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Agribusiness and rural enterprise
Book
Whitehand. J. W. R. The changing face of cities. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987. 189 pp. f25 hardback. It is only to be expected that a slim volume such as this cannot provide the scope of analysis of the processes of built environment creation and redevelopment which is tantalizingly promised by the title. At the outset, the author limits his concern to the task of examining the last 25 years of research into the cyclical character of urban development. This is completed successfully, but as a result, the work is disappointingly narrow in its concern. Evidence for the existence of urban development cycles is reviewed briefly in Chapter 2 and this provides an adequate introduction to the literature on building cycles. It also emphasizes the problems associated with aggregate statistics for construction output in so far as they can mask considerable variations between different types of built space and between different sectors of those markets. Such recognition of the diversity of forms of built space is an important first step in seeking explanations for cyclical fluctuations. Chapters 3 and 4 investigate the relationships between these fluctuations and land price (and ‘value’) and both innovation and planning. They provide the most useful section of the work, though the discussion of theories of the land market are far too brief to be anything more than highly skeletal. The second half of the book addresses the changes wrought upon different urban locations (fringe belts, residential areas and commercial cores) by the processes of development and redevelopment. It is less successful than the previous chapters because any attempt to understand outcomes of the process of built environment creation and redevelopment ought at least to provide some analysis of the relations of production within the property development sector. Although this is recognized by the author, it is to be regretted that concern with the roles of the agents responsible for urban landscape change must await a forthcoming volume in this series. The lack of such a discussion necessarily leaves the analysis severely truncated. This is true even with respect to the examination of land markets in Chapter 3, where it is vital to recognize the heterogeneity of interests and perspectives of those possessing rights in land. Thus, there is no investigation of the diversity of interests and forms of capital involved in the creation of the built environment (landowners, developers, development financiers, construction companies, the long-term investors in built space etc.), the heterogeneity of interests included within each of those archetypal roles, the inherently conflictual nature of their relationship, their different economic power, the changing balance of advantage between them, nor their different terms of engagement and temporal duration of interest with property. Thus the supply of built space cannot be treated as being a simple
reviews
251
retlex response to changes in the nature of demand emanating from user markets alone. The analysis presented here is therefore unbalanced, as it concentrates upon outcomes without reference to the factors operative on the supply side of the equation. If ‘the most important finding to emerge from our analysis is the widespread unevenness of development’ (p. 141). then this volume adds little to our existing knowledge of urban change. The result is a work which satisfactorily details the cyclical nature of urban change, but which hardly advances one’s understanding of the processes underlying ‘The changing face of cities’. Andrew
MacLaran
Departmenr
of Geography,
Trinity
College,
Dublin
Kinsey. B. H. Agribusiness and rural enterprise. London: Croom Helm, 1987. 228 pp. f25 hardback. This book is an authorized version of a reference manual prepared under contract for the Agribusiness Division in the Office of Agriculture of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Kinsey has adapted his manual for the more general reader, but essentially it remains a kind of template for development planners and policy-makers, the staff of international funding agencies and operational field staff in third world countries. Kinsey’s book offers a clear, concise and wellorganized guide to how third world development programmes may promote both efficiency and equity by encouraging more ‘value-added’ activity in the food-processing industries and in non-farm rural enterprises. Kinsey argues that labourintensive, small-scale and relatively efficient enterprise systems exist in most less-developed countries and that their expansion has favourable impacts on the employment and incomes of the rural landless and poor. However, Kinsey is aware that development programmes designed to assist such groups have frequently had the effect of providing disproportionate advantages to the rich and the powerful. Kinsey therefore stresses the need to design a programme package which has built into it the careful assessment, implementation and monitoring of activ,ity in relation to both growth and equity objectives. For these reasons Kinsey’s manual is more concerned with methodology than theory, more with encouraging a flexible policy response to indigenous initiatives than with offering ‘topdown’ blueprints. For example, he emphasizes that careful analysis is initially required in order to understand the context within which agribusiness and rural enterprise strategy generate positive employment and income effects for the rural
252
Book
reviews
poor without the benefits being siphoned off by those who need them last. The book contains a number of practicai examples of how these opportunities might be identified and exploited. As might be expected the bulk of Kinsey’s book consists of an extended check-list to guide the selection of activities which might achieve these ends. He continually stresses the need to monitor all activities with regard to rural development objectives and to ensure that there is a minimum of leakage of benefits away from those for whom they are intended. Two concepts-appropriate rechnology and local participation-act as a focus in project design for ensuring this. Those who will be in a position to implemenr Kinsey’s proposals have been well-served by his clear and logical account. In keeping with the spirit of the times Kinsey makes no grandiose claims and offers no panaceas. Instead he keeps close to what is achievable and practical. This is unlikely to elevate Kinsey into the pantheon of global theorists of development. But arguably the poor of the third world will benefit more for his hard-headed advice. Howard
Newby
Deparrmettt
Bennett, Oxford: back.
