Land and property development in a changing context

most of the material been written despite

in this book has

up elsewhere.

the obvious

and

is a struggte

various interests,

to be restated

it does need

from time to time. This

is because,

as the authors

is a need

to set empirical

contextual

framework,

political

economy

in a

Ignoring

the

(which

and the lack

operates

(there

no analysis of how a big

or farmer

may go about

decision

book provides

and

It

an

why),

this kind, the papers are rather dispa-

parliamentary

iiXId

rate

do not change that quickly,

enough

The book provides

with the present system to be

apathetic. thors

In doing

are

to

thanked

be

for

framework

which

history’s

in the more

random pans

empirical

data

political

sequence

methods

how

of events

by

using

neo-

set within

a

however,

that

professional/commercial

ers have

been

seminar

and

needs doing once every 20 years or so,

a couple

of

currently little

on

Naborro

Part

in

neo-ctassical

:I

111 comprises

ters on the detail processes:

Gower, Aldershot,

Hants,

UK, 1990,

212 pp, E39.50

ment market,

book

publishes

papers originally nomic

and

a selection

presented

Social

at an Eco-

Research

(ESRC)-fun&d

Council

seminar

September

I%#.

The

hefd

purpose

the seminar

was to bring together

searchers

wi?hin

property

tors of the drawn

both

educational/practice

sides divide

ing the presentation the

seminar,

feature The parts.

are

into

five

I contains an introduction

Part

Healey,

into context

putting

the papers

and considering

rent state of research land and property

drawing

the cur-

and theory

development.

on Part

and

on academic from the

provide

academic policy LISA.

rcsoarch,

shortage

plus ;I

Two

cxnmples

changing

of

pkmning

and the USC

of

de-

~~b~~g~~ti~~ns (~~~~i~~n~ng gain) in The

final

two papers

tant

questions

of

is the

of much professionconcern. and acndcntics

property

markets

and

processes,

updating

and

existing

texts

however,

in this

raise impor-

concerning

the

theo-

of thcsc

iSWCS.

consider

(Michael

Ed-

and one from the civil \ervarrt

Both the seminar

and the book arc a

result of the growing ning

pr
property

interest

ning studies. the

of

management

property

markets

in neo-classical

mics, often

at a relatively by the

parent

than plan-

estate

cated

level

discipline

is

econo-

unsophisti-

standard%

of the

of micro-ccc~riomics.

This lack of sophistication number

in

into issues more cen-

of

based

pkicr-

As such it reprc-

In

analysis

of

xxtcmics

and

markets.

sents ;I venture

of factors:

