Defining,explaining and managing high-tech growth: The case of Oxfordshire

The formerly sleepy, rural county of Oxfordshire is now one of Europe's leading centres of enterprise, innovation and knowledge. It is a hotspot for high-tech manufacturing and service employment. But what is behind this phenomenon, and to what extent has it been managed? This paper sets out the facts, and explores the underlying factors. It starts with a number of definitional questions and approaches used in the research. It concludes with an examination of the role of planning in the process—and the extent to which is has helped or hindered the rise of “Enterprising Oxford”.     

Regional Development Agencies and Local Economic Development: Scale and Competitiveness in High-technology Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire

Regional Development Agencies have been given the fundamental aim of improving their regions' economic performance and competitiveness. Supporting innovation is a cornerstone of this policy. This paper explores the limitations of region-based strategies arguing that this neglects the importance of policy intervention at the local level, using case studies of Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire.     

Book reviews

? General

Thelma Chang. "I Can Never Forget”, Men of the 100th/442nd. Arizona: Sigi Productions, University of Arizona Press, 1991. 207 pp. Photographs, bibliography, index. US$34.95, hardcover.

James J. Fox and Clifford Sather, editors. Origins, Ancestry and Alliance: Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography. Canberra: Department of Anthropology, Comparative Austronesian Project, 1996. viii, 336 pp. Introduction, contents, acknowledgments, figures, tables, maps, references, index. Npg, paper.

John Mackenzie. Orientalism: History, Theory and the Arts. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995. xii, 232 pp. 8 pp. of plates. US$24.95, paper.

Richard Robison, editor. Pathways to Asia: The Politics of Engagement. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 1996. 270 pp. A$24.95, paper.

Eileen H. Tamura. Americanization, Acculturation, and Ethnic Identify: The Nissei Generation in Hawaii. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994. xx, 326 pp. US19.95, paper.

Nancy Viviani. The Indochinese in Australia, 1975–1995: From Burnt Boats to Barbecues. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1996. xvi, 208 pp. Tables and figures, abbreviations, appendix, bibliography, index. A$24.95, paper.

? Northeast Asia

James Cahill. The Lyric Journey: Poetic Painting in China and Japan. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1996. x, 251 pp. Preface, glossary, bibliography, index. US$45.00, hardcover.

William H. Coaldrake. Architecture and Authority in Japan. London: Routledge, 1996. xxi, 337 pp. Preface, list of figures, acknowledgments, glossary, chronological table, notes, index. US$135.00, hardcover; US$44.95, paper.

Norman Eder. Poisoned Prosperity: Development, Modernization, and the Environment in South Korea. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996. xiv, 192 pp. Two maps, bibliography, index. US$21.95, paper.

JaHyun Kim Haboush, translator. The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth‐Century Korea. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. xii, 372 pp. Illustrations, glossary, index. Npg, paper.

Donald Keene. The Blue‐Eyed Tarôkaja: A Donald Keene Anthology. Edited by J. Thomas Rimer. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. ix, 290 pp. Contents, editor's preface, index. US$24.50, paper.

Rikki Kersten. Democracy in Postwar Japan: Maruyama Masao and the Search for Autonomy. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. xiv, 289 pp. Series editor's preface, acknowledgments, index. US$74.95, hardcover.

Hiroshi Komai (Jens Wilkinson, tr.). Migrant Workers in Japan. London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1995. xviii, 305 pp. List of tables and figures, preface to English edition, preface, introduction, policy proposal, references, index. US$76.50, hardcover.

Fumie Kumagai with Donna Keyser. Unmasking Japan Today: The Impact of Traditional Values on Modern Japanese Society. Westport and London: Praeger, 1996. 192 pp. Preface, bibliography, index. US$39.95, hardcover.

Robert M. Marsh. The Great Transformation: Social Change in Taipei, Taiwan since the 1960s. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1996. An East Gate Book. 418 pp. Maps, glossary, appendix, bibliography, photographs, index. US$62.95, hardcover; US$27.95, paper.

