The politics of the diarist

Peter Howson, The Life of Politics: The Howson Diaries, ed. Don Aitkin, Melbourne, The Viking Press, pp. 1013. $39.95     

Disentangling the politics of breastfeeding

Infant feeding has become a target of policy at international, national and local levels. In the UK, although breastfeeding has been recognised as having a major role to play in public health, less than 1% of babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life. In this article, I highlight the need to better understand this gap between policy and practice. I describe how Actor-Network Theory and the debates around vibrant materialities can bring fresh insights into the complex entanglements around breastfeeding, and its particular forms of politics, and consider how infant feeding might challenge and enrich these approaches.     

Australian politics

David Black (ed.), The House on the Hill: A History of the Parliament of Western Australia 1832–1990 (Perth: Parliament of Western Australia, 1991) pp.558. $n.p. ISBN 0 7309 3983 9.

D.H. Borchardt, Commissions of Inquiry in Australia: A Brief Surrey (Melbourne: La Trobe University Press, 1991) pp.107. $24.95 ISBN 1 86324 011X.

John Connell and Richard Howitt (eds), Mining and Indigenous Peoples in Australasia (Sydney: Sydney University Press in association with Oxford University Press, 1991) pp.204. $22.95 ISBN 0 424 00177 2.

Mark Considine, The Polities of Reform: Workers’ Compensation from Woodhouse to WorkCare (Geelong: Centre for Applied Social Research, Deakin University, 1991) pp.118. $17.50 ISBN 0 7300 1472 X.

D.C. Corbett, C. Selby Smith and R.F.I. Smith (eds), Public Sector Personnel Policies for the 1990's (Melbourne: Public Sector Management Institute, Monash University, 1989) pp.329. $20.00 ISBN 0 7326 0146 0.

Brian Costar and Scott Prasser (eds), Amalgamate or Perish?: The Future of Non‐Labor Parties in Australia (Toowoomba: University College of Southern Queensland) pp.121. $9.95 ISBN 0 909756 04 X.

David Neal, The Rule of Law in a Penal Colony: Law and Power in Early New South Wales (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.266. $39.95 ISBN 0 521 37274 X.

Michael Pusey, Economic Rationalism in Canberra: A Nation‐Building State Changes Its Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.310. $n.p. ISBN 0 521 33661 9.

Randal G. Stewart and Ian Ward, Politics One (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1992) pp.243. $24.95 ISBN 0 7329 0247 9.

John Uhr (ed.), Decision‐Making in Australian Government: Program Evaluation (Canberra: Federalism Research Centre ANU, 1991) pp.170. $np. ISBN 0 7315 1129 8.

Comparative and international politics

Robert Aldrich and John Connell, France's Overseas Frontier: Départements et territoires d'outre‐mer (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.357. $49.95 ISBN 0 521 39061 3.

Article 19, International Centre on Censorship, Information Freedom and Censorship, World Report 1991 (London: Library Association Publishing Ltd, 1991) pp.471. £22.50 ISBN 1 85604 021 6.

Carl Bridge (ed.), Munich to Vietnam: Australia's Relations with Britain and the United States since the 1930s (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1991) pp.237 $24.95 ISBN 0 522 84436 7.

Charles Carstairs and Richard Ware (eds), Parliament and International Relations (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991) pp.195. $35.00 ISBN 0 335 09698 0.

Tun‐jen Cheng and Stephen Haggard (eds), Political Change in Taiwan (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1992 ) pp.269. $US35.00 ISBN 1 55587 275 1.

Robert O. Freedman, Moscow and the Middle East: Soviet Policy Since the Invasion of Afghanistan (Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.426. $49.95. ISBN 0 521 35976 7.

David S.G. Goodman and Gerald Segal (eds), China in the Nineties: Crisis Management and Beyond (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991) pp. 226. $24.95 ISBN 0 19 827363 0.

Larry B. Hill (ed.), The State of Public Bureaucracy (Armonk, New York, and London: M.E. Sharpe, 1992) pp.234 $US42.50 ISBN 1 56324007 6.

Christopher Hood and Michael Jackson, Administrative Argument (Aldersbot: Dartmouth, 1991) pp.221. £30.00 ISBN 1 85521 023 1.

Mary Kaldor (ed.), Europe From Below: An East‐West Dialogue (New York: Verso, 1991) $29.95 ISBN 0 86091 522 0.

Colin Mackerras and Amanda Yorke (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.266. $25.00 ISBN 0 521 38755 8420.

