Book reviews

Australian Politics

Peter Beilharz, Transforming Labor: Labour Tradition and the Labor Decade in Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1994) pp.245 $29.95 ISBN 0 521 43821 7.

Christine Fletcher (ed.), Aboriginal Self‐Determination in Australia (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Report Series, 1994) pp.204 $16.95 ISBN 085575.

William Sanders (ed.), Mabo and Native Title: Origins and Institutional Implications (Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University, Research Monograph No.7, 1994) pp.83 $15.00 ISBNO 7315 20084.

Ciaran O'Faircheallaigh, Peter Graham and Jeni Warburton (eds), Service Delivery and Public Sector Marketing (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1991) pp.191 $24.95 ISBN 0 7329 0386 6.

J. Taylor, Regional Change in the Economic Status of Indigenous Australians, 1986–91. Research Monograph No.6 (Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, ANU, 1993) pp.77 $15.00 ISBN 0 7315 1870 5.

J. Taylor, The Relative Economic Status of Indigenous Australians, 1986–91. Research Monograph No.5 (Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, ANU, 1993) pp.85 $15.00 ISBN 0 7315 1841.

Andrew C. Theophanous, Understanding Social Justice (Melbourne: Elkia Books, 1993) pp.373 $n.p. ISBN 1875335 021.

Rodney Tiffen, News and Power (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1989) pp.255 $19.95 ISBN 0 04 372043 9.

K.J. Walker, The Political Economy of Environmental Policy: An Australian Introduction (Kensington, NSW: UNSW Press, 1994) pp.349 $24.95 ISBN 0 86840 070 X.

Comparative and International Politics

A. Doak Barnett, China's Far West: Four Decades of Change (Boulder: Colorado: Westview Press, 1993) pp.688 $US39.95 ISBN 0 8133 1774 6.

Robert E. Bedeski, The Transformation of South Korea. Reform and Reconstruction in the Sixth Republic under Roh Tae Woo 1987–1992 (London and New York: Routledge, 1994) pp.197 $35.95 ISBN 0 415 10604 4.

Samuel H. Beer, To Make a Nation: The Rediscovery of American Federalism (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993) pp. 392 US$29.95 ISBN 0 674 89317 4.

David Campbell, Politics Without Principle: Sovereignty, Ethics and the Narratives of the Gulf War (London: Lynne Rlenner, 1993) pp.118 $20.50 ISBN 1 55587 381 2.

Jack Donnelly, International Human Rights (Boulder: Westview Press, 1993) pp.198 $US39.95 ISBN 0 8133 8181 9.

Scott Davidson, Human Rights (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1993) pp.178 $49.95 ISBN 0 335 15768 8.

Frank Fischer and John Forester (eds), The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning (London: UCL Press, 1993) pp.318 $39.95 ISBN 1 85728 183 7.

Frank Frost, Vietnam's Foreign Relations: Dynamics of Change. Pacific Strategic Papers No.6 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 1993) pp.90 $14.99 ISBN 981 3016 65 5.

Jim George, Discourses of Global Politics: A Critical (Re)Introduction to International Relations (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner, 1994) pp.266 $US18.95 ISBN 1 55587 446 0.

Misha Glenny, The Fall of Yugoslavia New Edition. (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin, 1994) pp.258 $14.95 ISBN 0 14 023415 2.

Brian Hocking, Localizing Foreign Policy: Non‐Central Governments and Multilayered Diplomacy (London: Macmillan; New York: St Martin's, 1993) pp.249 £40.00 ISBN 0 312 09720 4.

Peter Jackson and Jan Penrose, (eds), Constructions of Race, Place and Nation (London: UCL Press, 1993) pp.216 $37.95 ISBN 1 85728 077 6.

Ann Kent, Between Freedom and Subsistence: China and Human Rights (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1993) pp.293 $25.95 ISBN 0 19 585521 3.

Robert Pinkney, Democracy in the Third World (Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1993) pp.182 $39.95 ISBN 0 335 15704 1.

Larry Diamond (ed.), Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries (Boulder and London: Lynne Rlenner, 1993) pp.485 $US49.95 ISBN 1 55587 303 0.

Geoffrey Ponton and Peter Gill, Introduction to Politics. Third edition (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993) pp.327 ISBN 0 631 18784 7.

George Schopflin, Polities in Eastern Europe (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993) pp.327 $39.95 ISBN 0 631 14724 1.

