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URBANIZATION AND SETTLEMENT

Urbanizat ion and S e t t l e m e n t S y s t e m s . In t e rna t iona l Perspect ives . L.S. Bourne, R. Sinclair and K. Dziewofiski (Editors). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1984. 475 pp., £25.00. ISBN 0-19-823243-8.

This book comprises a collection of essays describing the sett lement sys- tems of 22 countries, under taken by 37 contr ibutors for the International Geographical Union Commission on National Set t lement Systems. The essays are allocated to one of three parts within the book, corresponding to the type of economy in which the national spatial systems (the subject mat ter of the essays) have evolved in recent times, namely: capitalist /market economies, socialist/centrally planned economies, and developing/third world economies. Fur ther subdivision is under taken in relation to the historical density of set t lement (sparse versus intensive set t lement base). The work makes no explicit claim to be an international comparative study, although there are several implicit leanings in this direction (viz. a section On Comparative Studies of Urbanization on page 1 of Int roduct ion) . Within es- tablished classificatory systems of comparative studies (Berting et al., 1979), this particular product could be classed "descriptive-pragmatic' . Pragmatic in the sense that considerations of expediency appear to dominate (witness the over-representation of essays on set t lement systems in market econ- omies, constituting 70% of the book; and the plethora of apologia to be found in the editors ' In t roduc t ion) . Descriptive, in the sense that the study was not under taken with a view to verifying or falsifying theory; rather it sought " to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge". The objective seems to have been one of taking an ' ideographic' , national-level, stance in the first instance before advancing, presumably at some later date, to a more general comparative level "in the search f o r . . , explanations". Yet there are published studies which are advancing international comparative research on urbanization within a f ramework of theory, witness the Vienna-based research of the Internat ional Inst i tute for Applied Systems Analysis (Kawa- shima and Korcelli, 1982) and the European Coordination Centre for Re- search and Documenta t ion in Social Sciences (Van den Berg et al., 1982). And the call is for greater e f for t in this direction (Scott , 1984). What the book does provide, is a valuable sourcebook of data (albeit a decade or more old in most cases) and a set of factors linked, in 'explanation sketch' fashion, to national patterns of urban development ; for the most part hy- potheses awaiting systematic examinat ion within the f ramework of cross- national research and a theoretical human geography.

PETER NEWTON CSIRO Division of Building Research

P.O. Box 56, Highett, Vic. 3190, Australia

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REFERENCES

Berting, J., Geyer, F. and Jurkovich, R., 1979. Problems in International Comparative Researcl~ in the Social Sciences. Pergamon Press, New York, NY.

Kawashima, T. and Korcelli, P. (Editors), 1982. Human Settlement Systems: Spatial Patterns and Trends. CP-82-SI, IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria.

Scott, A.J., 1984. Urbanization reconsidered. Environ. Plann. A, 16: 565--568. Van den Berg, L., Drewett, R., Klaassen, L., Rossi, A. and Vijverberg, C.H.T., 1982.

Urban Europe. A Study of Growth and Decline. Pergamon Press, New York, NY.

URBANISM AND RE-URBANIZATION

Living Cities: A Case for Urbanism and Guidelines for Re-urbanization. Jan Tanghe, Sieg Vlaeminck and Jo Berghoef. Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1984. xii + 373 pp., £16.50/US$29.50. ISBN 0-08-025237-0.

This book deals with an impor tant topic: the role of preservation, reha- bilitation and infil of existing urban areas in desirable urban development in Western Europe. It is in two parts: (1) a s tatement of 'principles', objec- tives and policy; and (2) examples from seven countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, W. Germany, Great Britain, Italy and The Netherlands).

Briefly, before elaborating, Part 2 contains some material of interest although, as the book acknowledges (p. 207), they are not comparative. Some of these examples I did not know although I travel widely. They are therefore likely to be of wide interest. Also, being collected in one soft-cover book, makes it very useful, because the English-speaking world generally, and North American particularly, tends to know very little about what happens in Western Europe. Unfor tunate ly it is not at all clear tha t the solutions shown are, in fact, successful. Even the examples suffer from a lack of structuring, of a clear conceptual and analytical f ramework by which they could be evaluated. Those places which I have visited are not always well-described; others do not seem very good. Often, they seem infected with the ' countercul ture ' s y n d r o m e , still apparent ly living in the 60's. Even in the case of the examples, s tatements are made which seem to mean little, e .g .p . 283: " . . . p roper balance of housing and other functions which is essential to the quali ty of urban life". What balance? Why essential? What quality? Whose urban life? On the basis of what theory? Given what evidence and what indicators? And so o n . . .

Part 1, dealing with 'principles' is much worse in this respect. One can think of that section o f the book as doing two things: criticizing certain existing policies and actions as being at odds with human well-being; and proposing alternative new ideas for how cities should grow for human well-being. The former is grossly exaggerated nor is the evidence that policies have been disastrous at all clear. Specific criticisms I personally accept, e.g. excessive and insensitive freeway building, but tha t is not evidence either;