Geraint Parry, George Moyser and Neil Day, Political Participation and Democracy in Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.509. $57.50 ISBN 0 521 33602 3.

Marcus G. Raskin, Essays of a Citizen: From National Security State to Democracy (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1991) pp321. $US27.50 ISBN 0 87332 764 0.

Emir Sader and Ken Silverstein, Without Fear of Being Happy: Lula, The Workers Party, and Brazil (London: Verso, 1991) pp.177. $34.95 ISBN 0 86091 523 9.

Haim Shemesh, Soviet‐Iraqi Relations, 1968–1988: In the Shadow of the Iraq‐Iran Conflict (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1992) pp.28. $US42.00 ISBN 1 5587 293 X.

Wayne S. Smith (ed.), Toward Resolution? The Falklands/Malvinas Dispute (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1991) pp.159. $US25.00 ISBN 1 55587 265 4.

Ramesh Thakur and Carlyle A. Thayer, Soviet Relations with India and Vietnam (Houndmills Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992) pp.315. £35.00 ISBN 0 333 43751 9.

Joseph S. Tulchin (ed.), Economic Development & Environmental Protection in Latin America (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1991) pp.143. $US9.95 ISBN 1 55587 288 3.

Yaacov Y.I. Vertzberger, The World in Their Minds: Information Processing, Cognition, and Perception in Foreign Policy Decision‐making (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990) pp.447. $US42.50 ISBN 0 8047 1688 9.

Robert M. Worcester, British Public Opinion: Guide to the History and Methodology of Political Opinion Polling (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.231. $29.95 ISBN 0 631 17059 6.

Leslie Zines, Constitutional Change in the Commonwealth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.118. $35.00 ISBN 0 521 40039 2.

Political theory and methodology

Michèle Barrett, The Politics of Truth: From Marx to Foucault (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991) pp.288. $32.95 ISBN 0 7456 0503 6.

Peter Beilharz (ed.), Social Theory: A Guide to Central Thinkers (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1991) pp.242. $22.95 ISBN 1 86373 163 6.

Robin Blackburn (ed.), After the Fall: The Failure of Communism and the Future of Socialism (London: Verso, 1991) pp.327. $29.95 ISBN 0 86091 540 9.

Tom Bottomore (ed.), A Dictionary of Marxist Thought, second edn (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.647, $45.00 ISBN 0 631 16481 2.

Noberto Bobbio, Which Socialism?: Marxism, Socialism and Democracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990) pp.242. $27.95 ISBN 0 7456 0128 6.

Noberto Bobbio, Which Socialism?: Marxism, Socialism and Democracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990) pp.242. $27.95 ISBN 0 7456 0128 6.

Stewart R. Clegg, Frameworks of Power (London: Sage Publications, 1989) pp.297. $n.p. ISBN 0 8039 8161 9.

Wendy Donner, The Liberal Self: John Stuart Mill's Moral and Political Philosophy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991) pp.229. $US12.95 ISBN 0 8014 9987 9.

Ian Forbes, Marx and the New Individual (London: Unwin Hyman, 1990) pp.247. $n.p. ISBN 0 04 445432 5.

Alan Hamlin and Philip Pettit (eds), The Good Polity: Normative Analysis of the State (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991) pp.207. $39.95 ISBN 0 63118088 5.

Oskar Kurer, John Stuart Mill: The Politics of Progress (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1991) pp.224. $US52.00 ISBN 0 8153 0135 9

Howard Williams, International Relations in Political Theory (Milton Keynes and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1992) pp.143. $34.95 ISBN 0 335 15627 4.     

Panda politics

This article argues that China's agreement in 2012 to loan Canada two panda bears is emblematic of animals’ simultaneous material‐symbolic inclusion and exclusion in contemporary politics. Employing a material focus, this article draws a connection between the panda gift and the promise to which it is attached: a promise of material flows; of Chinese access to Canadian resources, especially; and controversially, tar sands oil. Common to geographical flows of both pandas and oil is a devaluation of nonhuman life. In one flow, two pandas cross the Pacific for a decade of captivity at the Toronto and Calgary Zoos, where visitors will pay to view the permanently visible pandas. In the other instance, oil will be shipped across the same ocean, oil whose production comes at great cost to wildlife, including caribou, birds, and fish, and whose spill at any point along its journey to China would devastate marine and terrestrial wildlife populations. Stark power imbalances between species are at the heart of both of these flows and their material consequences. This article argues that, in emphasizing what the pandas symbolize, the extent to which their own and others’ lives are materially affected is elided.     

