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Progress in geography, 5
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 15(1974): 291--302 @ Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam--Printed in The Netherlands
B o o k Reviews
Progress in Geography, 5. C. Board, R.J. Chorley, P. Haggett and D.R. Stoddart. Edward Arnold, London, 1973, 334 pp., £5.00. The series "Progress in Geography" is intended primarily as a means whereby geographers may keep abreast of developments within their subject but outside their own specialisation. Each volume contains five or six articles which are hoped to be significant contributions to research in that field in addition to providing a general review of it. By any standard this is an ambitious project, requiring both a firm editorial hand and individual contributions of some quality. The individual authors have certainly been given a rare opportunity. There are few who are allowed up to seventy pages in which they may expand material which would normally be squeezed by the much less generous hand of a journal editor into a quarter of the space. The panache with which they rise to the occasion varies considerably, as does the suitability of the various articles towards the series' stated aim. As a valuable general review, one must pick o u t the article by Thorn on the dilemma presented b y data suggesting high interstadial sea levels. It is lucidly written, goes directly to the theoretical problems presented by such data, and suggests ways in which these problems might be resolved. It is the best sort of critical review, it depicts the problem so clearly as to provide a spur and a direction for future research. As a non-specialist, one was impressed and one's interest engaged by the problem-oriented approach to questions of urbanisation and regional planning in Sweden by that country's human geographers as described by Pred. The extraordinarily productive role of academic research in the field of public policy making in this field in Sweden should hold lessons for many. Apart from these t w o articles, however, the rest are somewhat disappointing. Goudie's account of calcrete lacks incisiveness. None of the obvious questions seem to be clearly answered. H o w do they form? What are the controls on their formation? Can they be used to interpret changing palaeo-environmental conditions?, etc. In a thirty-page article some of this should have been possible. Collins (the analysis of industrial size distributions} and Taylor (palynological reconstruction of palaeo-environment in mid-Wales), after brief and inadequate references to more general matters seem immediately to lose themselves in their tightly circumscribed research field, rarely afterwards to cast an outward glance. This is particularly true Of Taylor's seventy-page article on the late-Glacial and post-Glacial of mid-Wales, which, though
292 fascinating for those with an interest in the area, contains little of methodological or philosophic value for the specialist and n o t much of general application to the geographer with a wide ranging interest. Notwithstanding the individual excellence of some articles, a strong editorial hand is required to justify binding so much disparate material between two hard covers. Whereas there may be a need for a series of major review articles describing the state of the art in the various branches of geography for those who wish to consider themselves as geographers rather than narrow specialists, I d o u b t t h a t this volume in particular, and the latter ones of this series in general, fulfil t h a t need. The limited range of many of the articles is hardly adequate to do this. For instance, Taylor's article deals with a small area of mid-Wales, it quotes local information in great detail, and its more general comments are simplistic and do no justice to botanical methods of palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. At this level of detail, a survey of the field of modern geography would require a library to itself. At the level of research, it is unlikely that a worker would find more than one article of interest in one volume, which can hardly be an economic proposition. With its lack of thematic or methodological unity, and its partial view of the field, the series has n o t lived up to its early promise. One wonders how many more volumes are projected, or perhaps we are seeing the emergence of the first journal produced in hard covers. G. BOULTON (Norwich)
Living and Fossil Bryozoa, Recent Advances in Research. Proceedings of the International Bryozoology Association Conference, Durham, 1971. G. P. Larwood (Editor). Academic Press, London, 1973, 634 pp., £12.50. The publication in 1973 of a book over 600 pages long packed tight with 58 articles written by 65 of the 68 participants of the second International Bryozoology Association Conference held in the University of Durham in 1971, prompts reflection on the purpose of such meetings. Not t h a t students of bryozoans (shy aquatic colonial organisms) are unique in responding to that insidious primaeval urge which periodically induces specialists to foregather -- possibly to spawn some new ideas or adopt a few. Nowadays scientific conferences abound, invited papers are worth their weight in air tickets, and participants with popular chats are fast becoming the intellectuals' reply to the jet set. But there are two distinct species of conferences differing, as it were, in their anatomy, function and environmental impact. One is composed of scientists from disparate disciplines, each there to review his speciality either in the light of a new or refurbished concept or as an exercise in maintaining the flow of ideas within science generally. The other is made up of
