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The Seychelles: Unquiet islands
182
Book Reviews
Overall, the book is a call for more attention to be applied to outer cities, for the special problems and opportunities of such areas to be understood and to question ‘L . whether society, through its political institutions, is prepared to face up to the enormous task of adjusting to social change”.
DENNIS HARDY and COLIN WARD, Arcadia for All - the Legacy of a Makeshift Landscape. Manse11 Publishing Ltd., 1984, 307 pp. This is a fascinating but ultimately disappointing book. Its subject is British plotlands, the summer houses for those of most modest incomes which arose between the Wars, mainly in the South and South East of England. These houses were converted railway cottages, huts, trams, etc. on rural sites without services. The resulting communities were despised and condemned and complained of by local governments, planners, architects and middle class amenity protectors. As described by the authors: “It was a makeshift world of shacks and shanties, scattered unevenly in plots of varying size and shape, with unmade roads and little in the way of services.” The book is mainly concerned with the social history of these developments and as such it is well-researched, and documents thoroughly a number of the settlements. The quantity and quality of the illustrations are disappointing, as is the attempt to relate plotlands with unauthorised communities in Third World cities. Yes, the amount of time and energy spent by the two groups are worthy of comparison; but the lessons for today’s housing authorities are limited by the fact that the plotlands were the product of a time and of a specific group of people. Still the description of the plotland areas is excellent and the weakness in the book only arises in the last two chapters: one comparing the English experience with contemporary events in other European countries and in the USA and the last chapter, “Arcadia in Perspective”. The questions raised in the last chapter - concerning the protection of rural sites of no particular scenic charm, the application of urban based byelaws to temporary holiday accommodation, et al. - are important. They are not satisfactorily answered nor debated merely by citing the work of John Turner and Nikolas Habraken, no matter how admirable their work.
MARCUS FRANDA, The Seychelles: Unquiet Islands. Westview Press and Gower Publishing, 1982, 140 pp. Westview Press of Boulder, Colorado has joined with Gower Publishing in England in bringing out a series entitled Profiles - Nations of Contemporary Africa. Each volume is written by a different author and the series is edited by Larry W. Bowman. Countries in the series include Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Swaziland, Mozambique and The Comoro Islands. Assuming that the series covers the same subjects as this volume, each book is conventionally organised with chapters on History, People, Politics, Economy and Change with a selected (very selected) bibliography. This particular study in the series is heavily dependent on existing source material, and in fact could qualify as a desk study except for the inclusion of some photographs by the author. Examples of the extensive use of published sources are found in the chapter on “People” which is based mainly on Seychelles census reports, statistical abstracts and for more interpretive material - the work of Burton Benedict and other less scientific but more romantic expatriates. Similarly, the discussion of the politics of the Indian Ocean during the late 1970s and early 1980s relies on the 1979 articles in The New York Times. Overall the book is heavily geared toward American readers, presenting a rather simplistic view of the current left-wing government and a generally favourable analysis of
Book
Reviews
183
the economic policies of the previous, very pro-capitalist government. If other volumes in the series - and most deal with countries with far more complex social, economic and political systems than that which pertains in Seychelles - are as superficial and specially geared as this one, it is very difficult to know who will consult the series with any degree of confidence. On a positive note, the footnotes are as copious as the bibiliography is meagre.
MICHAEL J.C. BARKER, and Ireland 1984. Routledge & Kegan Paul,
Directory for the Environment
Organisations in Britain
1984, 280 pp.
