Reviews of books

The publication in July 1998 of the Government's White Papers on integrated transport marked the most comprehensive review of transport policy for 30 years. In spite of this, the measures brought forward by the Government are timid and are unlikely in their present form to tackle the underlying problems of increasing car dependence. This paper reviews the Government's Scottish document, Travel Choices for Scotland, and highlights key policy debates in which the voices of geographers should be better heard.     

Reviews of books

METHODOLOGY

Frontiers in Geographical Teaching. By R. J. Chorley and P. Haggett. 8 × 5 1/4, 385 pp., Methuen, London. 2nd Edition, 1970. Paperback, £1.lb25.

The Analysis of Geographical Data. By W. H. Theakstone and C. Harrison. 8 1/2 × 5 1/2, 132 pp., 34 figures, 15 tables, statistical tables and glossary. Heinemann Educational Books, London, 1970. 75p. (paperback).

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

Dieter Kelletat: Rezente Periglazialerscheinungen im Schottischen Hochland (Gõttinger Geographische Abhandlungen 51, 1970, 67–140).

ASIA

The Transformation of the Chinese Earth. By Keith Buchanan. 10 × 6 1/2 , xvii + 336 pp., 84 maps, 63 photographs. Bell, London, 1970. £3.lb25.

Feeding the Russian Fur Trade. By James R. Gibson. 9 1/2 × 6 1/4, xix + 337 pp. Maps and tables. Bibliography. Index. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Milwaukee and London, 1969. £7.lb15.

AMERICA

Venezuela: Search for a Middle Ground. By R. E. Crist and E. P. Leahy. 13 × 20 cms. 128 pages. Searchlight Books, Van Nostrand, New York &; London. 95p.

EDUCATIONAL

Visual Geographies Book 2: The British Isles. Revised Edition. By Leonard Cundall. 9 3/4 × 7 1/2, 47 pp. Evans Bros., London, 1970. 26p.     

The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and the Shaping of National Identities in the Second World War

This article explores the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), the RAF's major scheme for training airmen during the Second World War. Through this training programme, the dominions of Canada, Australia and New Zealand provided an indispensable contribution to the generation of British air power, a necessary condition for eventual victory. The article first considers the precise ways in which the BCATP extended British air strength, through an analysis of the output of graduates in the UK and the dominions. This is followed by an examination of how the governments of Australia and Canada attempted to ensure the continued national identification of their personnel once these airmen were serving within the RAF, reflecting the increasing political independent-mindedness of the dominions. Although Canada pursued a bolder and more successful policy of ‘Canadianization’, the mixed reception that this initiative received from airmen demonstrated the fact that the importance of national identification to Canadian airmen in Europe varied widely depending on individual experiences; indeed, national political currents were moving ahead of any broad consensus among servicemen.     

Now the Wars are Over: The Past,Present and Future of Scottish Battlefields

Battlefield archaeology has provided a new way of appreciating historic battlefields. This paper provides a summary of the long history of warfare and conflict in Scotland which has given rise to a large number of battlefield sites. Recent moves to highlight the archaeological importance of these sites, in the form of Historic Scotland’s Battlefields Inventory are discussed, along with some of the problems associated with the preservation and management of these important cultural sites.     

The Devil is in the (Bio)diversity: Private Sector “Engagement” and the Restructuring of Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract: Intensified relations between biodiversity conservation organizations and private‐sector actors are analyzed through a historical perspective that positions biodiversity conservation as an organized political project. Within this view the organizational dimensions of conservation exist as coordinated agreement and action among a variety of actors that take shape within radically asymmetrical power relations. This paper traces the privileged position of “business” in aligning concepts of sustainable development and ecological modernization within the emerging institutional context of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Global Environment Facility in ways that help to secure continued access to “nature as capital”, and create the institutional conditions to shape the work of conservation organizations. The contemporary emergence of business as a major actor in shaping contemporary biodiversity conservation is explained in part by the organizational characteristics of modernist conservation that subordinates it to larger societal and political projects such as neoliberal capitalism.