Joe Moore, editor. The Other Japan: Conflict, Compromise, and Resistance since 1945. New Edition. New York and London: M.E. Sharpe, 1997, for the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars. xvi, 406 pp. Introduction, index. US$24.95, paper.

Leith Morton. An Anthology of Contemporary Japanese Poetry. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1993. xxv, 458 pp. Preface, introduction, biographies of the poets, bibliographic notes, selected English‐language bibliography. US$75.00, hardcover.

Ikko Shimizu. The Dark Side of Japanese Business: Three “Industry Novels” — Silver Sanctuary, The Ibis Cage, Keiretsu. Translated and edited by Tamae K. Prindle. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1996. 277 pp. US$50.00, hardcover; US$17.95, paper.

Yoshio Sugimoto. An Introduction to Japanese Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 285 pp. US$90.00, hardcover; US$29.95, paper.

Shih‐shan Henry Tsai. The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. 290 pp. Introduction, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. US$18.95, paper.

? South Asia

Ludwig W. Adamec. Dictionary of Afghan Wars, Revolutions, and Insurgencies. Metuchen, NJ, and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1996. xvii, 364 pp. US$48.00, hardcover.

Sudhir Kakar. The Colors Of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion and Conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. xiii, 217 pp. Notes, index. US$14.95, paper.

Stanley N. Kurtz. All the Mothers are One: Hindu India and the Cultural Reshaping of Psychoanalysis. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. xv, 306 pp. Foreword by S.J. Thambiah, illustrations, index. US$49.50, hardcover; US$18.00, paper.

? Southeast Asia

H.S. Barlow. Swettenham. Kuala Lumpur: Southdene Sdn Bhd, 1995. xviii, 783 pp. Foreword, abbreviations, bibliography, plates, index. Npg, hardcover.

Daniel S. Lev and Ruth T. McVey, editors. Making Indonesia: Essays on Modern Indonesia in Honor of George McT. Kahin. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1996. 201 pp. US$18.00, paper.

Peter Rogers. Northeast Thailand from Prehistoric to Modern Times. Bangkok: Duang Kamol, 1966. 259 pp. Npg.

James Niel Sneddon. Indonesian Reference Grammar. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1996. xxvii, 387 pp. A$29.95, paper.

N.P. van den Berg. Currency and the Economy of Netherlands India, 1870–1995. (Reprint of The Financial and Economical Condition of Netherlands India since 1870 and the Effect of the Present Currency System with introduction by Pierre van der Eng.) Singapore: Sources for the Economic History of Southeast Asia Data Paper Series No. 5, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1996. xxx, 120 pp. Tables. S$29.00/US$24.00, paper.

Pierre van der Eng. Agricultural Growth in Indonesia: Productivity Change and Policy Impact since 1880. Studies in the Economies of East and South‐East Asia. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press; New York: St Martin's Press, 1996. xiii, 375 pp. Abbreviations and acronyms, preface, tables, figures, notes and references, appendices, bibliography, index. US79.95, hardcover.

Michael Vatikiotis. Political Change in Southeast Asia: Trimming the Banyan Tree. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. xiv, 230 pp. Foreword. US$13.99, paper.     

Exploring the Relations Between Riverbank Erosion and Geomorphological Controls Using Geographically Weighted Logistic Regression

The relations between riverbank erosion and geomorphological variables that are thought to control or influence erosion are commonly modelled using regression. For a given river, a single regression model might befitted to data on erosion and its geomorphological controls obtained along the river's length. However, it is likely that the influence of some variables may vary with geographical location (i.e., distance upstream). For this reason, the spatially stationary regression model should be replaced with a non‐stationary equivalent. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) is a suitable choice. In this paper, GWR is extended to predict the binary presence or absence of erosion via the logistic model. This extended model was applied to data obtained from historical archives and a spatially intensive field survey of a length of 42 km of the Afon Dyfi in West Wales. The model parameters and the residual deviance of the model varied greatly with distance upstream. The practical implication of the result is that different management practices should be implemented at different locations along the river. Thus, the approach presented allowed inference of spatially varying management practice as a consequence of spatially varying geomorphological process.