends in service employment, as economic or technological
explanations. Hence, not all final services are provided by service industries themselves but by
households who purchase manufactured goods and use unpaid, informal labour to produce their
own services. Such innovations in service provision mean that the appearance of the service
economy cannot just be equated with the expansion of service industries per se but also extends
to increased demand for output from certain manufacturing industries such as aerospace and
electronics. One symptom of this, for example, is that occupational shifts within industries,
including manufacturing, are found to have been more important than changes in the balance of
employment between industry sectors during the 1970s.
The authors' critique of the three-sector model of the economic development process
therefore rests on their fundamental criticism that it overlooks the possibility of social
innovation and technical change. It is contended that this model "describes a world much
simpler than the one we actually live in" (page 249), since it does not satisfactorily accommodate
the different ways in which economic activities can be classified. Hence, the problem of
classifying services, the bane of workers in this field, is addressed at length, and four service
sectors are finally suggested: intermediate producer, intermediate consumer, final marketed, and
final nonmarketed services. The 'new' sector is intermediate consumer services which has emerged
as a direct consequence of social innovation and will be associated with a major expansion in the
demand for output from certain manufacturing rather than service-sector industries.
712 Reviews

It is suggested that the position of these services in an economy is manifest from five
different sorts of change: those associated with increasing wealth and the associated demand
for more sophisticated service functions, changes arising from social innovation, intermediate
subcontracting changes whereby some in-house production is subcontracted to an intermediate
producer service firm, those arising from relatively low productivity growth in some final service
industries, and changes in the employment structure within industries. These five change
processes determine the way in which four classificatory dimensions for services (final service
functions, industrial sectors, final product or commodity groups, occupational sectors) are
interrelated over time. These interrelationships are measured using conventional accounting
techniques such as input-output and labour productivity.
Social and economic forecasting is a very difficult task; the results of this study suggest that
much remains to be achieved. The forecasts for different types of service occupations or for the
variety of marketed services are essentially descriptive and invariably accompanied by caveats of
one kind or another. It is therefore difficult to assess the likely role of employment in different
services in the early 1990s because there are so few projected statistics upon which to judge the
prospect. The nearest to this is figure 11.3 (page 252) which is a schematic summary of the
authors' argument and shows in a series of charts the changes in the distribution (%) of
employment by industry and occupation by service sector, for example, up to the year 2000.
This does not do justice to the detailed analyses which precede it in the book.
A surprising feature is the absence of a substantive evaluation of North American
experience; one footnote indicates that the interpretation there has been different, but there is
no elaboration. Does this mean that the social innovation model is less useful in that context
or that Europe has nothing to learn from North American deindustrilisation? The United
States of America has adjusted smoothly to postindustrialism, and analysts there seem more
optimistic about the ability of services to make a substantive contribution to the long-term
prospects for employment. The better-developed tradition of entrepreneurship, the demand for
health services for an ageing population, and the influence of franchises on good management
and therefore stability of service firms are some of the reasons.
The macroscale sociotechnical changes explored in this book also leave many questions
about their ultimate spatial consequences for cities and regions trying to adjust, often painfully,
to the new economic order. In this regard, the role of intermediate producer services would
seem critical, since the opportunities for social innovation in service consumption are ultimately
dependent upon the specialist inputs of the knowledge, financial and information-handling skills
provided to manufacturers and other services by these activities. The availability of such
services at one location rather than another may be just as significant for the long-term future
of work as the more general process of social innovation. This issue must await further work
but must surely constitute one of the dimensions of the new service economy not included
amongst these identified by Gershuny and Miles.
This is undoubtedly a thought-provoking book which needs to be read more than once in
order to prise out all the observations and arguments that fill its pages. Since it is based on
some early output from a substantive programme of research at the Science Policy Research
Unit of the University of Sussex, there is reason to look forward to subsequent publications
with interest.
P W Daniels, Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, England

Reference
Gershuny J I, 1978 After Industrial Society? (Macmillan, London)

Industrial development in Merseyside: motor vehicle assembly and the port of Liverpool by
P J M Stoney, M Bourne; Gower, Aldershot, Hants, 1984, 118 pages, £14.50 (US: $27.50)
Perhaps the first thing to be said about this slim volume is that its title is quite misleading.
Rather than being a study of industrial development in one of Britain's most desperately
depressed conurbations, it is a narrow technical exposition of input-output methodology
Reviews 713

