New Directions in Research in Urban Geography in the Third WorldAuthor(s): David Drakakis-SmithSource: Area, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Mar., 1986), pp. 78-79Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20002289 .

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78 Annual Conference

The late afternoon session contained three papers that consciously built upon these insights. Alan Jenkins (Oxford Poly) exemplified his use of documentary film in undergraduate teach ing. John Pethick (Hull) discussed his role in making a series of educational documentaries on physical forms and processes. Mary Wood (Extra-Mural Studies, University of London) reviewed frameworks and tools of film analysis. Taken together, the papers in this symposium provided a model of how to ground discussion of geography and the media in incisive study of specific examples.

John R Gold Oxford Polytechnic

Gender issues and population change

This was a joint venture between the Population Geography Study Group and the Women and Geography Study Group, which focused on marriage and work. Two papers examined the adoption of single life styles by women. Emily Grundy (City) examined the impact of divorce, remarriage and widowhood on geographic mobility for women in England and Wales, and found extremely high mobility rates which often accompanied a move down the housing

market. Jeanne Fagnani (Paris I) considered the increasing number of single women in France, especially in the Paris region and in the high-status jobs. The traditional gender roles of

marriage, with its uneven split of domestic and childcare duties, still constitute a handicap in a woman's career which is now being increasingly rejected; however, for men, a traditional

marriage can be a major support in career development. Two papers examined marriage, fertility and work in nineteenth-century Britain.

Shane Beadle (LB Ealing) studied coalfield areas of exceptionally high fertility where the gender division of labour provided job opportunities for large numbers of men but few opportunities for women, resulting in very early ages at marriage and high fertility. On the other hand, Eilidh Garrett (Aberdeen) studied the Keighley textile area where women married late and continued working in the worsted industry after marriage; their fertility levels were very low indeed. The study of the impact of marriage and occupational structure for men and women was constrained in all cases by the paucity of data: occupational data being more avail able for men, and marriage and fertility data relating to women. The gender issues involved can only be clarified when all data are related to both men and women, rather than relating to an anachronistic concept of traditional household structure.

Hilary Winchester Plymouth Polytechnic

New directions in research in urban geography in the Third World This meeting did not so much emphasise innovative areas of urban research in developing countries as draw attention to neglected facets of urban investigation. The first speaker, Nigel Thrift (Lampeter), used his knowledge of Vietnam to illustrate some of the current trends affecting urban growth and development in Socialist states in the Third World. He focused in particular on the way in which the State has intervened in a variety of ways to slow down rapid growth and contrasted these measures with those investigated in the mixed economies of the Third World. This is clearly a comparison which merits further research.

Bill Gould (Liverpool) summarised the recent work of the RUIN group in drawing attention to the need for investigators to examine more directly the arena of interaction between the rural and urban development processes. He underlined the need for specific information to enable the formulation of policies to reduce regional inequalities, lower rates of urban growth and

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Annual Conference 79

increase rural production. This stress on understanding the developing space economy, particularly in Africa, drew spirited debate.

After the break there were two papers from geographers who admitted that their direct experience of the developing world and its associated literature was somewhat limited. However, they were prepared to extrapolate their own research interests into the Third World and indicate avenues of research which may be usefully followed. Tony Warnes (KCL) pre sented a well organised plea for greater awareness of the problems of ageing populations in the

Third World, a phenomenon that has particularly accompanied rapid economic growth in cer tain Asian cities. Given other pressing difficulties this is a problem that many planners would not wish to recognise but, as the speaker pointed out, it is one which will steadily escalate as other basic needs are increasingly met.

The final paper was concerned with the rise of large-scale shopping centres in Southeast Asia and with Kuala Lumpur in particular. In this paper, Cliff Guy (Town Planning, UWIST) sought to extend the old dualist approach to incorporate the new developments into a tripartite classification of retail activity. Although the author accepted that his own experience of the literature and the region was limited, and specifically invited criticism on these, his paper did highlight a generally poorly covered area of investigation in the retail activities of the Third

World city. David Drakakis-Smith

University of Keele

Postgraduate research in medical geography Medical geography is alive and kicking, attracting a vocal participation to its two sessions-one held jointly with the Developing Areas Research Group and the other on postgraduate research. At the postgraduate session the material presented was extremely wide ranging, from the more esoteric and philosophical to that which has its essentials firmly grounded in practical problems. Two papers dealt with issues pertaining to the delivery of health-care in Britain; George (QMC) looked at the problems of joint planning in West Essex and Sixsmith (KCL) adopted a humanistic critique in assessing well-being of the elderly and care in the home. A more

methodological approach was taken by Craig (Dept of Community Medicine, St Thomas') in a study of cholera transmission in Bangladesh whilst Murray (Oxford), MGSG's answer to

Heseltine, recounted the problems in attempting to derive a health status index, exposing many of the myths of official statistics along the way. The paper dealing with the effect of the Catholic Church on the development of health care in Ireland (Nagle, Oxford) was replaced by one which traced the development of services in the Ciskei, one of the four 'independent' Homelands in South Africa. Finally, on behalf of the MGSG, I would like to thank all those who gave papers and those who attended the modules.

Garrett Nagle University of Oxford

Social and political issues in education

Despite the growth of interest in the geography of public provision, there has been little research on education. This session was convened both as a forum for recent research and as a stimulus for future work. David Byrne (Sociology, Durham) in reviewing educational research

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