of Sociology,
University
of Essex
J. with George, S. The hunger machine. Polity Press, 1987. 232 pp. 0.95 paper-
In the last few years there has been a veritable flood of books about development, hunger and famine, some descriptive, and some, like The hunger machine, analytical. There are in fact so many publications around today that, upon receiving a new book one is tempted to ask, as development agencies do about their projects: ‘where is the element of additionality?‘. Put simply, will this publication do anything to improve the lot of the poor and oppressed? Does it add to our understanding of the causes of poverty, does it improve our ability to confront poverty, or does it bring a new section of the population to an understanding of’ those issues? Within this framework John Bennett’s book
scores credit points on three issues. First. he illusrrates, in an extremely readable fashion, the links between poverty and hunger in the south, and the agricultural and industrial policies in the north. As he points out, at this level of analysis, the family farmer who is bankrupted in the Mid-West USA, and the redundant textile workers of Yorkshire are victims of the same forces which push the poor off their land in Brazil or the Sudan. Second, although the theme of the book is really global causes, he manages 10 illustrate this with well-researched local examples from South America and Asia as well as Africa. The two levels of perception sit well together. Finally, the book’s conclusion, written by Susan George, is a positive one. It makes sensible and attainable suggestions on what the individual reading the book can do now, to start confronting the causes of hunger. On the debit side, John Bennett misses a great opportunity in his cameos of hunger, from Bangladesh, Sudan and Brazil, to pull out the breadth of causation which lies behind hunger. Hunger is not simply a product of world capitalism as this book would lead one to believe. There are causes at the household level, where women and children take second place to men, there are village level causes where a few control trade, credit and patronage, and there are environmental dimensions which have no political allegiance. There is also the growing problem of militarization in the developing countries. Expenditure on armaments and the escalating level of civil wars are virtually ignored in the analysis this book presents. This is a serious omission. Finally, at the factual level, The hunger machine is saying littie that has not already been said. On balance I’m afraid that The hunger machine irould get a negative ‘additionality’ rating I‘rom me. To be fair, it does score some points because it is eminently readable and comes at an affordable price: one does not have to be a student of development studies to understand and enjoy it. It has the potential to reach new, as yet ‘uninitiated’ audiences. But it does not add greatly to our knowledge of, or ability to confront, hunger. Peter Walker rlcrion Aid, London
Whitehand. J. W. R. The changing face of cities. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987. 189 pp. f25 hardback. It is only to be expected that a slim volume such as this cannot provide the scope of analysis of the processes of built environment creation and redevelopment which is tantalizingly promised by the title. At the outset, the author limits his concern to the task of examining the last 25 years of research into the cyclical character of urban development. This is completed successfully, but as a result, the work is disappointingly narrow in its concern. Evidence for the existence of urban development cycles is reviewed briefly in Chapter 2 and this provides an adequate introduction to the literature on building cycles. It also emphasizes the problems associated with aggregate statistics for construction output in so far as they can mask considerable variations between different types of built space and between different sectors of those markets. Such recognition of the diversity of forms of built space is an important first step in seeking explanations for cyclical fluctuations. Chapters 3 and 4 investigate the relationships between these fluctuations and land price (and ‘value’) and both innovation and planning. They provide the most useful section of the work, though the discussion of theories of the land market are far too brief to be anything more than highly skeletal. The second half of the book addresses the changes wrought upon different urban locations (fringe belts, residential areas and commercial cores) by the processes of development and redevelopment. It is less successful than the previous chapters because any attempt to understand outcomes of the process of built environment creation and redevelopment ought at least to provide some analysis of the relations of production within the property development sector. Although this is recognized by the author, it is to be regretted that concern with the roles of the agents responsible for urban landscape change must await a forthcoming volume in this series. The lack of such a discussion necessarily leaves the analysis severely truncated. This is true even with respect to the examination of land markets in Chapter 3, where it is vital to recognize the heterogeneity of interests and perspectives of those possessing rights in land. Thus, there is no investigation of the diversity of interests and forms of capital involved in the creation of the built environment (landowners, developers, development financiers, construction companies, the long-term investors in built space etc.), the heterogeneity of interests included within each of those archetypal roles, the inherently conflictual nature of their relationship, their different economic power, the changing balance of advantage between them, nor their different terms of engagement and temporal duration of interest with property. Thus the supply of built space cannot be treated as being a simple
reviews
251
retlex response to changes in the nature of demand emanating from user markets alone. The analysis presented here is therefore unbalanced, as it concentrates upon outcomes without reference to the factors operative on the supply side of the equation. If ‘the most important finding to emerge from our analysis is the widespread unevenness of development’ (p. 141). then this volume adds little to our existing knowledge of urban change. The result is a work which satisfactorily details the cyclical nature of urban change, but which hardly advances one’s understanding of the processes underlying ‘The changing face of cities’. Andrew
