Commonlands,mineral rights and industry: changing evaluations in an industrializing society

This paper is concerned with a society experiencing significant change, an industrializing society. Throughout the South Wales coalfield in the second half of the eighteenth century, rural structures were being supplanted by urban-industrial structures, traditional modes of landuse were being dislocated by new enterprises and the former pastoral landscape was being invaded by the paraphernalia of mining and manufacturing. The old cultural region, “Blaenau Morgannwg” was being transmuted into the new cultural region, “The Valleys”.More particularly, this industrializing society experienced a significant change in the attitudes of landowners to their estates and also a change in both the mechanisms and intensity of control. With the recognition of the opportunities for industrial development, many lords evinced an increased concern for the integrity of their manorial perquisites, particularly those related to minerals and their access to them. The assertion of neglected rights, the institution of rigorous estate management and the prosecution of previously neglected abuses constituted a dislocation of local landuse practices and traditional ways of life. To some extent, the experience was similar to that of other areas experiencing increased industrial activities at this time, although the effect of certain local cultural influences may be recognized in the particulars of the response.The specific focus of this study is on the important roles which manorial wastes were to play in these new industrial enterprises. Whereas in the past the wastes had been but peripheral elements of the total estate economy, the industrial demand for minerals, fuel and land occasioned a radical reappraisal of their contribution. Many studies have considered encroachments and enclosure in the context of agricultural systems but it is argued here that in certain parts of Britain, industrial considerations were of paramount importance. The primary challenge to the very existence of manorial wastes and commons, the Enclosure Movement, was contemporaneous with the initial stages of the industrialization of this region. But rather than expediting the elimination of these lands, several factors caused manorial wastelands and commons to bulk large in the early industrialization of the South Wales coalfield.The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to attempt a better understanding of the impact of industrialization upon the wastelands of the South Wales coalfield and of the society formerly dependent upon them. Particular attention will be focused upon the way in which this process affected the attitudes of the various interested parties towards mineral rights, encroachments and parliamentary enclosure, and which in turn required reappraisals of a way of life by an old social order.     

Human digestive effects on a micromammalian skeleton

This study describes the results of an experiment involving the consumption of a skinned, eviscerated, and segmented insectivore by an adult human male. Bone remains from recovered faecal contents are examined for skeletal element representation, breakage and digestive damage. Detailed examination of each category suggests severe skeletal attrition which is comparable to, and at times in excess of, the damage exhibited in microvertebrate skeletal accumulations originating from the scats of small mammalian carnivores.     

The Pace of Indian Urbanization

In contrast with conventional formulations of urban growth, Tolley proposed a simple, supply-driven model relying upon the intersectoral differential in nonlabor productivity growth as the prime motivator of urbanization in developing countries. In the present paper, we apply Tolley's model to India over the period 1951–1981 and attempt to explain its mixed performance in tracking the pace of urbanization in that country. A modified version, adjusted for inter-regional migration, is then simulated for individual Indian states; the exercise confirms actual urban growth during 1971–81 to have been generally below that predicted by Tolley's model. Tolley's assumptions then are tested through an examination of the relationship between urban growth rates and translog indexes of intertemporal productivity growth. Finally, exploratory analysis of Tolley-model deviations in the various states is used to suggest directions for extending urban growth formulations for India. We conclude with a normative examination of policy implications.     

Book reviews

Australian politics

L.F. Crisp, Federation Fathers (ed. John Hart: Studies in Australian Federation) (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990) pp.xv + 484. $48.00 ISBN 0 522 84399 3.

I.M. Cumpston, Lord Bruce of Melbourne (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1989) pp.xviii + 291. $n.p. ISBN 0582 71274 2.

John Forster and John Wanna (eds.), Budgetary Management and Control (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1990) pp.vii + 206. $29.95 ISBN 0 7329 0332 7.

Hal L. Kendig and John McCallum (eds.), Grey Policy: Australian Policies for an Ageing Society (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990) pp.xiii + 226. $19.95 ISBN 0 04 442129 X.

Chandran Kukathas, David W. Lovell and William Maley, The Theory of Politics: an Australian Perspective (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1990) pp.210 + vii. $15.99 ISBN 0 582 86806 8.

Scott Prasser, Rae Wear and John Nethercote (eds.), Corruption and Reform: The Fitzgerald Vision (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1990) pp.xvi + 267. $26.95 ISBN 0 7022 2234 8.

