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Introducing quantitative geography: measurement, methods and generalised linear models
190
Book reviews
ing and on analysing climatic data. Part II considers three main climate resources: solar radiation, wind and precipitation. Thirty pages of notes cover items such as the maintenance of pen recorders. monthly values of the extra-terrestrial irradiance. problems in the use of the correlation coefficient, and the ideal division into parts of a scientific report. The wealth of illustrative material produces some problems for the reader. Case studies are sometimes quoted without a reference-though presumably one would be available in the complete documentation. The slight Australian bias occasionally shows up to disadvantage, as does an assumption that terminology is universally accepted. For example, this reviewer would not consider the value of the 2fth percentile to be the definition of ‘dependable rainfall’. It would have been helpful for the novice if a list of basic texts were provided at the end of each chapter. The experienced climatologist will be tempted to annotate each section with his own sources of theory and methodology. More material would have been welcome on the history of systematic weather observing, on the analysis of time series, and on the concept of potential evapotranspiration and its use in the evaluation of crop water requirements and seasonal water budgets. It is not surprising. with such a complex and compact text to edit. that some errors remain. The author states that he would welcome correspondence and a future edition might well cncompass some corrections, some alternative views and some additional themes. Meantime. the book can he recommcndcd as a valuable source of reference and a stimulus to thoughtful use of data in climatic rcscarch. Joan M. Kenworthy
O’Brien. L. ~tz~r[)~fu~j~~ quut?i~iffi~~~ geography: ~le~su~e~rttt~ methods and ~~~eru~is~d linenr mod&. London and New York: Routledge. 1992. 356pp.
ES0 hardback:
fl6.99
paperback.
Despite its title. and a promise made in the Introduction that generalized linear models (GLMs) provide a unifying framework for quantitative geography, this text is essentially in two almost totally unconnected parts. The first deals with the ‘measurement’ and the ‘methods’ of the subtitle in five fairly brisk chapters. Although the material covered will be familiar to most readers, its organization will be less so in some quite subtle ways. For example, O’Brien introduces the standard correlation coefficient together with h’ as descriptive measures of association in hivariate data. He also integrates graphics, traditional
summary statistics and methods from exploratory data analysis under the same heading of ‘data description’. Throughout, there is a thoroughly laudable attempt to incorporate reasonably modern ideas from statistics into the more traditional material. However. I do not think that I could happily introduce my students to quantitative geography using this first part. First, the level of treatment is at times decidedly advanced. Secondly, other than a few in-text examples. there are no study aids (tests, sample data, and so on) of the sort that should be in a text published in the 1990s. Thirdly. other than a series of telling choropleth maps to illustrate the problems of aggregation and classification, it contains almost no geography to speak of, and the sample data are often badly chosen. Data from the Cardiff Consumer Survey and for UK unemployment are fine. but this reviewer has difficulty coming to terms with regression illustrated by the ‘6 times’ table. hypothetical surveys of attitudes towards nuclear power and. even more wonderful. hypothetical holiday homes! Much of this would not matter if the detail of the text itself wcrc clear. concise and straightforward. Unfortunately. this is seldom the case. It would be tedious to list them all. but an illustrative example of the difficulties that mig!?t he created occurs on pages 92 and 93. In an otherwise commendable attempt to show some MINITAB code. the svstem (?) c(~~inlan~ls ‘$empty -a’ and ‘$run * minitab’ appear and are capable of creating immense confusion. even more because on the facing pages we are told that $ is the GLIM prompt. The second part of the text consists of four chapters which together provide a concise overview of GLMs using the GLIM package for calibration. As far as I could tell. this second part is almost entirely independent of the first. This independence goes as far as using the same data (Tables 4.17 and 9.5) to illustrate basic h’ twice hut with a notation change designed mostly to mystify and no obvious cross-referencmg. Nonetheless, and as might be expected from O’Brien’s excellent little CATMOG on the .Stut~~ti~~l
~na~~lsis of ~#?lt~n~~i~c~tuble &signs (l%W), this is an altogether more useful account
that is far better written and illustrated. I particularly liked the use of re-analysis using GLIM of standard data sets to illustrate both linear regression and ANOVA, the section on the asymmetric model in contigency tables, a careful use of a hierarchical log-linear model to show how much more useful this type of model is when compared to the usual h’ and. finally. the inclusion of GLIM commands to do the necessary. Introducing quantitative geography concludes as it starts, with the premise that ‘quantitative geography’ needs to be informed by the results of work in academic statistics that have occurred since our own quantitative revolution. Any text doing this would do the discipline an enormous service but
