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Development and the environmental crisis: Red or green alternatives?
98
Book review
suc as education, social services, personal health and housing are better explained by the conventional demographic factors. Unfortunately, Newton does not provide isolation on the significance of the differences he finds among local authorities and across service areas, so it is difficult to determine the validity of the distinctions he makes. Also, in many instances, he infers motives or causal relations that are not supported by the data presented. But the thrust of the argument-the significance of ecological or locational factors in explaining interjuris~ction~ variations-is compelling, as is the move away from standard variabfewise classification schemes. The chapters by Pinch, Knox et al. and Kirby, to varying degrees, make similar efforts at bringing in different theoretical arguments and considering the significance of locational features in explaining public-service provision. Together, the Knox et al. and the Kirby chapter present an analysis of urban medical-care provisions that overcomes the tendency towards an ahistorical analysis of service provisions. Knox and his coauthors emphasize the interaction of changes in urban development and the stage of professionalization as the key to the locational dynamics of medical-service provision in the United States. While they argue that these relationships between ‘urbanization and the organization of medical care’ are most obvious in the United States, they suggest that this approach is conducive to comparative analysis, and conclude with several parallels to British cities. Kirby’s analysis is complementary, but emphasizes the ideological role of medical expenditures and the necessary analysis of the role of the state in providing medical care, regardless of the seeming ‘public’ or ‘private’ provision of service. Pinch also emphasizes the importance of linking locational explanations to larger social theories in his analysis of the inter-ju~s~c~onal and intrajurisdictional variations in provision of preschool care in Britain. Like several of the authors, he brings in feminist approaches to the analysis; his effort is somewhat more effeetive, but the contribution of feminist theories to the understanding of variations in service provision remains to be defined. The articles by Jones and by Piven and Friedland are provocative and important con~butions but not directly concerned with locational factors influencing the provision of public services. Rather, they focus on the institutional arrangements mediating between state and society. Jones approaches the conference theme in terms of a levelof-analysis problem and develops a model of the causal relationships between the political economy of ~s~bution-groats by the inter-
action of governmental institutions and their policies with the capitalist economy-and the political ecology of distribution ‘that proceeds somewhat ind~~~n~y’ through the interaction of policy-making institutions and their environments. Piven and Friedland argue that the policy requirements of vote and revenue generation diverge, under conditions of economic austerity or rapid economic tr~for~tion. This leads to a segregation of policies supporting private investment from those supporting publicservice provision; the resultant structural segregation of electoral and investment policies is seen as a critical element in urban fiscal stress. This is a cogent and powerful argument that introduces some rigour to the often atheoretical analysis of ‘urban crisis’. The remaining chapters are often intuiting, but some are flawed by methodological weaknesses, some by a failure to address the topic at hand, and some by a turgidness or lack of focus in writing that defies concentration. But overall, a strong case is made for an integrated geographic, historical, political perspective on the distribution of public services: a geographic perspective, Pinch argues, because of the jurisdictional p~~oning, tapering in use of point-specific facilities, and positive and negative externality features of service distribution patterns; historical, Knox et al. emphasize, because of the need to take into account the evolution and locational dynamiss of specific services in order to understand contemporary patterns; and political, as brought out most forcefully in Jones’s chapter, because we have yet to develop arguments that effef3iveIy link theories of political economy with activities of org~i~tio~ and i~titu~ons at the local level. By raising these issues and providing examples of research based on interdisciplinary approaches, this volume would be a useful complement to graduate urban seminars in any of the social sciences represented. Susan E. Clarke Center for PzsblicPolicy Research ~~~veys~tyof Coronado, B0&2e7.
Development and the Environmental Crisis: Red OY Green Mte~natives? M. Red&t, Methuen, London and New York, 1984, 149 pp., 369.95.