applied only to two sectors, motor vehicle manufacture and port services. The object is to
reveal how much of the employment in the conurbation is dependent on these two key
activities. The results, after eighty-two pages of relatively dry numerical manipulation is that
the level of dependence is not so great as some exaggerated guesses in the media would have
had us believe. Nevertheless, it is suggested that "if all three motor vehicle plants and
Liverpool Port were to have closed down in 1976, between 75 000 and 130000 jobs in
Merseyside would have been made surplus to requirements" (page 82). Dependence enough
even without exaggeration, one would have thought.
There is no real attempt in the volume to set these employment multiplier calculations in
context and there is only the most perfunctory attempt to review the extensive literature which
has grown up around the subject of industrial development on Merseyside. Indeed, though the
authors are at pains to allay the criticism, this book could be described as academic both in the
kind and unkind sense. To know in 1984 that up to 130000 jobs could have been lost if the
1976 capacity of the vehicle plants and the Port were to have been removed tells us little.
How long, one wonders, would we need to wait to have an estimate of how many dependent
jobs would be lost today if those two drastically reduced sectors were to disappear and how
should we use such knowledge if we had it ready to hand?
For me, a coldly analytical study of interindustry employment multipliers for a historic case
example set within a framework of normative assumptions and normal science shows input-output
economics at its most dismal. Perhaps those with an eye for technical professionalism will
regard it differently. Despite being an honest and careful piece of work, it leaves an empty
feeling in the gut.
P E Lloyd, School of Geography, University of Manchester, Manchester M l 3 9PL, England

Urban affairs annual reviews, volume 26: Cities in transformation: class, capital and the state
edited by M P Smith; Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, 1984, 263 pages, $28.00 cloth, $14.00 paper
(UK: £24.50, £11.95)
This is a timely addition to the revisionist literature now appearing in urban political economy.
Indeed, for one or two of the twelve contributors, it could also be seen as a 'backtracking1
exercise as they remedy the sins of omission and commission of the last ten years. In his
valuable introduction, Smith refers to the need for "convincing empirical research after a decade
of rich theoretical development". Some of the essays supply this.
However, it is in the context of disagreements about the relative contributions of politics,
economics, and culture to the social production of 'urban space' (whatever this undefined term
implies) that Smith's discussion of the relation between structure and action, systemic logic and
human agency is refreshing, and this theme runs through many of the essays, with authors
demonstrating varying amounts of tension, or balance, between deeper structural explanations
and the "crucial empirical details by which actual historical events can be adequately
explained"(page 17). Four parts follow the introduction. In part 2 ("Urban political economy
and social theory"), Pickvance provides useful insights into structuralism and poses some good
questions, especially on the privileged status of theory. Yet it is a pity, particularly in the
context of other essays in the book, that a more contemporary issue could not have been
chosen to illustrate his argument than the hackneyed debate on 'urban managerialism', despite
its relevance. In his defence of structural Marxism against the criticism that it disregards
human agency, Beauregard relates variation in urban redevelopment in the United States of
America to stages in capitalism, emphasising the striking structural similarities which have taken
place since 1950, and especially, in the 1970s. Yet at the same time, the agency of specific
politicians or 'patrician families' is recognised.
Three essays in part 3 effect the transition "From theory to empirical research". Using ideas
from power structure and network research, Whitt looks at five campaigns for mass transit
systems in California between 1962 and 1974 to show the variety of responses adopted to
similar structural conditions. Kennedy's essay tests some of the propositions of O'Connor's
work on the fiscal crisis of the state, with an empirical analysis of the relationship between the
composition of the expenditure portfolio of a city and its fiscal health. With these two
714 Reviews

quantitative pieces, Chase-Dunn's brief chapter on "Urbanisation in the world-system: new