The increasing availability of computer-based data paradoxically seems to result in an as in books - directories, indices, compilations, increase of published - “published”, reference lists and the like. One can only presume that access to the technology and in some cases the information itself is a temptation to share printouts. In the case of the Directory for the Environment, the justification to leap into print (some facsimile of it) is justified to some extent. Many of the organisations listed and presumably those wishing to make contact with such organisations might well not have access to the relevant data bases. It is not presumptious to assume that resources are likely to be limited for the Glastonbury Green Gathering Collective or the Offa’s Dyke Association, no matter how worthy their aims. However small groups such as these will find it useful to have a directory which includes the correct names, addresses, telephone numbers. and contact as well as aims and activities of government departments with person environmental responsibilities, large quasi-government agencies, national voluntary organisations and other known pressure groups. This is the first edition of the Directory and information was obtained by sending out questionnaires to 1,000 or so organisations, of which 55-60% responded. To be included an organisation could be national, regional or local but had to be involved in activities that relate in some way to the physical or personal environment or to promote alternatives to “anti-natural” use of the physical world or be an organisation which environmental groups find useful in carrying out their activities. Despite some inevitable gaps - no returns submitted by (e.g.) the Royal Society of Health, the National Coal Board, the Society of Environmental Engineers - this is a useful reference book. All UK libraries should have a copy and libraries and research institutions outside the UK might find it helpful in locating counterpart organisations and keeping abreast of their publishing output.
M. GRETCHEN, Pastel Portraits. Singapore Coordinating Committee,
1984, 156 pp.
Pastel Portraits definitely qualifies as the prettiest book received by HABITAT INTEKfor many a year. It might also win our award for the best-titled book. The colours are all pastel with enchanting pinks, blues, greens - the entire gentle spectrum - showing an unexpected side of the city-state of Singapore. The book is published by the Singapore Coordinating Committee, a group formed in mid-1983 to plan an international seminar on Adaptive Reuse of Old Buildings. They clearly (and dearly) love the older, historical parts of their city - and want to share their delight in the charming wooden buildings and details of some superficially ordinary buildings with others who many think of Singapore as a slick, high-rise city: a Manhattan in the East. But celebrating the pretty colonial vestiges and simple remains of a past age is not the only objective of this oversize and sumptuous volume. The sponsors and authors are clearly also trying to make a case for preserving and maintaining the old, the NATIONAL
Book Reviews
Overall, the book is a call for more attention to be applied to outer cities, for the special problems and opportunities of such areas to be understood and to question ‘L . whether society, through its political institutions, is prepared to face up to the enormous task of adjusting to social change”.
DENNIS HARDY and COLIN WARD, Arcadia for All - the Legacy of a Makeshift Landscape. Manse11 Publishing Ltd., 1984, 307 pp. This is a fascinating but ultimately disappointing book. Its subject is British plotlands, the summer houses for those of most modest incomes which arose between the Wars, mainly in the South and South East of England. These houses were converted railway cottages, huts, trams, etc. on rural sites without services. The resulting communities were despised and condemned and complained of by local governments, planners, architects and middle class amenity protectors. As described by the authors: “It was a makeshift world of shacks and shanties, scattered unevenly in plots of varying size and shape, with unmade roads and little in the way of services.” The book is mainly concerned with the social history of these developments and as such it is well-researched, and documents thoroughly a number of the settlements. The quantity and quality of the illustrations are disappointing, as is the attempt to relate plotlands with unauthorised communities in Third World cities. Yes, the amount of time and energy spent by the two groups are worthy of comparison; but the lessons for today’s housing authorities are limited by the fact that the plotlands were the product of a time and of a specific group of people. Still the description of the plotland areas is excellent and the weakness in the book only arises in the last two chapters: one comparing the English experience with contemporary events in other European countries and in the USA and the last chapter, “Arcadia in Perspective”. The questions raised in the last chapter - concerning the protection of rural sites of no particular scenic charm, the application of urban based byelaws to temporary holiday accommodation, et al. - are important. They are not satisfactorily answered nor debated merely by citing the work of John Turner and Nikolas Habraken, no matter how admirable their work.