Andrew Sharp (ed.), Leap Into the Dark: The Changing Role of the State in New Zealand Since 1984 (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1994) pp.255 $NZ34.95 ISBN 1 86940 096 8.

John Stevenson, Third Party Politics Since 1945 (London: Institute of Contemporary British History/Allen and Unwin, 1993) pp.157 $32.95 ISBN 0 631 17127 4.

Phil Cocker, Contemporary British Politics and Government (London: Tudor Business Publishing/Hodder and Stoughton, 1993) pp.404 $38.95 ISBN 1 872807 35 6.

Danny Unger and Paul Blackburn (eds), Japan's Emerging Global Role (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner, 1993) pp.213 $US16.95 ISBN 1 55587 387 1.

Anthony van Fossen, The International Political Economy of Pacific Islands Flags of Convenience (Brisbane: Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Monograph No. 66: Griffith University, 1992) pp.86 $10.00 ISBN 0 86857 474 0.

John Wesley Young, Orwell's Newspeak and Totalitarian Language: Its Nazi and Communist Antecedents (Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 1991) pp.335 $US36.50 ISBN 0 8139 1324 1.

Political Theory and Methodology

Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power. John B. Thompson (ed.), Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson (trans.) (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992) pp.302 $39.95 ISBN 0 7456 1034 X.

Robert E. Goodin and Philip Pettit (eds), A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993) pp.679 $165.00 ISBN 0 631 17993 3.

David Held (ed.), Prospects for Democracy: North, South, East, West (Oxford: Polity Press, 1993) pp.412 $45.00 ISBN 0 7456 0989 9.

Anthony H. Birch, The Concepts and Theories of Modern Democracy (London: Routledge, 1993) pp.260 $38.95 ISBN 0 415 09108 X.

Kathleen Jones, Compassionate Authority: Democracy and the Representation of Women (New York: Routledge, 1993) pp.272 £12.99 ISBN 0 415 90644 X.

Robert Leach, Political Ideologies: An Australian Introduction. Second Edition (Melbourne: MacMillan, 1993) pp.245 $32.95 ISBN 0 7329 2001 9.

Lynn McDonald, The Early Origins of the Social Sciences (Montréal: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1993) pp.397 ISBN 0 7735 1124 5.

Toby Miller, The Well‐Tempered Self: Citizenship, Culture, and the Postmodern Subject (Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1993) pp.290 $n.p. ISBN 0 8018 4604 8.

Yael Tamir, Liberal Nationalism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993) pp.194 $US24.95 ISBN 0 69107893 9.     

Location or dis-location? Towards a conceptualization of people and place in the care-giving experience

Over the last two decades we have seen an increased interest in informal care within both political and academic communities in the UK. This has stemmed in large part from an increased emphasis on the home-space as the preferred site of care provision and a resultant increase in the complexity of the care-giving relationship. The explicitly spatial dimensions of this caring relationship, however, are vastly under-researched. This paper represents one attempt to redress the gap by examining the importance of place, and its conceptualization, in the care of frail older people. In doing so, the paper focuses, firstly, on the spatial manifestation of care at various scales, identifying some of the processes behind variations in the care-giving experience and, secondly, using the example of dementia care, it considers how Auge´'s concepts of anthropological place and non-space, when applied to domestic and institutional care settings, can facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the importance of people and place in the construction and delivery of care to frail older people.     

Art as a diagnostic: assessing social and political transformation through public art in Cairo,Egypt

Since January 2011, Egypt has undergone several waves of political upheaval in order to craft a new form of governance. Central to this process has been the role of art. This article argues that artistic interventions that engage with the idea of public space and that take place in the public space of the city engender interactions that illuminate the complexities and difficulties currently facing Egyptian society. More so than serving as documentation of what has taken place or as acts of protest, public art can serve as a diagnostic of issues that simmer underneath the surface of national politics. Based on interviews, focus groups, and observations conducted between 2011 and 2013 with Cairo-based artists and arts advocates, the paper explores the way in which public art has signaled tensions regarding class, gender and increasing political polarization. By exploring the relationship between art, artists and urban space, this paper extends analyses on political transitions to take account of the effects produced by forms of artistic expression within the public sphere.     