Kosmas Tsokhas, Markets, Money and Empire: The Political Economy of the Australian Wool Industry (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990) pp.viii + 235. $29.95 ISBN 0 522 84417 0.

Comparative and international politics

Abdullahi Ahmed An‐Na'im and Francis M. Deng (eds.), Human Rights in Africa: Cross‐Cultural Perspectives (Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1990) pp.xv + 399. $36.95 ISBN 0 8157 1796 2.

Thomas A. Baylis, Governing by Committee. Collegial Leadership in Advanced Societies (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989) pp.236. $n.p. ISBN0 88706 944 4.

George C. Edwards III with Alec M. Gallup Presidential Approval: A Sourcebook (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1990) pp.viii + 214. $US40.50 ISBN 0 8018 4085 6.

Kristian Gerner and Stefan Hedlund, Ideology and Rationality in the Soviet Model: A legacy for Gorbachev (London: Routledge, 1989) pp.xii + 455. $n.p. ISBN 0 415 02142 1.

John A. Hall (ed.), States in History (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990) pp.vi + 317. $39.95 ISBN 0 631 17136 3.

M.D. Hancock, West Germany: The Politics of Democratic Corporatism (N.J.: Chatham House, 1989) pp.v + 186. $US12.95 ISBN 0 934540 54 3.

Christine Jennett and Randal G. Stewart (eds.), Politics of the Future: the role of social movements (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1989) pp.xi + 471. $34.95 ISBN 0 333 50222 1.

Peter Jennings, The Armed Forces of New Zealand and the Anzus Split: Costs and Consequences (Aukland: New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1988) pp.xi + 108. $NZ12.00 ISBN 0 908772 04 1.

Ihor Kamenetsky (ed.) The Tragedy of Vinnytsia; materials on Stalin's policy of extermination in Ukraine during the great purge, 1936–1938 (Toronto: Ukrainian Historical Association, 1989) pp.xviii + 265. $n.p.

Martin Laffin, Managing Under Pressure (Hampshire and London: Macmillan, 1989) pp.xvi + 207. $24.95 ISBN 0 333 44660 7.

Brij V. Lal, Power and Prejudice: The Making of the Fiji Crisis (Auckland: New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1988)

Garry Rodan, The Political Economy of Singapore's Industrialisation: National State and International Capital (London: Macmillan, 1989) pp.266. £35.00 ISBN 0 333 47079 6.

Richard Scase (ed.), Industrial Societies: Crisis and Division in Western Capitalism and State Socialism (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989) pp.xi + 260. $29.95 ISBN 0–04–301303–1.

G.A. Wood, Governing New Zealand (Auckland: Longman Paul, 1988) pp.ix + 164. $NZ16.95 ISBN 0 582 71822 8.

Political theory and methodology

J.M. Barbalet, Citizenship: Rights, Struggle and Class Inequality (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1988) pp.119. £5.95 ISBN 0 335 15570 7.

Peter Calvert, Revolution and Counter‐Revolution (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1990) pp.vi + 90. $24.95 ISBNO 335 15397 6.

Cynthia Farrar, The Origins of Democratic Thinking: The invention of politics in classical Athens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp.x + 301. $42.50 ISBN 0 521 37584 3.

Norman Geras, Discourses of Extremity: Radical Ethics and Post‐Marxist Extravagances (London: Verso, 1990) pp.xiii + 171. $29.95 ISBN 0 86091 980 3.

Barry Hindess (ed.), Reactions to the Right (London: Routledge, 1990) pp.viii + 193. $32.95 ISBN 0 415 03385 3.

Margot Light, The Soviet Theory of International Relations (Brighton: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1988) pp.vi + 376. $n.p. ISBN 0 7450 0556 X.

Joseph McCarney, Social Theory and the Crisis of Marxism (London: Verso, 1990) pp.x+217. $29.95 ISBN 0–86091–948‐X.

John Morrow, Coleridge's Political Thought: Property, Morality and the Limits of Traditional Discourse (London: Macmillan, 1990) pp. xi + 215. £29.50 ISBN 0 333 51192 1.

Peter P. Nicholson, The Political Philosophy of the British Idealists: Selected Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) pp.x + 359. $135.00 ISBN 0 521 37102 3.

Stuart Schram, The Thought of Mao Tse‐tung (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989) pp.242. $30.50 ISBN 0 521 32549 8.

Arthur Seldon, Capitalism (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990) pp.xiii + 419. $45.00 ISBN 0 631 12558 2.