ih cfuc to

the constraints

~~~ai~~~gernerlt;the relative

of interest

in urban and landed

erty issues among economists: requirements

understanding and

prevailing the

market

in

of

lack prop-

and the

of estate

professionals

a

of

time on the nlul~~~~~s~i~?lil~~ sylfahus estate

the

Solesbury).

with a collection

markets

Property

limited

/\s is inevitable

is

a topic

basis for the analysis

agement

point of view (William

in

It does,

academic wards)

it

intcgra-

markets,

for studrnts

area.

the role of public policy, one from an standpoint

papers

and European

complementing

firmly

profcs-

four chapters.

research:

in France.

in

of factories.

overseas

the

tral to estate management

anaiysis.

a Newcastle

Part V comprises papers

veloper grouped

in this part rcty

economic

Wakeficld

on

of the book. papers

The

markets

sional

each

theory.

ManchesteriSalford

the

useful

portfolio

import-

dies of land and property

and

after

and f’or-

Part IV contains two good case stu-

note

is an espccialfy

profession;

first and third chapters

short

at

re-

on the

the Prudential

on neo-ciassicai

the

follow-

innovative

flc of the increasing

of

of the paper\

is recnrdcd

This

by Patsy

258

and

The contrihu-

discussion among participants,

chapter.

ance of modern

1I papers in the book arc

from

from

Prop-

while

the hook is a useful tihrary

interested

retical

uni-

prospect

data source;

University

surveying

an account

of

organizations

with land use planning development.

chartered

recent

Bristol

ponttion

and

excellent

from

search from

market

of the invest-

using Investment

in re-

academic

professional/commercial concerned

of

useful chap-

of property

an analysis

crty Databank’s findings

This

Framework,

three

ago,

property

development

tially

in

impact of I!82

data Rupert

years

mention

CONTEXT and

a con-

Property

very much on hold. There

reference

Healey

the PMA

was a more imminent

11consists of a fang chapter by Pmperty Market Analysis (PMA) presenting

by F’atsy

rc-

is now in

forecasts

of the boom!

LAND AND PROPERTY ~E~EL~FM~NT IN A GHAN~~NG

edited

have

in some

market

confidently

al and commercial

cssen-

the

they

dated

which is currently

market.

between

publication,

recession, whi!e many papers focus on

Overalt

on the property

revised

the pap-

the boom of the late fifF%;

tion

An accurate basis fur anafysis?

prop-

Although

inevitably)

(again

tization

only

a succinct account

erty organizations.

tinuation

Andrew Gilg Department of Geography University of Exe&r Exeter, UK

have

structure.

into the type of analysis being adopted

paper

framework.

this

proces-

the editors

a hefpful

spccts. The property

employing

collection

economy

impor-

in

of some recent research and an insight within

to

to interpret

out,

logical positivist

and

readable

a

can be referred

task OF trying

actually

au-

congratulated

providing

by those engaged tant

this task the

them

but

placed

rural change.

is a task,

in nature,

largely because most people are happy

a very clear and read-

able account of the underlying ses behind

is

about what capit-

af is or how it actualIy

investment

there

data

kept to a bare minimum),

is for example

note,

jargon

of any real precision

company

democracy

welt-known

fact that life in the UK between

However,

. capItahsm

smce

mim-

terms

of

processes g,ivcn

valuation

techniques

of

fee-incorm:

generation

LAND USE POLICY July 199i

Book reviews

through the marketing of property. Nevertheless, it is this body of work that planners are increasingly encountering. This creates some confusion because planners have become interested in property markets for quite distinct reasons. Practising planners have had to deal with a series of policy changes designed to bring market criteria into planning decision making. Planning academics have sought to understand these policy changes at a theoretical level, often using insights from a neomarxist perspective. This perspective has proved to have more to contribute at a broad structural level rather than at the detailed level of particular organizations and actors’ practice. Therefore planning theory has tried to develop, or more accurately recast, the structural insights of marxist theory by focusing on the active role of participants in planning and development processes: developers, financiers, planners, local communities. This theoretical project is sketched in Patsy Hcaley’s contextual introduction to thr: book, but is more adequately covered in Healey and Barrett.’ At times the academic research and professional insights of estate management are used to provide evidence on the detail of property market processes, actors and organizations. This involves, explicitly or implicitly, the neo-classical economic framework dominant in the estate management profession. Thus different theoretical models are uncomfortably juxtaposed in much of the debate that this book and the preceding seminar represent.

Neo-classical The book raises the theoretical problem of developing a framework which takes account of market processes and the insights of much neo-marxist work on planning, development and urban problems, which considers both the detail of actors’ practice and the structural constraints within which they operate. An interest in the property market need not necessarily imply acceptance of estate management’s neo-classical urban economics, the language of which is so close to that of Thatcherite policy statements. The de-

LAND USE POLICY

July

1991

tailed empirical work on actors and institutions, some of which is presented in this book, is currently leading theory in terms of developing an alternative conceptualization of property markets. Debate between academics and property professionals and commercial organizations can be part of the process in further developing the theory but a critical stance must be maintained, one which is aware of the underlying analytic

frameworks contributions

London

informing participants’ to that debate.

Yvonne Rydin Department of Geography School of Economics and Political Science London, UK

‘P. Healey and S. Barrett, ‘Structure

and

agency in land and property development Drocesses’.

Urban Studies. Vol 27. No

1.

i990.

Limited experience in GIS GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS - DEVELOPMENTS APPLICATIONS edited

AND

by Les Worrall

Be/haven Press, London, 251 pp, f45.00

UK, 1990,

Over the last few years there has been a rapid expansion of interest in geographic information systems (GIS) and in its wake has come a growing number of publications dealing with such systems and the issues that they raise. While many deal with the technicalities of GIS, few deal with the institutional problems that are associated with them. Even fewer report on substantial progress and experience in applying the techniques - partly because there are in fact few fully operational systems that are working at the institutional level. This book reports on some of the limited experience available. Anyone who does not already understand the form and function of GIS will have some difficulty in discerning what such systems are all about. The problem is that they represent all sorts of things to all sorts of people. Scholten and van der Vlugt, in the second chapter of this book that takes an overview of applications in Europe, ‘see a geographic information system as essentially a tool for urban and regional research, policy analysis, policy simulation and planning’. Such a concept diverts attention away from the most expensive ingredients of GIS which are the data. It also undervalues

the essential mathematical rigour and discipline in data management that is needed to ensure data quality. Unlike land information systems (LIS) that require such integrity and which are from time to time discussed, GIS is seen here to be concerned with spatial analysis, policy evaluation, policy optimization and elaborate cartographic display. Spatial analysis is a notoriously inexact science where all sorts of invalid conclusions can be drawn from spurious data. An essential component for such analysis is modelling, and throughout most of the book there is an underlying confusion between the value of models in planning and the value of GIS. Many different forms of model can be built into GIS; the validity or otherwise of such models should not be confused with the contribution that GIS can otherwise play in support of planning and the reduction of risk in decision making. One of the more progressive countries, especially in the field of LIS, is Australia. Garner examines the progress made by the Australians whose approach to LIS has essentially been ‘bottom up’, unlike that for GIS which has been ‘top down’. The digital cadastral databases that are being assembled provide an ideal spatial framework for such a bottom-up approach. It was perhaps inevitable that a number of systems that are being developed in Australia, for instance in Melbourne and Adelaide, were not reviewed. This is a pity since they provide significant lessons about how to handle institutional problems

259