directions for research" fits uneasily. Indeed, as the basic assumptions of his paper are
unarguable, there would have been a case for putting this paper at the beginning of the book.
As he states at the outset, most urban researchers consider the primary context in whcih
urbanisation occurs to be the national society rather than the system of world cities within
which national city systems have long been nested. If structure is to be taken seriously, the
most important structural constraint is the location of any city (and its class relations and other
dimensions) within the larger processes of the world economy.
Although this seems incontrovertible and highlights the partiality, if not sheer parochialism,
of much of the urban research of recent years, it is also not uncontroversial. Apart from
criticism about the world-system concept itself (see Worsley, 1980), there are difficulties about
its applicability at different historical periods as well as its relevance to the particular level of
urban analysis being pursued. (Equally problematic is the question of autonomy or control
which nation-states maintain over their own economy.) Yet the arguments are clearly in Chase-
Dunn's favour and both here and elsewhere he provides a valuable agenda for research.
Within the global system of production which he and others posit, the consequences of the
global mobility of capital and labour on the restructuring of economies and cities are, in this
collection, best manifest in Sassen-Koob's richly empirical study of New York and Los Angeles
in part 4 ("Economic growth and the restructuring of cities"). Focusing on the impact on global
cities of the technological transformation of the work process, manufacturing and office
decentralisation, and the general transnationalisation of the economy, Sassen-Koob highlights the
rapid growth of advanced producer services, the decline of blue-collar work and the growth of
low-paid, nonunionised jobs, accompanied by extensive Hispanic immigration. The income and
social polarisation, and the environmental changes which result are trends increasingly evident and
charted in the world cities (see Wolff and Friedmann, 1985). Some of these consequences and
the connections between the global economy and urban restructuring are one issue discussed in
Hill's more theoretical essay in which he sets out some preconditions for production on a
global scale and avenues for research. The final chapter in this section, by Smith and Judd
("American cities: the production of idelogy") explains much about the other essays, including
the material context and ideological base for urban policies in specific historical and political
conditions.
The final section ("Structural change and social conflict in the city") contains essays by
Gottdiener (with an interesting critical discussion of the concept 'urban' in the writings of
Castells and Lefebvre), Perry, and Castells. Perry's criticism of Castells's particular brand of
structuralism stems from what he sees as its irrelevance to the "street level lives of the urban
proletariat" (page 219) and the lack of attention to cultural, ethnic, and religious forces. In the
final essay, Castells responds to some of these issues with a wide-ranging paper which suggests
both a pluralistic and multiplex notion of space; as in earlier work, Castells scores by the very
ambiguity of his ideas which allow plenty of interpretative scope; one of his themes is the
variety of meanings put on urban space by a range of interests and social movements that are
not necessarily class-based.
The essays are welcome, but do they go far enough? On the importance of structure,
everyone is agreed. But what structure? 'The market'? 'Ideology'? Another recent set of
papers suggests that "contemporary urban studies have neglected the idea of culture and its
relationship to cities" (Agnew et al, 1984; quote from jacket). More importantly, the restricted
historical range and narrow geographical focus of these essays (largely on North America)
explain why one of the contributors can write that the peripheral nations of Latin America,
Asia, and Africa can now become an accessible reservoir of cheap labour, or that crucial issues
now facing cities emanate from their sociospatial location as nodes in a global capitalist system
undergoing economic transition (Hull, pages 131, 132; my italics). Yet people in 'Third World'
economies and cities on the periphery have been part of a global system of production for at
least a century or more, experiencing a much more traumatic 'economic transition'; the process
was/is called colonialism. It is presumably because the effects of the capitalist world-economy
have started impinging on cities at the core that its existence is only now being belatedly
recognised by researchers on 'core' cities.
Reviews 715

Were there an index to this book (regrettably absent) entries under 'history' and 'culture'
would be many: they are terms which will need to come back into use.
A D King, Development Planning Unit, University College, London, WC1E 6BT, England
References
Agnew J, Mercer J, Sopher D (Eds) 1984 The City in Cultural Context (Allen and Unwin,
Winchester, MA)
Wolff G, Friedmann J (Eds) 1985, "World cities in formation" special issue of Development and
Change forthcoming
Worsley P, 1980, "One world or three? A critique of the world-system theory of Immanuel
Wallerstein" in The Socialist Register Eds R Miliband, J Saville (Merlin Press, London)
pp 298-338

Crisis and conservation: conflict in the British countryside by C Pye-Smith, C Rose; Penguin
Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1984, 213 pages, £3.95 paper (Can$7.95, A$11.95)
Conservation writers often seek to appeal to both the head and the heart simultaneously.
Pye-Smith and Rose, by their own definition 'new wave environmentalists', aim for the heart
and to a lesser extent satisfy the head in this provocative book, written very much with the
intention of alerting the British public at large to the massive and seemingly relentless loss of
wildlife, habitats, and landscapes within their shores. The book is polemic and partisan, and
because of this—rather than despite it—it is both engaging and illuminating. It complements
Mabey's The Common Ground (1980), and shifts the nature conservation debate quite squarely
into the political arena.
The central theme is the disturbance and disappearance of habitats and related losses of
plant and animal species, but this is no simple checklist of losses and epitaph for the past. The
book is about people, attitudes, and values more than about wildlife per se. The authors argue
with conviction that conservation raises (and indeed is founded on) basic political questions
about the rights of people to use the land they own. The argument is based on six main points.
One is the inequality of land ownership, with less than 1% of the population owning most of
the land in Britain. Moreover, most of the large landowners (individual, institutional, or
national) are engaged in the 'rural businesses' of agriculture, forestry, or water. But, in turn,
these groups are overrepresented in major planning decisionmaking and in both local and
central government politics. The problem is compounded yet further because 'the system' is
biassed in favour of such land uses (for example, through lack of development control, or via
tax or other fiscal incentives). In addition, it is argued that those in charge of the main rural
businesses (agriculture, forestry, and water are committed to the growth of their products
regardless of whether or not demand is rising. The authors ultimately stress the need for
appropriate remedies including a more rational (and more accountable) approach to countryside
planning, and changes in land ownership (but not necessarily nationalization of land).
The book has six chapters starting with a brief historical overview of the vanishing wildlife
of Britain. This is followed by a discussion of how and why the agriculture, forestry, and water
industries are destroying wildlife on a large scale, stressing how each is largely exempt from
planning controls and highlighting how each is geared towards increasing productivity and
profitability regardless of economic and strategic needs and environmental and social costs.
Chapter 3 is a review of the British planning system, with an emphasis on public inquiries, and
it focuses on the apparent impotence of planners to curb loss of habitats and wildlife and the
alleged lack of impartiality within 'the system'. The conservation movement is evaluated in
chapter 4 by contrasting 'new wave' conservationists (who recognize the need for political
involvement and direct action) with 'old guard' conservationists (including the Nature
Conservancy Council, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and the forty-two county
naturalists' trusts, who have faith in scientific investigation and rationality). The ineffectiveness
of the 'toothless watchdogs' of government conservation-agencies is also charted and bemoaned
in this chapter. Chapter 5 offers a useful if in places selective review of the main forms of
disturbance and destruction in major British habitats (spanning deciduous woodland, grassland,
heaths and moorland, freshwater and coastal habitats, and the open sea). Up-to-date and often
716 Reviews

