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The rural state? Limits to planning in rural society
Journal of Rural Srudies, Vol. 7, No. l/2, Printed in Great Britain
pp, 123-137,
0743-0167/91 $3.00 + 0.00 Pergamon Press plc
1991
Book Reviews recognition 183).
The Rural State? Limits to Planning in Rural Society, P. Cloke and J. Little, 287 pp., 1990, Oxford University Press, Oxford
of social need and the demand
for housing’ (p.
The all too slender conclusion debunks the book’s title and proceeds to focus once more on the nature and extent of constraints on state action. Cloke and Little stress that a clear understanding of constraints is a fundamental prerequisite for any evaluation of the ability of planning and policy to achieve particular goals, the ability of the state to respond to changes and conflicts, and the direction of response itself. The final paragraphs on the prospects for radical change make depressing reading. Yet the very analysis that leads the authors’ to speak of a ‘tight funnelling of constraint’ (p. 258) may be the foundation of more informed and assertive planning practice. Limits to Harming in Rural Society, as the book should be titled, is worth a careful look, by practitioner and academic alike. Certainly planning students will find the book a most useful text to counterbalance the urban bias in the literature.
The Rural Stare? is a bold attempt to probe the nature and limits of planning in rural contexts. This focus places a premium on the development of theory about planning, as distinct from theory in planning. Cloke and Little argue that such a project necessitates a close look at the theory of the state and that the most promising perspective to bring to the task is that of political economy. For many readers attracted by the book’s provocative title the emphasis of the book may come as something of a surprise. However, the authors make a convincing case that the rural is better conceptualized as part of wider social processes. Accepting this critique means it is then possible to consider the structural context in which planning activity is inevitably set.
RICHARD LE HERON Massey University, New Zealand
The book progresses through two main sections. The first, a theoretical one, introduces elements of a political economy approach, reviews the key theories on the state and ends with a discussion of the distinctions between planning, policy and implementation. As a framework for the dtiailed study of the outcome of policy development and application in Gloucestershire, the three chapters succeed admirably well. Their renditioning of the political economy perspective singles out the links between rural social change (discussed in class terms) and the distribution of need in rural communities, as indicated by needs with respect to housing, employment, rural transportation, and a variety of services. The explicit theme is that ‘insufficient attention has hitherto been paid, in the study of rural economy and society, to the role of class in resource allocation’ (p. 34) and in the interpretation of social need. The theme is explored at two further levels in subsequent chapters. By starting with the premiss that planning is part of the state they are able to show the possibility of major constraints on local planning by virtue of central-local state relations. Indeed this forms the focus of their treatment of the localized mechanisms by which policies ‘for’ and ‘in’ rural areas are made and enacted. They present evidence of ‘a facade of rational decisionmaking (which) remains as a stylized representation of what is going on rather than as an accurate description of the interactive bargaining which is taking place (p. 133).
A Geography of Contemporary Britain, R. Walford 1990, Longman, London, 26.95
(ed.),
This attractive book is a multi-authored geography text intended for use with students preparing for GCSE examinations and edited by a member of the National Curriculum Working Group for Geography. In many ways the book reflects the best of current practice in school geography; in other ways it makes pioneering steps forward in terms of learning strategies. It is a book which teachers at the progressive end of the educational spectrum will want to seriously consider for adoption as a GCSE course text, satisfying liberals but falling just a little short of pleasing radicals. School texts still tend to start with a chapter on the physical, rather than the economic, environment. A particular innovation of this text, however, is a series of what the editor terms ‘contrasting viewpoints’, contributed specially for the book by ‘wellknown public figures’. It is rare indeed to see the faces of such political luminaries as Ian Paisley, William Waldgrave, Linda Bellos, Arthur Scargill, Norman Tebbit and Ian Mikardo looking out of the pages of a school geography book, their views on various environmental or spatial issues accompanying what, in some cases, appear to be their passport photographs!
The second section is based on the Gloucestershire study, four cameos of inter-governmental relations (New Zealand, The Netherlands, Canada and Hungary) and an analysis of public participation in the United Kingdom. The findings are unashamedly stark. Constraints to local planning activity, no matter how ir emerges or is implemented, abound. Public participation only ‘nibbles at the edges of rural change’ (p. 250), rural policies must be examiped in the context of ‘broad tendencies in the political/ideological shift of central government(s)’ (p. 218) and that at least in the Gloucestershire experience the ‘protection of private property was important in the
The area of rural studies has been a traditional focus of much school geography at this level. A Geography of Conremporary Britain has a section on ‘Britain’s rural environment’ which precedes further sections on cities, industry, energy and communications. This is a conventional division and its problems are highlighted by the fact that while the rural section includes subjects such as agriculture, forestry, water supply and leisure, the subject of second homes is found in the urban section. Mining and
123
pp, 123-137,
0743-0167/91 $3.00 + 0.00 Pergamon Press plc
1991
Book Reviews recognition 183).
