Consider the daughters,they are important to family farms and rural communities too: family-farm succession

Over the last 25 years, researchers have engaged extensively with members of farming families on issues of farm succession. Farmers, their spouses, sons of farmers and daughters-in-law who move into the farming family have been the focus of much of this research. Daughters of farmers (hereafter daughters), except in the unusual cases of being inheritors or successors to the farm enterprise, are for the most part ignored as subjects who may have something to contribute to sociological understanding and theory of farm succession and practice, and also of rural population decline. This article presents the results of a qualitative pilot research project undertaken in 2012 in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, to explore daughters’ perceptions of their families’ decisions about and management of intergenerational family-farm transfer. The results show that many daughters have a keen interest in farming, have developed farm skills and would consider the occupation of farming if given the opportunity. However, daughters are commonly overlooked when it comes to decisions about family-farm succession and/or inheritance; hence, indicating patriarchy remains strongly influential in determining family-farm succession. This article provides a different perspective from previous discussions of the dynamics within farming families and farming communities, and it contributes to wider discussion of changes in and sustainability of rural society. It recommends further research on rural social issues attributable to patrilineal intergenerational farm transfer.     

The informal diplomacy of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue

After 20 years, the Australian American Leadership Dialogue has acquired enviable access to political leaders in the foreign policy establishments of both countries. The influence of the Dialogue is at earlier consensus-building stages of decision making. Its importance has been in ‘relationship maintenance’ of the bilateral alliance which it has pursued through processes of informal diplomacy. The Dialogue now faces its own challenges of organisational renewal and relevance in the wider ‘interpretative community’ of Australian think tanks, university policy institutes and opinion-formers.     

'I Don't Really like It Here but I Don't Want to Be Anywhere Else': Children and Inner City Council Estates

This paper explores the experiences of children living on inner London council estates. Prevalent discourses of social exclusion position such children as both 'at risk' and a risk to others. They are portrayed as a mixture of deviant delinquent and passive victim. In contrast, this research study found that children have a reflexive awareness of the places they inhabit which recognises the estates as harsh and restricting, yet the same time encompasses more positive feelings of identification and belonging. Most children shared a sense of feeling 'at home,' but one which was infused with both a recognition of the stigma associated with 'sink' estates and a fascinated horror with regard to the behaviour of a delinquentminority.     

Book reviews

Brian Girvin (ed.). The Transformation of Contemporary Conservatism. London: Sage Publications, 1988. 232pp. $10.95.

Ingrid Detter DeLupis. The Law of War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. xx + 411pp. $54.00.

Martin Shaw (ed.). War, State and Society. London: Macmillan, 1984. viii + 266pp. No price given.

Denis de Rougemont (translated by Anthony J.C. Kerr). The Future is Within Us. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1983. v + 244pp. No price given.

David Goldsworthy (ed.). Development Studies In Australia: Themes and Issues. Melbourne: Monash University, Development Studies Centre, Monograph No. 1, 1988. 203pp. $10.00.

Martin Walker. The Waking Giant: The Soviet Union Under Gorbachev. London: Abacus Books, 1987. xxvii + 315pp. $16.95.

Andrew Farran. Changing Directions in the Soviet Union?: Perestroika, Glasnost ... and Australia ?with particular reference to the Soviet Far East. Canberra: The Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1988. iv + 24pp. $6.00.

Eberhard Kolb (translated by P.S. Falla). The Weimar Republic. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988. xi + 237pp. $27.95.

Ian S. Lustick. For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1988. xi + 244pp. $11.95

Michael Mandelbaum. Israel and the Occupied Territories: A Personal Report on the Uprising. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1988. 20pp. No price given.

Robert A. Scalapino and Masataka Kosaka. Peace, Politics and Economics in Asia. London and Washington: Pergamon‐Brassey's, 1988. xiv + 209pp. No price given.

Hal Hill. Foreign Investment and Industrialisation in Indonesia. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988. xxi + 179pp. No price given.

Chelvadurai Manogaran. Ethnic Conflict and Reconcilitation in Sri Lanka. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987. xiv + 232pp. $US22.00.

C.K. Brown (ed.). Rural Development in Ghana. Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 1986. xii + 325pp. No price given.

Helen Fraser. New Caledonia: Anti‐Colonialism in a Pacific Territory. Peace Research Centre Monograph No. 2, Australian National University, 1988. 88pp. $10.00.

Susan K. Purcell (ed.). Mexico in Transition: Implications for U.S. Policy. Essays from Both Sides of the Border. New York: The Council on Foreign Relations, 1988. viii + 156pp. $US9.95.

James Ferguson, Papa Doc. Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvaliers. Oxford, Basil Blackwell Inc., 1987. xi + 164pp. $39.95.     

Book reviews

Glen St J. Barclay. A Very Small Insurance Policy. The Politics of Australian Involvement in Vietnam. 1954–1967. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1988. 199pp. No price given.

Robert J. Cooksey. Review of Australia's Defence Exports and Defence Industry. Report to the Minister for Defence. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1986. x + 569pp. No price given.

Ernest McNamara, Robin Ward, Desmond Ball, J. O. Langtry and Richard Q. Agnew. Australia's Defence Resources: a compendium of data. Sydney. Pergamon Press Australia, 1986. 186pp. $ 16.