alarming statistics are given on rates of change, and solid interpretations of causes are offered
(for example, 50% of Britain's deciduous woodland was removed between 1947 and 1980, with
most being converted to conifers or lost to arable use—sponsored by grant aid from the
Forestry Commission or the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food). The authors rightly
offer no blueprint solutions, but in Chapter 6 they discuss a range of prescriptive changes
designed to ensure that Britain has a countryside worthy of conserving in ten years time. These
include land reform (based more on land tax than on state ownership); greater freedom of
information and greater accountability within government; revitalization of the old watchdogs
(Nature Conservancy Council and the two Countryside Commissions); reorientation of the
traditional links between civil servants, government decisionmaking, and big business lobbies;
and a more overtly political profile (including direct action) by conservationists.
All in all the book provides somewhat disturbing reading, with its emphasis on how farming
and forestry are not only protected by the prevailing "planning order" but also aided and
abetted in their 'rape of the land' through ostensibly corrupt and self-interested support by local
and central government in Britain. The authors adopt a rather cavalier style, preferring to quote
the national media alongside more mainstream sources, and being quick to draw sweeping
conclusions which are not always strongly supported by evidence. They write with passion and
genuine concern, and the book has a serious message which should be carefully evaluated by all
serious planners and conservationists in Britain. Not all readers will emerge in total agreement
with the authors, conclusions and perspectives, but the experience of reflecting on such issues
would be salutory.
C Park, Department of Geography, University of Lancaster, Lancaster LAI 4YR, England

Reference
Mabey R, 1980 The Common Ground (Hutchinson, London)

Cities of the mind: images and themes of the city in the social sciences edited by L Rodwin
R M Hollister; Plenum, New York, 1984, 356 pages, $35.00 (20% higher outside USA and
Canada)
This volume of essays stems from a seminar on images of the city in the social sciences, with
the subsequent addition of four solicited contributions. The sixteen essays are divided into two
main offerings, which follow an introductory overview by the two editors. First, authors discuss
how their particular disciplines view the city and urban life; then, a much more diverse
collection is grouped under 'context and interpretation' of urban images.
Although the term 'image' was left to each author to define, a reasonable consensus emerges,
even if the economist does admit that his images may be expressed "in abstruse mathematics
and turgid prose" (page 37). The sociologist, Langer, presents an intuitively attractive typology
of urban imagery derived from the two dimensions, evaluative and scalar. The city may thus be
seen as a bazaar or jungle, organism or machine. The anthropologist is shown to focus
generally on parts rather than on the whole, while the planner acknowledges that his image
reflects the background of the imager and his ideological and professional position. The
geographer may hold descriptive, scientific, subjective, or radical images. (This essay, by Hall,
one of the two non-American contributors, hardly merits the appellation 'strikingly original',
which the editors give to the collection. Hall himself admits that he 'draws heavily' on
R J Johnston.)
The second group of essays is more interesting, not least the brief contribution by Lynch
reflecting on his own Image of the City of 1960. Despite the justified criticism over sample
size, methodology, and confusion between quality and function, the subsequent successful
widespread replication of the Lynchean approach suggests that "the tip is the tip of the iceberg,
nonetheless" (page 154). He admits surprise that the work should have sparked off so much
research in other disciplines, yet have had so little influence in the field of public planning
policy for which it was designed. Another valuable contribution is the solicited essay by Marx,
who reconsiders the puzzle of antiurbanism in classic US literature. After discussing the nature
of imaginative literature, the bias, or alleged bias, is shown to be more apparent than real.
Reviews 717