Protocol,politics and popular culture: the independence jubilee in Gabon

National days are powerful moments of commemoration that aim at renewing the citizens' bonds to the nation and the state. In order to be successful, public rituals need to draw large audiences, and their ceremonial design therefore has to be adapted to suit the masses, employing elements of popular culture and everyday forms of nationhood. Despite drawing its significance from the declaration of independence in 1960, however, Gabon's independence jubilee was less concerned with history and commemoration than with celebrating the state and the nation in the present. The ceremonial design of Gabon's jubilee featured intensive preparations, official ceremonies, popular festivities and symbolic politics. In this article, I look at why history and commemoration played such an unimportant role during the celebrations and how Gabon's jubilee organisers included official as well as popular forms of nationhood to assure the population's participation.     

From the Archives: Pacific Research Archives

The Pacific Research Archives (PRA) is one of three national collections held in the archives at the Australian National University (ANU). This paper describes the origins of and relationships among the three core archival collections: the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, the ANU University Archives and the Pacific Research Archives. The entire ANU Archives boasts over 20 kilometres of records, largely held in the ‘Acton Tunnel’, an underground car park redeveloped as a repository. Established in 2007, the Pacific Research Archives includes over 150 collections created by scholars, missionaries, colonial administrators, organisations and individuals who were working, or had interests, in the Pacific Islands in the politico-cultural regions of Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia. This paper traces the origins of the university’s role as a leader in Pacific studies, the context in which the Pacific Research Archives was created in 2007 and its current method of operation in a collaborative and digital world.     

Increasing Behavioral Flexibility? An Integrative Macro-Scale Approach to Understanding the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa represents a period during which anatomically modern humans adopted a series of diverse cultural innovations. Researchers generally attribute these behavioral changes to environmental, neurological, or demographic causes, but none of these alone offers a satisfactory explanation. Even as patterns at site level come into focus, large-scale trends in cultural expansions remain poorly understood. This paper presents different ways to view diachronic datasets from localities in southern Africa and specifically tests hypotheses of environmental and cultural causality. We employ an array of analyses in an attempt to understand large-scale variability observed during the MSA. We evaluated the diversity of stone tool assemblages to model site use, examined transport distances of lithic raw materials to understand patterns of movement, assessed the cultural capacities required to manufacture and use different sets of tools, applied stochastic models to examine the geographic distribution of sites, and reconstructed biome classes and climatic constraints. Our large-scale analysis allowed the research team to integrate different types of information and examine diachronic trends during the MSA. Based on our results, the range of cultural capacity expanded during the MSA. We define cultural capacity as the behavioral potential of a group expressed through the problem-solution distance required to manufacture and use tools. Our dataset also indicates that the actual behavior exhibited by MSA people, their cultural performance as expressed in the archaeological record, is not equivalent to their cultural capacity. Instead we observe that the main signature of the southern African MSA is its overall variability, as demonstrated by changing sets of cultural performances. Finally, at the scale of resolution considered here, our results suggest that climate is not the most significant factor driving human activities during the MSA. Instead, we postulate that behavioral flexibility itself became the key adaptation.     

Lightening Europe: Establishing the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)

The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) was the first collaborative synchrotron radiation facility in Europe. This article chronicles and analyzes decisive events during ESRF’s foundation phase from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s and sheds light on the politics that mattered for its realization as a scientific collaboration in Europe. As part of a broader effort to chronicle the history of the ESRF, this article contributes to an enriched understanding of intergovernmental scientific cooperation in Europe in the second half of the twentieth century by drawing on so far unexplored material from the French National Archives and the German National Archive.     

The co-creation (of) culture? The case of Umeå, European Capital of Culture 2014

Culture is often promoted as crucial in efforts to achieve economic growth and social cohesion. In recent debates, greater attention has been directed at the importance of culture in creating democratic and just cities. Drawing on theories concerning participation, we study the processes of citizen participation in the creation of culture in relation to the European Capital of Culture in Umeå in Northern Sweden. The city has been praised for its focus on participation and the ‘co-creation’ of culture. We scrutinize the idea of co-creation, how it is filled with meaning by different actors, the way it is operationalized by city officials and cultural actors/practitioners and the possibilities for public participation and the power relationships at play in the city. We conclude that culture tends to be depoliticized and turned into an arena available for all on supposedly equal terms and ignores the very unequal terms on which different actors participate. It ignores how power relations affect and construct who gets to speak and be heard; that there are conflicting meanings of culture and co-creation and how power influences whose definition of culture is accepted.