Book would need to be written with great skill, with sympathy for pedagogy and under strong editorial control. This book shows none of these. David Unwin Department of Geography,
University of Leicester
reviews
191
resolution levels in the spatial data (TTWAs in Britain, regions in France). Overall, this is a useful study of a modern high-technology industry with a careful attention to detail and a clear interpretation of changing geographical patterns. H. D. Watts Department of Geography,
University of Sheffield
Cooke, P., Moulaert, F., Swyngedouw, E., Weinstein, 0. and Weels, P. Towards global localization. London: UCL Press, 1992. 227~~. f30 hardback. The reviewer’s attention is drawn inexorably towards this title as it sits amongst a group of books awaiting review. The antithesis between ‘globality’ with its implication of world systems and ‘localization’ with implications of the parochial hints at an interesting debate concerning the contradictions inherent in the book’s title. However, it is perhaps one of the more deceptive titles of the decade, for on closer inspection the reader finds it is a discussion of the computing and telecommunications industries in Britain and France. As befits the current age we learn that the book was typeset using word-processing software, that the publishers use the trade mark of University College London (UCL) with the consent of the owner and that the book was printed in a small English town (either Kings Lynn or Guildford). Like many modern books this is a compilation of the work of several authors. All those cited on the contents page manage to make it to the dust-jacket with the exception of the one female contributor (Martinne Lemattre). The book has to be judged against its three aims. The first is to examine the extent to which the dynamics of industrial reorganization and economic development are dictated by pure market forces as against the force of government policies seeking to intervene and shape the competitive market. In view of this first aim it is not surprising that the second aim is to explore the relevance of the regulationist approach. The final aim is to see whether, with the aid of the regulationist approach. a good explanation can be provided for spatial shifts in the computing and telecommunications industries. It is these spatial shifts which give rise to the global and local of the title. Although a joint work it has a much higher degree of coherence that many edited texts based on conference proceedings, a reflection of its origins in a well-defined research project. The British-French cooperation stands out in the integration of French and British material in each chapter and the overall cohesion is seen in the attempts to link the final chapter to the three aims set out in the introduction. One minor quibble: in comparing the spatial patterns the authors do not appear to consider the different geographical
Chapman, G. P. and Baker, K. M. (eds) The changing geography of Africa and the Middle East. London: Routledge, 1992. 252~~. f40 hardhack; f10.99 paperback. This is an interesting and readable book, produced by staff and research students of the SOAS Geography Department. along with a couple of authors who have strong links with the department. After an introductory chapter by the editors, there follow eight chapters, each treating a macro-region of Africa and the Middle East, with a further final chapter attempting to summarize two decades of change. Although it is convenient to consider regions at the scale of Southern Africa, Eastern Africa. the Arab Middle East and so on, it does nevertheless create problems. This is best illustrated in the chapter on Eastern Africa, where Tony O’Connor is only too aware of the diversity within this region. On p.114, he does in fact concede that ‘it is not even totally obvious which countries should be included’. With such doubts, it becomes an extremely difficult task to provide regional coherence, and frequency O’Connor has no choice but to make separate comments about each country within Eastern Africa in turn. This occurs to a greater or lesser extent in most chapters. The only chapter which largely avoids the problem is that on Egypt and Sudan, primarily because Tony Allan uses the Nile as his central focus. Although each chapter attempts to cover similar ground (and this is certainly commendable on the grounds of comparability). it might have been more effective if the authors of each region had had even greater leeway to focus more sharply on the key themes relating to their region. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the most satisfying chapter is that on Egypt and Sudan. Despite these criticisms, this reviewer can readily recommend this book. It is up to date, to the point and very informative, but it is a pity about the large number of typographical errors, which begin on the flyleaf page and continue unabated thereafter. John Briggs Department of Geography and Topographic Science, University of Glasgow