The title announces Marxist (red) and environmentalist (green) contributions to a solution of development problems and to stopping increasing environments depredation. The book is part of a series which tries to introduce the complex and diverse fields of development issues to a broader audience. Within this framework Red&t’s aim ‘is to make the environmental crisis a central
Book reviews concern of political economy and its structural causes a central concern of environmentalism’ (p. 2). The former needs a theoretical discussion of main approaches to political economy, whereas the latter requires a convincing visualization of hidden mechanisms. To unite these aspects in political perspectives and strategies is an ambitious attempt, not only for Redclift’s introductory text, but also for all critical scientists who are aware of the dimensions of the environm~t~ crisis. In the first three chapters, Redclift outlines theoretical perspectives concerning development and environmental crisis, emphasizing the class character of the main global resource problems as well as their distributive consequences. The analysis of the political economy approach in Chapter 1 mainly contains Marxist contributions to development theory as they have evolved in the last decades. After reviewing a remarkable amount of literature. Redclift concludes that ‘the implications of technology’s use of natural resources, and the effects of the disruption of traditional production processes, have received little attention from Marxists’ (p. 17). Therefore, a rethinking of Marx should reflect that underdevelopment and environmental problems are not only a ‘byproduct’ of the capitalist mode of production but also-or primarily-an effect of industrial society as such, and an ‘effect of ocu consumption habits and the technologies used to feed these habits’ &I. 17). To underline these arguments, Chapter 2 contains a concise summary of problematic development of forest, water and energy resources, their usage by the international economy to meet the demands of industrialized societies and the modes of food production in the Third Worid. It is emphasized that resource exploitation, poverty and famine in the South are effects of a distributional structure, established by metropolitan capitalism and mystified by metropolitan ignorance and ideologies. Due to deficiencies of the existing positions within political economy in providing an adequate explanation and political perspectives in view of these problems, Chapter 3 examines environmentalist approaches to development and international dependencies. Redclift argues that it is difficult to compare environmentalism in the North with what is experienced in the South, because the former is based on the postmaterialism of an affluent society and critics of technological advance, whereas the latter is identified in peasant movements against agribusiness and struggles of urban squatters over access to land. This distinction is important, because different and even opposing perspectives might derive from it. The author stresses this
99
point by distinguishing between ‘international conservation’ and ‘left environmentalism’. While activities of international agencies are seen as too restricted, the writings of R. Bahro, who is introduced as ‘the principal theoretician in the German Green Movement’ (which might be an overestimation), serve as a challenge for conservative environmentalism and traditional Marxism too. Bahro’s approach is based on a radical critique of ‘indust~~~m’, which is the principal cause of the present environmental crisis: deindustrialization and ecological action towards cooperative production of basic needs are brought out as an alternative. Although some theoretical weaknesses are mentioned, the author seems to be quite sympathetic to this view: ‘In seeking to revert our attention to basic needs, rather than contrived consumption, in seeking to revise domestic priorities in the light of the global resource crisis, the radical Greens invoke the experience of the South’ (p. 58). Based on the assumption that ‘poverty is often responsible for environmental depredation’ (p. 59), in the following chapters Red&i outlines the phenomena of rural poverty, in terms of different carrying capacities, environment and food policies as well as the transformation of rural areas by applying modern technologies. The struggle against famine in the Sahel, capitalist penetration through rural Latin America and the consequences of land concentration in Bangladesh serve as examples of processes of pauperization, which in turn lead to a ‘misuse’ of environmental resources (Chapter 4). This kind of development is not countered by most peripheral states, but mediated by class-based policies and arrangements of central authorities-it is analysed here in respect of recent Mexican food and environmental policies in more detail (Chapter 5). Technological answers to underdevelopment are the focus of Chapter 6: Janusfaced characteristics are well introduced, e.g. in a brief examination of the ‘Green Revolution’ or Brazil’s ethanol programme, as well as different scientific appraisals of advanced or appropriate technologies. While reading this book, I became curious to know how Redclift would bring the theoretical orientations outlined in the first chapters together with those development processes which destroy natural resources and environmental quality. In this last chapter an answer can be expected, because it is announced as a ‘converging discourse’, although a question mark is attached. At the beginning, objections against the political economy approach are renewed and extended by arguments derived from feminist theory; subsequently, capacity and the will of multination~ org~i~tions and nation-states to
100
Book reviews