Moreover, the findings of the Whites and their followers should not be detached from the
transformation of the larger socioeconomic system and accompanying culture—in which the
(industrial) city becomes but one manifestation. The cause of social reform is also taken up in
a brief contribution by Warner, who contrasts the varying political impact of images of the slum
and skyline. The penultimate essay also deserves attention. Headed by its author, Ceccarelli,
"A walk through Marxist urban studies", it highlights a wealth of European sources, sources
which reveal differences of interpretation, not to say, dissent. The walk is predicted to become
increasingly winding and ramified.
Overall assessment of the volume is difficult since readers will come to this varied collection
from diverse academic backgrounds. Moreover, the contributions vary in length from eight to
fifty-eight pages. The conclusion is weak, with what seems a sociologist's afterthought occupying
the space when one might expect the editors to reappear. The reader also has to accept that
there is virtually an all-American cast and focus. That said, however, in my estimate the pluses
clearly outweigh the minuses.
D C D Pocock, Department of Geography, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, England
Reference
Lynch K, 1960 Image of the City (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)

Financing state and local government in the 1980s by R Bahl; Oxford University Press,
New York, 1984, 258 pages, $24.95 cloth $11.95 paper (UK: £22.00)
This book presents the personal views and reflections of one of the leading economic specialists
on the US state-local financial system. The book is not intended as a text, but rather as a
statement of the problems and priorities that characterize urban finance in this decade. The
emphasis, then, is on how the historical development of state-local finance have been modified
by various pressures and priorities, and how it is expected that the financial system will respond
under a changed set of priorities in the future.
Bahl starts by discussing the postwar expansion of government and particularly the state-
local government sector, its increased role in social welfare, its increasing dependence on
federal support, and its increased importance in the economy as a whole. He then identifies
the pressures which are seeking to limit or erode total, as well as state-local, taxation and
expenditure. Against the background of increasing disparities at urban, state, and region level,
Bahl then argues that, although avoidance of fiscal crisis has been successful since the alarms of
New York City in 1975, this is unlikely to continue in the future: because of slower rates of
economic growth and lower rates of inflation (which previously accelerated state-local tax-
takes). Considerable attention is given to the links between business cycles and inflation as a
means of adducing possible responses to lower rates of economic growth. Bahl's conclusion is
that, although there will be deepending difficulties for the economically declining industries of
the older industrial areas of the United States of America the major determinant of future
prospects will be the behaviour of state-local government itself in its discretionary fields. This
is likely to lead to increasing cutbacks in aid to the poor and disadvantaged in the older
industrial areas, and for cities as compared with suburbs. Attempts to improve this outlook are
severely constrained by the mood of the population which favours tax and expenditure limitation at
all government levels. In addition, there are inbuilt commitments to increasing expenditure for
the increasing proportion of the elderly population and lagged impacts of agreed public
employee compensation (especially in pensions). In the light of current political trends Bahl
sees no chance of the steady downward trend of federal aid being reversed, hence regional,
local, and social disparities are likely to increase.
Bahl's conclusions and projections are, therefore, somewhat bleak. His analysis is clear and
thorough. It is a wide-ranging review of the major literature and represents a coherent and
well-structured commentary on the trends in US state-local financial relations with the federal
government. It will clearly become an influential book in academic circles and a focus for
attack on the policies of Reagan's 'new federalism'. However, in this current political climate
there is no reason to doubt that his gloomier projections are likely to be fulfilled.
R J Bennett, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, England
718 Reviews

Automation: the technology and society by R Kaplinsky; Longman, Harlow, Essex, 1984,
197 pages, £8.95 paper (US: $18.95)
This book provides a new way of conceptualising automation and uses it to assess the social
implications of the latest electronic technology. Instead of looking at automation in terms of
specific operations like transfer, forming, and assembly, Kaplinsky's framework divides
manufacturing into three spheres—design, actual manufacture, and coordination or management
and administration. Within each sphere there are many activities, for example, draughting,
machining, stock control, any of which may be automated. Besides this ''intraactivity automation
there may also be ' intrasphere automation (for example, local area networks linking different
kinds of office information-handling equipment) and 'intersphere automation' (for example CAD/
CAM—computer aided design and manufacture). Of these three levels, automation has so far
progressed furthest in the first and least in the last. But it is in the last two levels that
microelectronics and information technology are likely to have their biggest effects, particularly
because digital logic provides a common currency for linking and controlling different
activities. Automation at this systemic level suggests both far higher productivity gains and
more radical reorganisations of industry than those implied by intraactivity automation—a point
often overlooked in assessments of the impact of new technology. Electronics also permits
more flexible kinds of automation than hitherto, and this is likely to encourage its diffusion to
small batch production (less than 100 units) which—contrary to the beliefs of many industrial
geographers—still makes up the majority of manufacturing.
However, the author is certainly no technological determinist and one of his conclusions is
that we should reverse the usual question about the impact of technology and study the effects
of capitalist social organisation on the development of technology. Also compelling is his
argument that the development of these new kinds of flexible technology are more an effect
than a cause of recession and its attendant overproduction.
The scope of the book is wide, taking in subjects such as the impact in the Third World and
the relationship of automation to the military. Although this boldness is an attractive feature,
some of the topics are given rather limited treatment—for example, the critique of views of
technology associated with labour-process studies in the Braverman tradition, and the discussion
of changes in work practices aside from the question of skills. Yet Automation has many
strengths: it combines an illuminating theoretical framework with an authoritative discussion of
the new technology and not the least of its attractions is its refreshingly accessible style. The
major occupational hazard of this kind of study is the tendency to exaggerate the speed and
extent of diffusion of new technology—a danger which I think Kaplinsky largely avoids. At the
least we can say that adoption is likely to be highly uneven, and, although the author only
makes a few points about the regional implications at the subnational level, his book will be
invaluable for those mainly interested in this question.
A Sayer, School of Social Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QN Sussex, England