Book reviews
ing and on analysing climatic data. Part II considers three main climate resources: solar radiation, wind and precipitation. Thirty pages of notes cover items such as the maintenance of pen recorders. monthly values of the extra-terrestrial irradiance. problems in the use of the correlation coefficient, and the ideal division into parts of a scientific report. The wealth of illustrative material produces some problems for the reader. Case studies are sometimes quoted without a reference-though presumably one would be available in the complete documentation. The slight Australian bias occasionally shows up to disadvantage, as does an assumption that terminology is universally accepted. For example, this reviewer would not consider the value of the 2fth percentile to be the definition of ‘dependable rainfall’. It would have been helpful for the novice if a list of basic texts were provided at the end of each chapter. The experienced climatologist will be tempted to annotate each section with his own sources of theory and methodology. More material would have been welcome on the history of systematic weather observing, on the analysis of time series, and on the concept of potential evapotranspiration and its use in the evaluation of crop water requirements and seasonal water budgets. It is not surprising. with such a complex and compact text to edit. that some errors remain. The author states that he would welcome correspondence and a future edition might well cncompass some corrections, some alternative views and some additional themes. Meantime. the book can he recommcndcd as a valuable source of reference and a stimulus to thoughtful use of data in climatic rcscarch. Joan M. Kenworthy
O’Brien. L. ~tz~r[)~fu~j~~ quut?i~iffi~~~ geography: ~le~su~e~rttt~ methods and ~~~eru~is~d linenr mod&. London and New York: Routledge. 1992. 356pp.
ES0 hardback:
fl6.99
paperback.
Despite its title. and a promise made in the Introduction that generalized linear models (GLMs) provide a unifying framework for quantitative geography, this text is essentially in two almost totally unconnected parts. The first deals with the ‘measurement’ and the ‘methods’ of the subtitle in five fairly brisk chapters. Although the material covered will be familiar to most readers, its organization will be less so in some quite subtle ways. For example, O’Brien introduces the standard correlation coefficient together with h’ as descriptive measures of association in hivariate data. He also integrates graphics, traditional
summary statistics and methods from exploratory data analysis under the same heading of ‘data description’. Throughout, there is a thoroughly laudable attempt to incorporate reasonably modern ideas from statistics into the more traditional material. However. I do not think that I could happily introduce my students to quantitative geography using this first part. First, the level of treatment is at times decidedly advanced. Secondly, other than a few in-text examples. there are no study aids (tests, sample data, and so on) of the sort that should be in a text published in the 1990s. Thirdly. other than a series of telling choropleth maps to illustrate the problems of aggregation and classification, it contains almost no geography to speak of, and the sample data are often badly chosen. Data from the Cardiff Consumer Survey and for UK unemployment are fine. but this reviewer has difficulty coming to terms with regression illustrated by the ‘6 times’ table. hypothetical surveys of attitudes towards nuclear power and. even more wonderful. hypothetical holiday homes! Much of this would not matter if the detail of the text itself wcrc clear. concise and straightforward. Unfortunately. this is seldom the case. It would be tedious to list them all. but an illustrative example of the difficulties that mig!?t he created occurs on pages 92 and 93. In an otherwise commendable attempt to show some MINITAB code. the svstem (?) c(~~inlan~ls ‘$empty -a’ and ‘$run * minitab’ appear and are capable of creating immense confusion. even more because on the facing pages we are told that $ is the GLIM prompt. The second part of the text consists of four chapters which together provide a concise overview of GLMs using the GLIM package for calibration. As far as I could tell. this second part is almost entirely independent of the first. This independence goes as far as using the same data (Tables 4.17 and 9.5) to illustrate basic h’ twice hut with a notation change designed mostly to mystify and no obvious cross-referencmg. Nonetheless, and as might be expected from O’Brien’s excellent little CATMOG on the .Stut~~ti~~l
~na~~lsis of ~#?lt~n~~i~c~tuble &signs (l%W), this is an altogether more useful account
that is far better written and illustrated. I particularly liked the use of re-analysis using GLIM of standard data sets to illustrate both linear regression and ANOVA, the section on the asymmetric model in contigency tables, a careful use of a hierarchical log-linear model to show how much more useful this type of model is when compared to the usual h’ and. finally. the inclusion of GLIM commands to do the necessary. Introducing quantitative geography concludes as it starts, with the premise that ‘quantitative geography’ needs to be informed by the results of work in academic statistics that have occurred since our own quantitative revolution. Any text doing this would do the discipline an enormous service but
