Human behaviour in geographical space: Essays in honour of Leo K. Klaassen

vinced me in every respect. He puts such a strong accent on the persistence of settlement history that I wonder if he has been fully alive to the diversity and changes in the environmental situation of the early occupation of the western Netherlands owing to the formation and subsequent silting up of some sea arms, and the growth of peat bogs with a depth of sometimes many meters. Also, is it not obvious from the excavations in the terp regions that the patterns of existence and the cultural equipment of the Frisian society were somewhat more diverse and complex than the author is suggesting? In spite of these objections, I agree with the author that the major changes in landscape and settlement history of Rijnland occurred by reclamation and colonization in medieval times. The third part of the book deals with the transformation of Rijnland’s landscape as a consequence of the reclamation and colonization of the peat-bog wilderness during the High Middle Ages. That period created not only the outlines of the landscape recognizable today, but also of the society, settlement pattern and water management. Here again the author proves his extensive knowledge. To everyone interested in the way the Dutch gradually turned a wilderness into an agrarian landscape against a background of permanent struggle against encroaching water this book is obligatory. Moreover, by dealing with his subject in a very original way, the author does introduce some new ideas. Therefore, the book will give a new impetus to the study of historical geography and environmental history in The Netherlands.

G.J. BORGER

Historisch-Geografisch Seminarium Instituut voor Sociale Geografie Universiteit van Amsterdam Jodenbreestraat 23 IO1 I NH Amsterdam The Netherlands

HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

Human Behaviour in Geographical Space. Essays in Honour of Leo K. Klaassen. J.H.P. Paelinck (Editor). Gower Press, Aldershot, ISBN 1986, g27.50 or $48.00, 0566008076. Leo Klaassen has been a major figure in the fields of urban and regional economics for all of the 25 years of service he has given as a full professor at The Netherlands Economic Institute and at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. This volume of 18 essays records and honours Klaasssen’s achievements. Leo Klaassen joined The Netherlands Economic Institute in 1945, having taken both B.A. and M.A. degrees at The Netherlands School of Economics in Rotterdam while the city was under occupation. He was immediately involved in research concerned with urban and regional issues, initially related to post-war reconstruction in Holland, but later branching out into other European nations, both West and East, and then developing research and consultancy in many developing nations. His publication record over the 40-year period of his research is extremely impressive: 300 articles, 80 contributions to books, and 30 books as author, co-author or editor. The range of these publications is also wide, the majority, however, having the central theme of applied economic analysis involving a spatial dimension. For those in the field, Leo Klaassen’s name is closely identified with a strong Dutch tradition in economics, which is perhaps a surprising area of academic focus to emerge from a relatively small country: that of tackling problems of economic theory, method and policy analysis where issues of tansport, location, spatial interaction and area differentiation are paramount. So Klaassen is known for work on urban growth, regional development, the location of industries, migration, local labour

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markets, spatial econometrics and planning systems. He has been very much a team worker, but from a position of strong leadership, especially since becoming President of The Netherlands Economic Institute in 1968. In the introductory essay in this collection, the past Executive Secretary of the Institute, H.W. Lambers, uses the apt title for Klaassen of “entrepreneurial scholar”. The word “international” could well have been placed in the middle of this title to reflect both Klaassen’s work and his reputation. Assembling a volume of essays of a range and quality which do justice to the achievements of a leading scholar is difficult in any field. DifIicult too to keep the contents interesting to potential readers with different backgrounds. Professor Paelinck has only been partially successful here. Half of the papers are by authors from outside Holland, and the important names of Tinbergen and Isard are included. The papers are in four groups. The first group is concerned with regional development, with

papers by Isard and Burton, Sakashita, Sallez, Molle and Paelinck; the second group with location theory, with papers from Burns, Domanski, Bokemann and Lambooy; the third group with urban trends, with papers by Funck and Blum, Yamada and Conner; and the last group with tourism and tansportation, with papers from Hendriks, Vanhove, van de Poll and Volmuller. For this reviewer, the most interesting papers were those by Sakashita on location quotients and shift-share analysis, by Molle on the regional impact of welfare policies in the European Community, by Burns on the timing of investment in space, by Funck and Blum on a model of urban development, and by Yamada on urban growth trends in Japan.

PETER

M. TOWNROE

School of Economic and Social Studies University of East Anglia Norwich Gt. Britain