change the present situation are again questioned. Therefore, only the people themselves remain ‘to redirect the development and environment discourses’ and ‘to alter the global economy’ by practising Andre Gorz’s ideas fp. 130). Redclift ends his discourse in a radical eclecticism, where political economy is fundamental to the analysis, but without an agenda for political practice, in which the problematique of the South is the subject, while the postmaterialist thinking of the North stimulates impulses for change. In this way his text offers an easily readable introduction to a lot of highly important questions and to the ways in which different groups-mainly metropolitan ones-solve their present environmental and social problems. Thereby the need for a converging discourse is
stressed, one which unites opposing powers in the North and the South against their domestic suppressions and restraints as well as against local and global environmental depredation. To extend the theoretical competence and experience the practical implications of a red/green mixture seems to be the perspective of this book. A more detailed examination of this context should include experiences of the real ‘red’ alternative existing in socialist states, a discussion concerning neoregionalist development theory, and a comparative analysis of urban and rural movements to provide more substance for alternative perspectives. Jiirgen Ossenbriigge Department of Geography University of Hamburg
Book review
suc as education, social services, personal health and housing are better explained by the conventional demographic factors. Unfortunately, Newton does not provide isolation on the significance of the differences he finds among local authorities and across service areas, so it is difficult to determine the validity of the distinctions he makes. Also, in many instances, he infers motives or causal relations that are not supported by the data presented. But the thrust of the argument-the significance of ecological or locational factors in explaining interjuris~ction~ variations-is compelling, as is the move away from standard variabfewise classification schemes. The chapters by Pinch, Knox et al. and Kirby, to varying degrees, make similar efforts at bringing in different theoretical arguments and considering the significance of locational features in explaining public-service provision. Together, the Knox et al. and the Kirby chapter present an analysis of urban medical-care provisions that overcomes the tendency towards an ahistorical analysis of service provisions. Knox and his coauthors emphasize the interaction of changes in urban development and the stage of professionalization as the key to the locational dynamics of medical-service provision in the United States. While they argue that these relationships between ‘urbanization and the organization of medical care’ are most obvious in the United States, they suggest that this approach is conducive to comparative analysis, and conclude with several parallels to British cities. Kirby’s analysis is complementary, but emphasizes the ideological role of medical expenditures and the necessary analysis of the role of the state in providing medical care, regardless of the seeming ‘public’ or ‘private’ provision of service. Pinch also emphasizes the importance of linking locational explanations to larger social theories in his analysis of the inter-ju~s~c~onal and intrajurisdictional variations in provision of preschool care in Britain. Like several of the authors, he brings in feminist approaches to the analysis; his effort is somewhat more effeetive, but the contribution of feminist theories to the understanding of variations in service provision remains to be defined. The articles by Jones and by Piven and Friedland are provocative and important con~butions but not directly concerned with locational factors influencing the provision of public services. Rather, they focus on the institutional arrangements mediating between state and society. Jones approaches the conference theme in terms of a levelof-analysis problem and develops a model of the causal relationships between the political economy of ~s~bution-groats by the inter-
action of governmental institutions and their policies with the capitalist economy-and the political ecology of distribution ‘that proceeds somewhat ind~~~n~y’ through the interaction of policy-making institutions and their environments. Piven and Friedland argue that the policy requirements of vote and revenue generation diverge, under conditions of economic austerity or rapid economic tr~for~tion. This leads to a segregation of policies supporting private investment from those supporting publicservice provision; the resultant structural segregation of electoral and investment policies is seen as a critical element in urban fiscal stress. This is a cogent and powerful argument that introduces some rigour to the often atheoretical analysis of ‘urban crisis’. The remaining chapters are often intuiting, but some are flawed by methodological weaknesses, some by a failure to address the topic at hand, and some by a turgidness or lack of focus in writing that defies concentration. But overall, a strong case is made for an integrated geographic, historical, political perspective on the distribution of public services: a geographic perspective, Pinch argues, because of the jurisdictional p~~oning, tapering in use of point-specific facilities, and positive and negative externality features of service distribution patterns; historical, Knox et al. emphasize, because of the need to take into account the evolution and locational dynamiss of specific services in order to understand contemporary patterns; and political, as brought out most forcefully in Jones’s chapter, because we have yet to develop arguments that effef3iveIy link theories of political economy with activities of org~i~tio~ and i~titu~ons at the local level. By raising these issues and providing examples of research based on interdisciplinary approaches, this volume would be a useful complement to graduate urban seminars in any of the social sciences represented. Susan E. Clarke Center for PzsblicPolicy Research ~~~veys~tyof Coronado, B0&2e7.
Development and the Environmental Crisis: Red OY Green Mte~natives? M. Red&t, Methuen, London and New York, 1984, 149 pp., 369.95.