MacLaran
Departmenr
of Geography,
Trinity
College,
Dublin
Kinsey. B. H. Agribusiness and rural enterprise. London: Croom Helm, 1987. 228 pp. f25 hardback. This book is an authorized version of a reference manual prepared under contract for the Agribusiness Division in the Office of Agriculture of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Kinsey has adapted his manual for the more general reader, but essentially it remains a kind of template for development planners and policy-makers, the staff of international funding agencies and operational field staff in third world countries. Kinsey’s book offers a clear, concise and wellorganized guide to how third world development programmes may promote both efficiency and equity by encouraging more ‘value-added’ activity in the food-processing industries and in non-farm rural enterprises. Kinsey argues that labourintensive, small-scale and relatively efficient enterprise systems exist in most less-developed countries and that their expansion has favourable impacts on the employment and incomes of the rural landless and poor. However, Kinsey is aware that development programmes designed to assist such groups have frequently had the effect of providing disproportionate advantages to the rich and the powerful. Kinsey therefore stresses the need to design a programme package which has built into it the careful assessment, implementation and monitoring of activ,ity in relation to both growth and equity objectives. For these reasons Kinsey’s manual is more concerned with methodology than theory, more with encouraging a flexible policy response to indigenous initiatives than with offering ‘topdown’ blueprints. For example, he emphasizes that careful analysis is initially required in order to understand the context within which agribusiness and rural enterprise strategy generate positive employment and income effects for the rural
252
Book
reviews
poor without the benefits being siphoned off by those who need them last. The book contains a number of practicai examples of how these opportunities might be identified and exploited. As might be expected the bulk of Kinsey’s book consists of an extended check-list to guide the selection of activities which might achieve these ends. He continually stresses the need to monitor all activities with regard to rural development objectives and to ensure that there is a minimum of leakage of benefits away from those for whom they are intended. Two concepts-appropriate rechnology and local participation-act as a focus in project design for ensuring this. Those who will be in a position to implemenr Kinsey’s proposals have been well-served by his clear and logical account. In keeping with the spirit of the times Kinsey makes no grandiose claims and offers no panaceas. Instead he keeps close to what is achievable and practical. This is unlikely to elevate Kinsey into the pantheon of global theorists of development. But arguably the poor of the third world will benefit more for his hard-headed advice. Howard
Newby
Deparrmettt
Bennett, Oxford: back.
of Sociology,
University
of Essex
J. with George, S. The hunger machine. Polity Press, 1987. 232 pp. 0.95 paper-
In the last few years there has been a veritable flood of books about development, hunger and famine, some descriptive, and some, like The hunger machine, analytical. There are in fact so many publications around today that, upon receiving a new book one is tempted to ask, as development agencies do about their projects: ‘where is the element of additionality?‘. Put simply, will this publication do anything to improve the lot of the poor and oppressed? Does it add to our understanding of the causes of poverty, does it improve our ability to confront poverty, or does it bring a new section of the population to an understanding of’ those issues? Within this framework John Bennett’s book
scores credit points on three issues. First. he illusrrates, in an extremely readable fashion, the links between poverty and hunger in the south, and the agricultural and industrial policies in the north. As he points out, at this level of analysis, the family farmer who is bankrupted in the Mid-West USA, and the redundant textile workers of Yorkshire are victims of the same forces which push the poor off their land in Brazil or the Sudan. Second, although the theme of the book is really global causes, he manages 10 illustrate this with well-researched local examples from South America and Asia as well as Africa. The two levels of perception sit well together. Finally, the book’s conclusion, written by Susan George, is a positive one. It makes sensible and attainable suggestions on what the individual reading the book can do now, to start confronting the causes of hunger. On the debit side, John Bennett misses a great opportunity in his cameos of hunger, from Bangladesh, Sudan and Brazil, to pull out the breadth of causation which lies behind hunger. Hunger is not simply a product of world capitalism as this book would lead one to believe. There are causes at the household level, where women and children take second place to men, there are village level causes where a few control trade, credit and patronage, and there are environmental dimensions which have no political allegiance. There is also the growing problem of militarization in the developing countries. Expenditure on armaments and the escalating level of civil wars are virtually ignored in the analysis this book presents. This is a serious omission. Finally, at the factual level, The hunger machine is saying littie that has not already been said. On balance I’m afraid that The hunger machine irould get a negative ‘additionality’ rating I‘rom me. To be fair, it does score some points because it is eminently readable and comes at an affordable price: one does not have to be a student of development studies to understand and enjoy it. It has the potential to reach new, as yet ‘uninitiated’ audiences. But it does not add greatly to our knowledge of, or ability to confront, hunger. Peter Walker rlcrion Aid, London