MARCUS FRANDA, The Seychelles: Unquiet Islands. Westview Press and Gower Publishing, 1982, 140 pp. Westview Press of Boulder, Colorado has joined with Gower Publishing in England in bringing out a series entitled Profiles - Nations of Contemporary Africa. Each volume is written by a different author and the series is edited by Larry W. Bowman. Countries in the series include Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Swaziland, Mozambique and The Comoro Islands. Assuming that the series covers the same subjects as this volume, each book is conventionally organised with chapters on History, People, Politics, Economy and Change with a selected (very selected) bibliography. This particular study in the series is heavily dependent on existing source material, and in fact could qualify as a desk study except for the inclusion of some photographs by the author. Examples of the extensive use of published sources are found in the chapter on “People” which is based mainly on Seychelles census reports, statistical abstracts and for more interpretive material - the work of Burton Benedict and other less scientific but more romantic expatriates. Similarly, the discussion of the politics of the Indian Ocean during the late 1970s and early 1980s relies on the 1979 articles in The New York Times. Overall the book is heavily geared toward American readers, presenting a rather simplistic view of the current left-wing government and a generally favourable analysis of
Book
Reviews
183
the economic policies of the previous, very pro-capitalist government. If other volumes in the series - and most deal with countries with far more complex social, economic and political systems than that which pertains in Seychelles - are as superficial and specially geared as this one, it is very difficult to know who will consult the series with any degree of confidence. On a positive note, the footnotes are as copious as the bibiliography is meagre.
MICHAEL J.C. BARKER, and Ireland 1984. Routledge & Kegan Paul,
Directory for the Environment
Organisations in Britain
1984, 280 pp.
The increasing availability of computer-based data paradoxically seems to result in an as in books - directories, indices, compilations, increase of published - “published”, reference lists and the like. One can only presume that access to the technology and in some cases the information itself is a temptation to share printouts. In the case of the Directory for the Environment, the justification to leap into print (some facsimile of it) is justified to some extent. Many of the organisations listed and presumably those wishing to make contact with such organisations might well not have access to the relevant data bases. It is not presumptious to assume that resources are likely to be limited for the Glastonbury Green Gathering Collective or the Offa’s Dyke Association, no matter how worthy their aims. However small groups such as these will find it useful to have a directory which includes the correct names, addresses, telephone numbers. and contact as well as aims and activities of government departments with person environmental responsibilities, large quasi-government agencies, national voluntary organisations and other known pressure groups. This is the first edition of the Directory and information was obtained by sending out questionnaires to 1,000 or so organisations, of which 55-60% responded. To be included an organisation could be national, regional or local but had to be involved in activities that relate in some way to the physical or personal environment or to promote alternatives to “anti-natural” use of the physical world or be an organisation which environmental groups find useful in carrying out their activities. Despite some inevitable gaps - no returns submitted by (e.g.) the Royal Society of Health, the National Coal Board, the Society of Environmental Engineers - this is a useful reference book. All UK libraries should have a copy and libraries and research institutions outside the UK might find it helpful in locating counterpart organisations and keeping abreast of their publishing output.
M. GRETCHEN, Pastel Portraits. Singapore Coordinating Committee,
1984, 156 pp.
Pastel Portraits definitely qualifies as the prettiest book received by HABITAT INTEKfor many a year. It might also win our award for the best-titled book. The colours are all pastel with enchanting pinks, blues, greens - the entire gentle spectrum - showing an unexpected side of the city-state of Singapore. The book is published by the Singapore Coordinating Committee, a group formed in mid-1983 to plan an international seminar on Adaptive Reuse of Old Buildings. They clearly (and dearly) love the older, historical parts of their city - and want to share their delight in the charming wooden buildings and details of some superficially ordinary buildings with others who many think of Singapore as a slick, high-rise city: a Manhattan in the East. But celebrating the pretty colonial vestiges and simple remains of a past age is not the only objective of this oversize and sumptuous volume. The sponsors and authors are clearly also trying to make a case for preserving and maintaining the old, the NATIONAL