Book reviews

The Geography of Europe's Futures. Ian Masser, Ove Sviden and Michael Wegener, London, Belhaven Press, 1992, 225 pp., £12.99, ISBN 1 85293 231/2 7/5.

Cities and Regions in the New Europe. Mick Dunford and Grigoris Kafkalas (Eds), London, Belhaven Press, 1992, 339 pp., £42.00, ISBN: 1 85293 221 X.

Regional Development and Contemporary Industrial Response: Extending Flexible Specialisation. Huib Ernste and Verena Meier (Eds), London, Belhaven Press, 1992, 256 pp., £35.00, ISBN: 1 85293 214 7.

Understanding Information: Business, Technology and Geography. K. Robins (Ed.), London, Belhaven Press, 1992, 207 pp., £37.50, ISBN: 1 85293 109 4.

Humanising the City? Social Contexts of Urban life at the Turn of the Millennium. Anthony P. Cohen and Katsuyoshi Fukui (Eds), Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 228 pp., £29.50 hb., ISBN 0 7486 0388 3.     

Book reviews

Regions Reconsidered: Economic Networks, Innovation and Local Department in Industrial Countries. Edward Bergman, Gunter Maier and Franz Tödtling (Eds), London: Mansell Publishing Limited, 1991, 312pp.

Travel Sickness: The Need for a Sustainable Transport Policy for Britain. J. Roberts, J. Cleary, K. Hamilton and J. Hanna (Eds), London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1992, 358pp.

Endogenous Development and Southern Europe. G. Garofoli (Ed.), Aldershot: Avebury Press, 1992, ISBN 1 85628 1310, 250pp., £37.50.     

Canadian and Australian farm interest groups

It is not surprising that the organization and behaviour of farm organizations differ depending upon whether they operate in unitary or federal states or in parliamentary or congressional type environment. The question is how different or similar are they and their behaviour in states which are both federal and both parliamentary.

This article examines the variations between Australian and Canadian farm organizations and examines some of the possible explanations for them. Some of the differences stem from the origins of the organizations, others from variations in the two countries’ political institutions or their usages.     

General practice access in regional and remote Australia for ageing populations

Identifying and removing access barriers to the timely provision of comprehensive health care is increasingly important for the wellbeing of Australia's rapidly ageing and frail populations, particularly those in non‐metropolitan settings. This study has examined if current general practice (GP) locations in non‐metropolitan South Australia (SA) and Western Australia (WA) are geographically accessible to the rapidly growing frail and prefrail populations known to have a high level of health service use and reduced mobility. Geospatial analysis linking 60‐kilometre GP service catchments, 2016 population counts, and 2027 population projections has estimated that the size of the frail and prefrail population that live outside these GP service catchments will double, reaching 7,800 people by 2027. The maldistribution of GP locations was most evident in WA. As regional and remote populations continue to age, the challenge of health service provision, including geographic access to care, must be resolved to ensure that populations in these areas have the best opportunity to age well. Geospatial methods linking service and demographic information, such as the approach used in this analysis, can aid in planning the equitable provision of health care for older Australians.     

Squabbling Siblings: Gender and Monastic Life in Late Anglo‐Saxon Winchester

In early medieval Winchester, three monastic communities were enclosed together in the south‐eastern corner of the town. By the later Anglo‐Saxon period, Old Minster was a monastic cathedral and New Minster and Nunnaminster were monastic communities for men and women respectively. This paper addresses ways in which the three foundations collaborated and co‐ordinated with each other and with the city. While gender segregated these communities, both liturgy and the urban context integrated them, as can be seen from the books used and produced by religious men and women in this city in later Anglo‐Saxon England. The importance of prayer to the inhabitants of the city and the wider locale can be seen in the documents that request liturgical services – most often prayers and masses – in return for grants of land and other gifts. Ecclesiastical and lay individuals alike allied themselves to these religious houses, seeking commemoration and often also burial in their cemeteries and hoping to benefit spiritually from their prayers. The ways in which gender affected the religious experiences of Winchester's citizens and their consecrated brothers and sisters are complex, but they are also important in understanding how the saints and their servants on earth related to God, to each other and to the surrounding urban space.     

Have you heard the one about the disappearing ice? Recasting Arctic geopolitics

This article unpacks the discourse of Arctic geopolitics evident in the space-making practices of a wide variety of actors and institutions, offering an exploration of the ways in which the Arctic is emerging as a space of and for geopolitics. Tracing the well-aired story of Arctic geopolitics through neo-realist readings of climate change, the melting of polar ice, increasing competition for resources and so on, two kinds of spatial ordering are identified as being entwined in orthodox Arctic geopolitics. The first has to do with Arctic space as such, and its open, indeterminate nature in particular. The perceived openness of Arctic space enables it to become a space of masculinist fantasy and adventure, which is mirrored in contemporary accounts of Arctic geopolitics. It is suggested that this is entwined with and nourishes the second ordering of Arctic space in terms of state-building and international relations. The working out of these spatial orderings in recent interventions in Arctic geopolitics is explored via three examples (two Arctic exhibitions in London, the Russian Polar expedition of 2007 and ’sovereignty patrols’ by Canadian Rangers). In conclusion, the article presents avenues for further critical research on Arctic geopolitics that emphasizes embodiment, the resolutely (trans)local, and a commitment to the everyday.