Jacob Bercovitch. Social Conflicts and Third Parties: Strategies of Conflict Resolution. Boulder. Westview Press, 1984. xv + 163pp. $US23.50.

Norman P. Barry. The New Right. London, New York and Sydney. Croom Helm, 1987. 205pp. $87.95.

Douglas E. Ashford. The Emergence of the Welfare States. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986. x+352pp. $87.50.

J.B. Ghartey. Crisis Accountability and Development in the Third World. The Case of Africa. Aldershot: Avebury, 1987. x + 170pp. $34.50.

Jan‐Erik Lane and Svante O. Ersonn. Politics and Society in Western Europe. London: Sage Publications, 1987. x + 370pp. £20.00 (cloth), £7.50 (paper).

John Toye. Dilemmas of Development: Reflections on the Counter‐Revolution in Development Theory and Policy. Oxford: Basil Black‐well, 1987. ix+ 177pp. $29.95.

Eva Kolinsky. Opposition in Western Europe. London and Sydney: Croom and Helm, 1987. 400pp. £29.95.

Allen Lynch. The Soviet Study of International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. xii+ 197pp. $90.00.

Uri Ra'anan, Francis Fukuyama, Mark Falcoff, Sam C. Sarkesian and Richard H. Shultz, Jr.. Third World Marxist‐Leninist Regimes: Strengths, Vulnerabilities, and U.S. Policy. Washington, D.C: Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, Inc., Pergamon‐Brassey's, 1985. xv + 130pp. No price given.

Helene Carrere d'Encausse. Big Brother: The Soviet Union and Soviet Europe. Translated by George Holoch. New York and London: Holmes and Meier, 1987. xii+332pp. $39.50 (cloth), $US24.50 (paper).

Ferenc Feher, Agnes Heller and Gyorgy Markus. Dictatorship Over Needs: An Analysis of Soviet Societies. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984. xii+312pp. $62.00 (cloth), $ 18.95 (paper).

Bruno Rizzi. The Bureaucratization of the World. The USSR: Bureaucratic Collectivism. London and New York: Tavistock Publications, 1985. viii +111 pp. No price given.

Stephen Fortescue. The Communist Party and Soviet Science. London: Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham/Macmillan, 1986. x+ 234pp. $77.00.

Colin Mackerras and Nick Knight (eds). Marxism In Asia. London & Sydney. Croom Helm, 1985. 297pp. £22.50.

Harry Harding. China's Second Revolution: Reform After Mao, Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1987. xx + 369pp. $US32.95 (cloth), $US12.95 (paper).

Jim Masselos (ed.). Struggling and Ruling: The Indian National Congress 1885–1985. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1987. 224pp. Rs. 150.00.

Lawrence B. Krause, Koh Ai Tee and Lee (Tsao) Yuan. The Singapore Economy Reconsidered. Singapore: The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1987. 230pp. $S38.50 (cloth) $19.90 (paper).

Raj Vasil. Governing Singapore: Interviews with the new leaders. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur: Times Books International, 1980 (Revised Edition 1988). 247pp. $S28.50.

Martin Stuart‐Fox. Laos: Politics, Economics and Society. London: Francis Pinter, Boulder. Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc., 1986. xxiv +220pp. £22.50 (cloth), £7.95 (paper).

United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations. Transnational Corporations and the Electronics Industries oj ASEAN Economics. New York: ESCAP/UNCTC Joint Unit on Transnational Corporations, 1987. v+49pp. $7.50.

Stewart Firth. Nuclear Playground. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1987. xii +176pp. $14.95.

Lars Schoultz. National Security and United States Policy towards Latin America. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987. 337pp. $US42.50 (cloth), $US12.95 (paper).

Rose J. Spalding (ed.). The Political Economy of Revolutionary Nicaragua. Sydney. Allen and Unwin, 1987. 255pp. $87.50 (cloth), $34.95 (paper).

Abby L. Bloom (ed.). Primary Health Care. Australian Council for Overseas Aid, Development Dossier No. 20. Canberra: ACFOA, 1987.iv+80pp.$5.00.     

Booknotes

Ronald Mendelsohn (ed.), Finance of Old Age, Canberra, Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations, Australian National University, 1986, pp.366. $ 15.00 (paper).

Parliament of Victoria, Victorian Parliamentary Handbook, Number 3, Melbourne, 1986, pp. 95 + ix, Maps and Illustrations. $ 15.00 (paper).     

Notice

The Imagination of Reality: Essays in Southeast Asian Coherence Systems. A. L. Becker and A. A. Yengoyan (eds). New Jersey. Ablex Publishing Company. 1979. Pp. XIII + 336.     

Daughters,Decisions and Domination: An Empirical and Conceptual Critique of Household Strategies

This article focuses upon the decision-making process in the household with regard to young women and factory employment in Java and Taiwan, and critically examines to what extent these processes reflect household strategies. While Javanese daughters may seek factory employment against parents' wishes, Taiwanese daughters may be obliged to submit to parental decisions and work for years in order to contribute income. The concept of ‘household strategies’, however, inadequately describes both situations, masking relations of power, resistance and inequality within the household. The assumptions underlying the concept of household strategies and their broader analytical implications are explored, leading to the conclusion that a more differentiated view of the household is needed, taking power relations and struggles between genders and generations into account.