Book notes
Spatial, environmental and resource policy in the developing countries edited by M Chatterji,
P Nijkamp, T R Lakshmanan, C R Pathak; Gower, Aldershot, Hants, 1984, 428 pages, £18.50
(US: $35.00)
This volume derives from a set of conference papers presented at a Calcutta meeting on Urban
and Regional Change in the Developing Countries. It is a more compact volume than the original
assorted collection of conference papers, I imagine, but that is its only advantage. Basically, it
contains around thirty chapters of varying length, introduced by a short preface. The text has
been provided camera-ready, the volume has no index, and the quality control is woeful (Papuans
will grind their teeth to see their country referred to as Papua, New Guinea). It is a large volume,
and pricy, obviously intended for the library market. Now, there clearly is a need for this sort of
'quick and dirty' volume, as anyone who has tried to track down seminar papers from overseas
will know. But does this particular volume quality?
That is not such an easy question to answer. As the title of the volume as a whole suggests,
there is quite a variety of topics represented. The editors have endeavoured to arrange the essays
around four themes: 'planning issues and techniques of analysis', 'urban and metropolitan growth
Reviews 719

patterns', 'population, housing, and land use', and 'resources and rural development'. However, to
my mind it is still something of the proverbial dog's breakfast. Apart from the breadth of topics
covered, there is an equally wide distribution of methods of analysis—quantitative, Marxian,
reflective, descriptive—and countries discussed. As broad-minded as I am, I find eclecticism of
this order is simply too difficult to comprehend. The volume is not the sort that you would want
to read from cover to cover.
Its saving grace is, of course, the quality of some of the individual contributions to the volume.
My favourites include Lata Chatterjee's thoughtful piece on technology choice in the construction
industry, Rodwin's chapter on technical assistance and national urban policies, and Harris's essay
on economic development. Some of the case-study chapters such as Lakshmanan's contribution
on income distribution in Latin America and Richardson's comparison of planning in Bombay and
Calcutta are also worthy of mention. To sum up, this is a hastily produced collection without any
strong central theme, but most would find a handful of useful papers to which they might refer.
D K Forbes

Countryside planning yearbook: volume 5/1984 edited by A W Gilg, Geo Books, Norwich,
1984, 227 pages, £15.00 cloth, £9.50 paper (US: $30.00, $19.00)
Gilg's diary of rurality has reached its fifth birthday, and in this short time the Countryside
Planning Yearbook (CPY) has become a valuable tool of the trade for hard-pressed academics
and planners who have neither the time nor the patience to amass the details of country life in
all its planned facets.
Making use of a star cast of literature reviewers CPY 1984 offers an effective coverage of
research and polemic output for the year, drawing heavily from organisational reports as well as
more readily obtainable academic literature. Legislation, conference reports, and events are
also featured with a comprehensiveness that almost gives you the impression that the opening
remarks at your local Women's Institute summer fayre will be squeezed in if at all possible.
For good measure, a couple of substantive articles are thrown in to provide "a longer-term
perspective" (page 5). In fact, both Lapping and Clemenson, and Williams, in attempting to
serve up the required wider assessments of longer-term trends, become overstretched: the first
in squeezing recent North American rural planning developments into fourteen pages of text
(we should at least be thankful that planning here is interpreted merely as concerning land use
and not socioeconomic phenomena); and the second by tackling so many different development
agencies that a detailed assessment of their ability to promote rural community development
remains firmly beyond reach. These authors have written much more cohesively elsewhere on
similar yet less constrainedly unconstrained themes—a fact which might be noted when the
future of this feature of the CPY is considered.
Despite the imported expertise, however, Gilg manages to stamp his own editorial style on
the CPY. His handling of the annual literature and conference paper reviews, and in particular
his inability to resist the temptation to keep back a group of selected publications for a special
'Editor's review' permit not only the display of unrestrained competence, but also provide a
platform for a dry and sometimes sarcastic outlook on other people's rural writings.
In short, the CPY has found a comfortable and useful niche in geographical and planning
literature. Whether it plays a more grand role than this is arguable. For example, the
editor's suggestion that the countryside "is planned by a disparate variety of individuals and
organisations ... ignorant of forces which may fundamentally affect their own long-term
objectives" (page 5) does neatly summarise the dilemma of rural planning. The assumption,
however, that better coordination of information will cure the ignorance and turn disparate
variety into unity depends on your approach to the study of rural areas. If you consider (as
does the editor) that "the countryside is a unity" (page 5) then unification through information
is presumably feasible. Such a goal is tantamount to being irrelevant, however, if the country-
side is viewed as merely a part of the total space which is contested by the jealous conflicts
of power both within the public sector of policy-making, and between society's so-called
arbitrators and those agencies in the private sector who tend to prompt most of the changes
discussed both in the CPY and in its urban equivalents.
P J Cloke
720 Reviews