The title announces Marxist (red) and environmentalist (green) contributions to a solution of development problems and to stopping increasing environments depredation. The book is part of a series which tries to introduce the complex and diverse fields of development issues to a broader audience. Within this framework Red&t’s aim ‘is to make the environmental crisis a central
Book reviews concern of political economy and its structural causes a central concern of environmentalism’ (p. 2). The former needs a theoretical discussion of main approaches to political economy, whereas the latter requires a convincing visualization of hidden mechanisms. To unite these aspects in political perspectives and strategies is an ambitious attempt, not only for Redclift’s introductory text, but also for all critical scientists who are aware of the dimensions of the environm~t~ crisis. In the first three chapters, Redclift outlines theoretical perspectives concerning development and environmental crisis, emphasizing the class character of the main global resource problems as well as their distributive consequences. The analysis of the political economy approach in Chapter 1 mainly contains Marxist contributions to development theory as they have evolved in the last decades. After reviewing a remarkable amount of literature. Redclift concludes that ‘the implications of technology’s use of natural resources, and the effects of the disruption of traditional production processes, have received little attention from Marxists’ (p. 17). Therefore, a rethinking of Marx should reflect that underdevelopment and environmental problems are not only a ‘byproduct’ of the capitalist mode of production but also-or primarily-an effect of industrial society as such, and an ‘effect of ocu consumption habits and the technologies used to feed these habits’ &I. 17). To underline these arguments, Chapter 2 contains a concise summary of problematic development of forest, water and energy resources, their usage by the international economy to meet the demands of industrialized societies and the modes of food production in the Third Worid. It is emphasized that resource exploitation, poverty and famine in the South are effects of a distributional structure, established by metropolitan capitalism and mystified by metropolitan ignorance and ideologies. Due to deficiencies of the existing positions within political economy in providing an adequate explanation and political perspectives in view of these problems, Chapter 3 examines environmentalist approaches to development and international dependencies. Redclift argues that it is difficult to compare environmentalism in the North with what is experienced in the South, because the former is based on the postmaterialism of an affluent society and critics of technological advance, whereas the latter is identified in peasant movements against agribusiness and struggles of urban squatters over access to land. This distinction is important, because different and even opposing perspectives might derive from it. The author stresses this
99
point by distinguishing between ‘international conservation’ and ‘left environmentalism’. While activities of international agencies are seen as too restricted, the writings of R. Bahro, who is introduced as ‘the principal theoretician in the German Green Movement’ (which might be an overestimation), serve as a challenge for conservative environmentalism and traditional Marxism too. Bahro’s approach is based on a radical critique of ‘indust~~~m’, which is the principal cause of the present environmental crisis: deindustrialization and ecological action towards cooperative production of basic needs are brought out as an alternative. Although some theoretical weaknesses are mentioned, the author seems to be quite sympathetic to this view: ‘In seeking to revert our attention to basic needs, rather than contrived consumption, in seeking to revise domestic priorities in the light of the global resource crisis, the radical Greens invoke the experience of the South’ (p. 58). Based on the assumption that ‘poverty is often responsible for environmental depredation’ (p. 59), in the following chapters Red&i outlines the phenomena of rural poverty, in terms of different carrying capacities, environment and food policies as well as the transformation of rural areas by applying modern technologies. The struggle against famine in the Sahel, capitalist penetration through rural Latin America and the consequences of land concentration in Bangladesh serve as examples of processes of pauperization, which in turn lead to a ‘misuse’ of environmental resources (Chapter 4). This kind of development is not countered by most peripheral states, but mediated by class-based policies and arrangements of central authorities-it is analysed here in respect of recent Mexican food and environmental policies in more detail (Chapter 5). Technological answers to underdevelopment are the focus of Chapter 6: Janusfaced characteristics are well introduced, e.g. in a brief examination of the ‘Green Revolution’ or Brazil’s ethanol programme, as well as different scientific appraisals of advanced or appropriate technologies. While reading this book, I became curious to know how Redclift would bring the theoretical orientations outlined in the first chapters together with those development processes which destroy natural resources and environmental quality. In this last chapter an answer can be expected, because it is announced as a ‘converging discourse’, although a question mark is attached. At the beginning, objections against the political economy approach are renewed and extended by arguments derived from feminist theory; subsequently, capacity and the will of multination~ org~i~tions and nation-states to
100
Book reviews
change the present situation are again questioned. Therefore, only the people themselves remain ‘to redirect the development and environment discourses’ and ‘to alter the global economy’ by practising Andre Gorz’s ideas fp. 130). Redclift ends his discourse in a radical eclecticism, where political economy is fundamental to the analysis, but without an agenda for political practice, in which the problematique of the South is the subject, while the postmaterialist thinking of the North stimulates impulses for change. In this way his text offers an easily readable introduction to a lot of highly important questions and to the ways in which different groups-mainly metropolitan ones-solve their present environmental and social problems. Thereby the need for a converging discourse is
stressed, one which unites opposing powers in the North and the South against their domestic suppressions and restraints as well as against local and global environmental depredation. To extend the theoretical competence and experience the practical implications of a red/green mixture seems to be the perspective of this book. A more detailed examination of this context should include experiences of the real ‘red’ alternative existing in socialist states, a discussion concerning neoregionalist development theory, and a comparative analysis of urban and rural movements to provide more substance for alternative perspectives. Jiirgen Ossenbriigge Department of Geography University of Hamburg