B o o k Reviews
Progress in Geography, 5. C. Board, R.J. Chorley, P. Haggett and D.R. Stoddart. Edward Arnold, London, 1973, 334 pp., £5.00. The series "Progress in Geography" is intended primarily as a means whereby geographers may keep abreast of developments within their subject but outside their own specialisation. Each volume contains five or six articles which are hoped to be significant contributions to research in that field in addition to providing a general review of it. By any standard this is an ambitious project, requiring both a firm editorial hand and individual contributions of some quality. The individual authors have certainly been given a rare opportunity. There are few who are allowed up to seventy pages in which they may expand material which would normally be squeezed by the much less generous hand of a journal editor into a quarter of the space. The panache with which they rise to the occasion varies considerably, as does the suitability of the various articles towards the series' stated aim. As a valuable general review, one must pick o u t the article by Thorn on the dilemma presented b y data suggesting high interstadial sea levels. It is lucidly written, goes directly to the theoretical problems presented by such data, and suggests ways in which these problems might be resolved. It is the best sort of critical review, it depicts the problem so clearly as to provide a spur and a direction for future research. As a non-specialist, one was impressed and one's interest engaged by the problem-oriented approach to questions of urbanisation and regional planning in Sweden by that country's human geographers as described by Pred. The extraordinarily productive role of academic research in the field of public policy making in this field in Sweden should hold lessons for many. Apart from these t w o articles, however, the rest are somewhat disappointing. Goudie's account of calcrete lacks incisiveness. None of the obvious questions seem to be clearly answered. H o w do they form? What are the controls on their formation? Can they be used to interpret changing palaeo-environmental conditions?, etc. In a thirty-page article some of this should have been possible. Collins (the analysis of industrial size distributions} and Taylor (palynological reconstruction of palaeo-environment in mid-Wales), after brief and inadequate references to more general matters seem immediately to lose themselves in their tightly circumscribed research field, rarely afterwards to cast an outward glance. This is particularly true Of Taylor's seventy-page article on the late-Glacial and post-Glacial of mid-Wales, which, though
292 fascinating for those with an interest in the area, contains little of methodological or philosophic value for the specialist and n o t much of general application to the geographer with a wide ranging interest. Notwithstanding the individual excellence of some articles, a strong editorial hand is required to justify binding so much disparate material between two hard covers. Whereas there may be a need for a series of major review articles describing the state of the art in the various branches of geography for those who wish to consider themselves as geographers rather than narrow specialists, I d o u b t t h a t this volume in particular, and the latter ones of this series in general, fulfil t h a t need. The limited range of many of the articles is hardly adequate to do this. For instance, Taylor's article deals with a small area of mid-Wales, it quotes local information in great detail, and its more general comments are simplistic and do no justice to botanical methods of palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. At this level of detail, a survey of the field of modern geography would require a library to itself. At the level of research, it is unlikely that a worker would find more than one article of interest in one volume, which can hardly be an economic proposition. With its lack of thematic or methodological unity, and its partial view of the field, the series has n o t lived up to its early promise. One wonders how many more volumes are projected, or perhaps we are seeing the emergence of the first journal produced in hard covers. G. BOULTON (Norwich)
Living and Fossil Bryozoa, Recent Advances in Research. Proceedings of the International Bryozoology Association Conference, Durham, 1971. G. P. Larwood (Editor). Academic Press, London, 1973, 634 pp., £12.50. The publication in 1973 of a book over 600 pages long packed tight with 58 articles written by 65 of the 68 participants of the second International Bryozoology Association Conference held in the University of Durham in 1971, prompts reflection on the purpose of such meetings. Not t h a t students of bryozoans (shy aquatic colonial organisms) are unique in responding to that insidious primaeval urge which periodically induces specialists to foregather -- possibly to spawn some new ideas or adopt a few. Nowadays scientific conferences abound, invited papers are worth their weight in air tickets, and participants with popular chats are fast becoming the intellectuals' reply to the jet set. But there are two distinct species of conferences differing, as it were, in their anatomy, function and environmental impact. One is composed of scientists from disparate disciplines, each there to review his speciality either in the light of a new or refurbished concept or as an exercise in maintaining the flow of ideas within science generally. The other is made up of