The Atlantic City gamble: a Twentieth Century Fund report by G Sternlieb, J W Hughes;
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1983, 215 pages, $16.50 (UK: £13.20)
Legalized gambling is not everyone's idea of local economic development policy. Yet, for
Atlantic City, NJ, such a policy was in fact initiated in 1976, setting off a storm of protest and
debate over its likely benefits. According to this new book, the evidence in favor of this policy
is weak, although it has been a success in a limited sort of way. Although there has been a
tremendous increase in the city's tax base, "a hurricane of land speculation attended the
acceptance of casinos" (page 155). The state's share in these revenues has also been a
tremendous boost for its balance sheets. But, at the same time, the costs of delivering
infrastructure and low-income housing in the community have yet to be faced. And, although
many new jobs were created, most of these jobs have been taken by white suburbanites. The
authors conclude "the basic core of the unemployed and welfare recipients of the city has not
been significantly diminished by the advent of the casinos" (page 156).
The authors trace the passage of the referendum authorizing gambling in Atlantic City from
the campaign through to the latest results in the rebuilding of the city. They analyze who was
involved, who stood to gain, and who stood to lose. Patterns of employment, housing, taxes,
and crime are all given the 'treatment'. The result is a book long on facts and mild on
opinions. Like many Twentieth Century Fund reports, the sponsoring fund has encouraged the
authors to see both sides. But the format has also allowed the authors to set the stage for a
major reconsideration of the whole policy. It is obvious that all is not what it appears in the
city which boasts of support from such luminaries as Frank Sinatra. As the authors conclude
"in our view the costs of New Jersey's style of casino gambling as a means of revitalization far
outweigh its virtues" (page 172).
G L Clark

Books received
Adrian C (Ed.) Urban Impacts of Foreign and Local Investment in Australia Australian Institute
of Urban Studies, GPO Box 809, ACT 2601, Australia, 1984, 289 pages, no price stated
Adrian C, Stimson R J Capital City Impacts of Foreign and Local Investment in Australia
Australian Institute of Urban Studies, GPO Box 809, ACT 2601, Australia, 1984, 44 pages,
no price stated
Batey P W J, Madden M Integrated Forecasting in Strategic Planning Practice Regional Science
Association (British Section), Department of Civic Design, University of Liverpool, Liverpool
L69 3BX, 1984, 87 pages, £3.50 (including postage)
Beck M B Lecture Notes in Engineering, IIAS A 11. Water Quality Management: A Review of
the Development and Application of Mathematical Models Springer, Berlin, 1985, 107 pages,
DM27.00
Bending R, Eden R UK Energy: Structure, Prospects and Politics Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1984, 310 pages, £27.50 (US: $49.50)
Bulmer M The Chicago School of Sociology: Institutionalization, Diversity and the Rise of
Sociological Research The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1984, 285 pages,
$29.00 (UK: 26.75)
Cullingworth J B The New Local Government Series: 8. Town and Country Planning in Britain
(ninth edition), George Allen and Unwin, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, 1985, 447 pages,
£18.00 cloth, £9.95 paper
Dendrinos D S, Mullally H A Urban Evolution: Studies in the Mathematical Ecology of Cities
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985, 184 pages, £17.50
Evans N, Hope C Nuclear Power: Futures, Costs and Benefits Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1984, 171 pages, £15.00 (US: $29.95)
Gwilliam K M, May A D, Bonsall P W Transport in the Metropolitan Counties: Current
Performance and Future Prospects, Volume 1: Conclusions Institute for Transport Studies,
University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, 1984, 44 pages, no price stated
Reviews 721