Book would need to be written with great skill, with sympathy for pedagogy and under strong editorial control. This book shows none of these. David Unwin Department of Geography,
University of Leicester
reviews
191
resolution levels in the spatial data (TTWAs in Britain, regions in France). Overall, this is a useful study of a modern high-technology industry with a careful attention to detail and a clear interpretation of changing geographical patterns. H. D. Watts Department of Geography,
University of Sheffield
Cooke, P., Moulaert, F., Swyngedouw, E., Weinstein, 0. and Weels, P. Towards global localization. London: UCL Press, 1992. 227~~. f30 hardback. The reviewer’s attention is drawn inexorably towards this title as it sits amongst a group of books awaiting review. The antithesis between ‘globality’ with its implication of world systems and ‘localization’ with implications of the parochial hints at an interesting debate concerning the contradictions inherent in the book’s title. However, it is perhaps one of the more deceptive titles of the decade, for on closer inspection the reader finds it is a discussion of the computing and telecommunications industries in Britain and France. As befits the current age we learn that the book was typeset using word-processing software, that the publishers use the trade mark of University College London (UCL) with the consent of the owner and that the book was printed in a small English town (either Kings Lynn or Guildford). Like many modern books this is a compilation of the work of several authors. All those cited on the contents page manage to make it to the dust-jacket with the exception of the one female contributor (Martinne Lemattre). The book has to be judged against its three aims. The first is to examine the extent to which the dynamics of industrial reorganization and economic development are dictated by pure market forces as against the force of government policies seeking to intervene and shape the competitive market. In view of this first aim it is not surprising that the second aim is to explore the relevance of the regulationist approach. The final aim is to see whether, with the aid of the regulationist approach. a good explanation can be provided for spatial shifts in the computing and telecommunications industries. It is these spatial shifts which give rise to the global and local of the title. Although a joint work it has a much higher degree of coherence that many edited texts based on conference proceedings, a reflection of its origins in a well-defined research project. The British-French cooperation stands out in the integration of French and British material in each chapter and the overall cohesion is seen in the attempts to link the final chapter to the three aims set out in the introduction. One minor quibble: in comparing the spatial patterns the authors do not appear to consider the different geographical
Chapman, G. P. and Baker, K. M. (eds) The changing geography of Africa and the Middle East. London: Routledge, 1992. 252~~. f40 hardhack; f10.99 paperback. This is an interesting and readable book, produced by staff and research students of the SOAS Geography Department. along with a couple of authors who have strong links with the department. After an introductory chapter by the editors, there follow eight chapters, each treating a macro-region of Africa and the Middle East, with a further final chapter attempting to summarize two decades of change. Although it is convenient to consider regions at the scale of Southern Africa, Eastern Africa. the Arab Middle East and so on, it does nevertheless create problems. This is best illustrated in the chapter on Eastern Africa, where Tony O’Connor is only too aware of the diversity within this region. On p.114, he does in fact concede that ‘it is not even totally obvious which countries should be included’. With such doubts, it becomes an extremely difficult task to provide regional coherence, and frequency O’Connor has no choice but to make separate comments about each country within Eastern Africa in turn. This occurs to a greater or lesser extent in most chapters. The only chapter which largely avoids the problem is that on Egypt and Sudan, primarily because Tony Allan uses the Nile as his central focus. Although each chapter attempts to cover similar ground (and this is certainly commendable on the grounds of comparability). it might have been more effective if the authors of each region had had even greater leeway to focus more sharply on the key themes relating to their region. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the most satisfying chapter is that on Egypt and Sudan. Despite these criticisms, this reviewer can readily recommend this book. It is up to date, to the point and very informative, but it is a pity about the large number of typographical errors, which begin on the flyleaf page and continue unabated thereafter. John Briggs Department of Geography and Topographic Science, University of Glasgow