German politics

G. Smith, W.E. Paterson, and P.H. Merkl, Developments in West German Politics (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989) pp.359. $35.00 ISBN 0 333 47368 X.

W.E. Paterson and D. Southern, Governing Germany (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.340. $34.95. ISBN 0 631 17101 0.

R.J. Dalton, Politics in West Germany (Glenview, Il: Scott, Foresman, 1989) pp.376. $45.00. ISBN 0 673 39887 0.

D.L. Parness, The SPD and the Challenge of Mass Politics: The Dilemma of the German Volkspartei (Boulder Westview, 1991) pp.194. $80.00. ISBN 0 8133 7997 0.     

Block politics

This paper explores how young people have experienced everyday life on ‘the block’ in a racially diverse lower to working class community in New York City over time, a concept that I refer to as block politics. Broadly defined, block politics refers to the process in which young people's territories are socially conceived, performed, maintained and challenged in everyday life. Gendered and racialized norms and practices play an important role in determining how young people construct their identities and that of their block. Block politics represents one of the many ways in which young people express and articulate their sense of social and spatial inclusion/exclusion, something that has transcended both time and space in urban communities in the United States.     

World politics and the behavioural revolution

Davis B. Bobrow, International Relations: New Approaches, Free Press, New York, 1972, pp. 95.

Robert J. Lieber, Theory and World Politics, George Allen and Unwin, 1973 pp. 166.

Ralph Pettman, Human Behaviour and World Politics, Macmillan, London, 1975, pp. 343.

Steven Rosen and Walter Jones, The Logic of International Relations, Winthrop, Cambridge (Mass.), 1974 (1st edn.), 1977 (2nd edn.), pp. 390.     

Biofuels and the politics of mapmaking

On a world scale companies and governments are acquiring tracts of land from rural communities across the developing world in what some describe as a global “land grab.” Yet looking into local settings reveals that negotiations and arrangements are often piecemeal and halting, with little resemblance to a coordinated seizure of land. Conflicting maps, overlapping territorial claims, and unclear acquisition processes are creating land disputes, mistrust, and ambiguity. Resulting cycles of contention are enabling companies to obtain—even appropriate—some land. Still, in at least some locales the process is doing more to undermine development opportunities for all parties.To probe into these local politics of mapmaking, this article draws on fieldwork from 2010 to 2011 in Tanzania's Rufiji District, located in the lower floodplain of the Rufiji River. Companies, one might surmise, should be able to exploit information asymmetries to wrest control of land from local villagers. Interviews, primary documents, and field observations reveal, however, that this is not occurring as much as one might expect along the lower Rufiji River. The politics of such land acquisitions, we argue, would seem to be better understood in terms of cycles of contentious politics, as an ongoing process in which movements and counter-movements vie for control through the strategic use of images, maps, and discourse.This research extends the understanding of the processes changing global agriculture and energy production by bridging the frames of the “politics of mapping” and “cycles of contention” to more fully reveal how and why control over land and resources is shifting in the global South.     

Cities without politics

Max Neutze, Australian Urban Policy, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1978.

Leslie Kilmartin and David C. Thorns, Cities Unlimited: The Sociology of Urban Development in Australia and New Zealand, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1978.     

Culture or politics

Furet, F., and Ozouf, M., eds., Terminer la révolution; Mounier et Barnave dans la révolution française (Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1990), 181pp., 98F., ISBN 7 06 10391 4

Furet, F., Ozouf, M., eds., The French Revolution and the Creation of Modern Political Culture: Vol. 3. The Transformation of Political Culture 1789–1848 (Pergamon Press, 1989), 693pp., £80, ISBN 0 080 324260 4     

Rumour and politics

This article contends that rumour—the circulation of unverified information —is an important form of political communication which deserves more attention from political scientists. To illustrate this claim a study is made of the part played by rumour in the ‘destabilisation’ of Malcolm Fraser's position as leader of the Liberal Party in August to October 1981. Health is a natural subject of rumour, and rumours about Mr. Fraser's health were used as the basis for speculation about a possible leadership challenge by Mr. Andrew Peacock. The collective character of parliamentary party politics, the artificial nature of media ‘facts’ and the predominance of certain types of news value in the media all encourage such rumours to flourish. The rumours had the effect of destabilising Mr. Fraser's position by creating and then enlarging a climate of uncertainty and anxiety within the Liberal Party and the electorate. Mr. Peacock was thereby enabled to test the strength of his potential support without being obliged to risk an open challenge. The author concludes that the most apt model of rumour to this case is that of ‘milling’, on the analogy of a ‘milling crowd’.