Hole F D, Campbell J B Soil Landscape Analysis Routledge and Kegan Paul, Henley-on-
Thames, Oxon (distributed in the USA by Rowman and Allenheld, Totowa, NJ), 1985,
196 pages, £20.00
Irwin A Risk and the Control of Technology: Public Policies for Road Traffic Safety in Britain
and the United States Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1985, 265 pages, £22.50
(US: $31.50)
Larsen J K, Rogers E M Silicon Valley Fever: Growth of High-technology Culture George Allen
and Unwin, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, 1985 (first published by Basic Books, New York,
1984), 302 pages, £12.95
Lider J British Military Thought After World War II Gower, Aldershot, Hants, 1985,
621 pages, £25.00 (US: $45.00)
May A D, Bonsall P W, Gwilliam K M Transport in the Metropolitan Counties: Current
Performance and Future Prospects, Volume 2: Evidence Institute for Transport Studies,
University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, 1984, 82 pages, no price stated
Newson T, Potter P Housing Policy in Britain: An Information Sourcebook Mansell, London,
1985, 221 pages, £19.75 (US: $33.00)
Pickles J Cambridge Human Geography Series. Phenomenology, Science and Geography:
Spatiality and the Human Sciences Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985, 202 pages,
£25.00 (US: $44.50)
Prothero R M, Chapman M Circulation in Third World Countries Routledge and Kegan Paul,
Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, 1985, 473 pages, £30.00 (US: $59.95)
Schain M A French Communism and Local Power: Urban Politics and Political Change Frances
Pinter, London (distributed in the USA by St Martin's Press, New York), 1985, 147 pages,
£17.50
Segal Quince and Partners The Cambridge Phenomenon: The Growth of High Technology
Industry in a University Town Segal Quince and Partners, 42 Castle St., Cambridge
CB3 0AJ, 1985, 102 pages, £15.00 plus postage and packing
Skelmersdale Development Corporation Skelmersdale New Town Population and Social Survey
1984 Skelmersdale Development Corporation, Skelmersdale, Lanes, 1985, 112 pages, no
price stated
Smith R M (Ed.) Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time. Land,
Kinship and Life-cycle Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1984, 547 pages, £40.00
(US: $59.50)
Upton G J G, Fingleton B Spatial Data Analysis by Example, Volume 1: Point, Pattern and
Quantitative Data John Wiley, Chichester, Sussex, 1985, 410 pages, £32.95 (US: $44.50)

All books for review should be sent to the publishers marked for the attention of the reviews editor.
Inclusion in the list of books received does not preclude a full review.

Conferences
Bergen/INTA Symposium: Urban Development Symposium—Promotion of Investment and
Employment, Bergen, Norway
29 May-1 June 1985
No closing date for applications, but number of participants limited to 60. Registration form
from INTA-AIVN, Wassenaarseweg 39, NL-2596 CG Den Haag, The Netherlands
Fourth Annual Conference of The International Association for Impact Assessment: Methods and
Experiences in Impact Assessment, Utrecht, The Netherlands
2 7 - 2 8 June 1985
Information obtainable from Dr Henk A Becker, Research Group on Planning and
Policymaking, Faculty of the Social Sciences, State University at Utrecht, 2 Heidelberglaan,
3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands; or for North America from Dr Alan L Porter,
c/o Industrial and Systems Engineering Program, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta,
GA 30332, USA
722 Reviews

International Study Tour of British Planning, from Glasgow to London

2-13 July 1985
Application form from Ms Sally Scarlett, Conference Organiser, Town and Country Planning
Association, 17 Carlton House Terrace, London SWIY 5AS, England. (Full fee to be paid by
14 June 1985.)
Ninth International Conference of INTA and AIVN: New Partnerships in Urban Development,
Glasgow, Scotland
8 - 1 4 September 1985
Information from INTA-AIVN, Wassenaarseweg 39, NL-2596 CG Den Haag, The Netherlands
Journal of Regional Science
Regional Science Department, University of Pennsylvania, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia,
PA 19104, USA
Volume 25, Number 2, May 1985
A Model of Urban Household Behavior with Leisure Choice / S DeSalvo
Price Uncertainty, Factor Substitution, and the Locational Bias of Business Taxes
J S Martinich, A P Hurter Jr
K H Rau and the Economic Law of Market Areas Y Shieh
Spatial Competition with Location-dependent Costs S H Karlson
A Residential Energy Market Model: An Econometric Analysis
Y-D Wang, F X Tannian, P L Solano
Measuring the Development Impact of a Transportation System: A Simplified Approach
C K Liew, C J Liew
Employment Cycles and Process Innovation in Regional Structural Change S F Seninger
Population's Urban Environment Evaluation Model and its Application H Maeda, S Murakami

Town Planning Review

Department of Civic Design, The University of Liverpool, PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX,
England
Urban Design and Conservation in the City: Papers to Mark the 75th Year of Publication of
the Town Planning Review
Architecture, Town Planning and Civic Design G Stephenson
Language of Cities E N Bacon
Architectural and Urban Conservation: A Review of the State of the Art B M Feilden
Urban Nature G Eckbo
Urban Regeneration: The Conservation Dimension / N Tarn

p © 1985 a Pion publication printed in Great Britain