The Rural State? Limits to Planning in Rural Society, P. Cloke and J. Little, 287 pp., 1990, Oxford University Press, Oxford
of social need and the demand
for housing’ (p.
The all too slender conclusion debunks the book’s title and proceeds to focus once more on the nature and extent of constraints on state action. Cloke and Little stress that a clear understanding of constraints is a fundamental prerequisite for any evaluation of the ability of planning and policy to achieve particular goals, the ability of the state to respond to changes and conflicts, and the direction of response itself. The final paragraphs on the prospects for radical change make depressing reading. Yet the very analysis that leads the authors’ to speak of a ‘tight funnelling of constraint’ (p. 258) may be the foundation of more informed and assertive planning practice. Limits to Harming in Rural Society, as the book should be titled, is worth a careful look, by practitioner and academic alike. Certainly planning students will find the book a most useful text to counterbalance the urban bias in the literature.
The Rural Stare? is a bold attempt to probe the nature and limits of planning in rural contexts. This focus places a premium on the development of theory about planning, as distinct from theory in planning. Cloke and Little argue that such a project necessitates a close look at the theory of the state and that the most promising perspective to bring to the task is that of political economy. For many readers attracted by the book’s provocative title the emphasis of the book may come as something of a surprise. However, the authors make a convincing case that the rural is better conceptualized as part of wider social processes. Accepting this critique means it is then possible to consider the structural context in which planning activity is inevitably set.
RICHARD LE HERON Massey University, New Zealand
The book progresses through two main sections. The first, a theoretical one, introduces elements of a political economy approach, reviews the key theories on the state and ends with a discussion of the distinctions between planning, policy and implementation. As a framework for the dtiailed study of the outcome of policy development and application in Gloucestershire, the three chapters succeed admirably well. Their renditioning of the political economy perspective singles out the links between rural social change (discussed in class terms) and the distribution of need in rural communities, as indicated by needs with respect to housing, employment, rural transportation, and a variety of services. The explicit theme is that ‘insufficient attention has hitherto been paid, in the study of rural economy and society, to the role of class in resource allocation’ (p. 34) and in the interpretation of social need. The theme is explored at two further levels in subsequent chapters. By starting with the premiss that planning is part of the state they are able to show the possibility of major constraints on local planning by virtue of central-local state relations. Indeed this forms the focus of their treatment of the localized mechanisms by which policies ‘for’ and ‘in’ rural areas are made and enacted. They present evidence of ‘a facade of rational decisionmaking (which) remains as a stylized representation of what is going on rather than as an accurate description of the interactive bargaining which is taking place (p. 133).
A Geography of Contemporary Britain, R. Walford 1990, Longman, London, 26.95
(ed.),
This attractive book is a multi-authored geography text intended for use with students preparing for GCSE examinations and edited by a member of the National Curriculum Working Group for Geography. In many ways the book reflects the best of current practice in school geography; in other ways it makes pioneering steps forward in terms of learning strategies. It is a book which teachers at the progressive end of the educational spectrum will want to seriously consider for adoption as a GCSE course text, satisfying liberals but falling just a little short of pleasing radicals. School texts still tend to start with a chapter on the physical, rather than the economic, environment. A particular innovation of this text, however, is a series of what the editor terms ‘contrasting viewpoints’, contributed specially for the book by ‘wellknown public figures’. It is rare indeed to see the faces of such political luminaries as Ian Paisley, William Waldgrave, Linda Bellos, Arthur Scargill, Norman Tebbit and Ian Mikardo looking out of the pages of a school geography book, their views on various environmental or spatial issues accompanying what, in some cases, appear to be their passport photographs!
The second section is based on the Gloucestershire study, four cameos of inter-governmental relations (New Zealand, The Netherlands, Canada and Hungary) and an analysis of public participation in the United Kingdom. The findings are unashamedly stark. Constraints to local planning activity, no matter how ir emerges or is implemented, abound. Public participation only ‘nibbles at the edges of rural change’ (p. 250), rural policies must be examiped in the context of ‘broad tendencies in the political/ideological shift of central government(s)’ (p. 218) and that at least in the Gloucestershire experience the ‘protection of private property was important in the
The area of rural studies has been a traditional focus of much school geography at this level. A Geography of Conremporary Britain has a section on ‘Britain’s rural environment’ which precedes further sections on cities, industry, energy and communications. This is a conventional division and its problems are highlighted by the fact that while the rural section includes subjects such as agriculture, forestry, water supply and leisure, the subject of second homes is found in the urban section. Mining and
123