Book reviews

W. J. Hudson, Australia and the League of Nations. Sydney University Press in association with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Sydney, 1980, pp. 224. $22.50.

H. Kenway, H. J. W. Stokes and P. G. Edwards (eds), Documents on Australian Foreign Policy 1937–1949. Volume III, “January‐June 1940”. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1979, pp. lvii + 579. $26.00.

J. D. B. Miller, The World of States: Connected Essays. Croom Helm, London, 1981, pp. 179. £12.50.

Robert O'Neill, Australia in the Korean War: Volume I: Strategy and Diplomacy. Australian War Memorial and Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1981, pp. xxi + 548. $27.50.

Ian Downs, The Australian Trusteeship Papua New Guinea 1945–75. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1980, pp. xxiv + 587. $28.00.

Kym Anderson and Aurelia George (eds), Australian Agriculture and Newly Industrializing Asia: Issues for Research. Australia‐Japan Research Centre, Canberra, 1980, pp. xii + 462. $7.00.

R. and A. Burnett (eds), Australia‐New Zealand Economic Relations—Issues for the 1980s. ANU Press, Canberra, 1981, pp. 183. $12.00.

T. B. Millar, The East‐West Strategic Balance. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1981, pp. 199. $19.95 (cloth), $11.95 (paper).

Karl W. Deutsch (ed.), Ecosocial Systems and Ecopolitics. A reader on human and social implications of environmental management in developing countries. UNESCO, Paris, 1977, pp. 368. No price given.

Allan Schnaiberg, The Environment. From Surplus to Scarcity. Oxford University Press, New York, 1980, pp.464. $14.95.

Gerald Foley with Charlotte Nassim, The Energy Question. Second edition. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1981, pp. 327. $6.95.

R. M. M'Gonigle and Mark W. Zacher, Pollution, Politics, and International Law. Tankers at Sea. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1979, pp. xviii + 394. $22.50.

J. E. S. Fawcett and Audrey Parry, Law and International Resource Conflicts. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1981, pp. xiv + 254. £20.00.

John L. S. Girling, Thailand, Society and Politics. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1981, pp. 306. $US24.50.

Leung Chi‐keung, J. W. Cushman, Wang Gungwu (eds), Hong Kong: Dilemmas of Growth. Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University and the Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 1980, pp. 665. $12.

Adam Malik, In the Service of the Republic. Gunung Agung, Singapore, 1980, pp.326. $S18.00.

Donald L. Horowitz, Coup Theories and Officers Motives. Sri Lanka in Comparative Perspective. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1980, pp. xv + 240. $US21.00 (cloth), $US9.25 (paper).

J. Bruce Jacobs, Local Politics in a Rural Chinese Cultural Setting: A Field Study of Mazu Township, Taiwan. Contemporary China Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, 1980, pp. 247. $6.00.

Frank Hardie and Irwin Herrman, Britain and Zion: The Fateful Entanglement. Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 1980, pp.x + 118. $7.95.

L. G. Churchward, Australia And America 1788–1972: An Alternative History. Alternative Publishing Cooperative Limited, Sydney, 1979, pp.261.

Angelika Volle, Aus—und Forthildung fur Internationale Tatigkeiten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Europa Union Verlag GMBH, Bonn, 1980, pp. 188. No price given.

O. G. Roeder and Mahiddin Mahmud, compilers, Who's Who in Indonesia. Gunung Agung, Singapore, 1980, pp.428. $S30.00.

Deryck Scarr, Viceroy of the Pacific. Pacific Research Monograph No. 4, Australian National University, Canberra, 1980, pp. 334. $9.00.

Stein Rokkan (ed.), Scandinavian Political Studies, Vol. 12, 1977. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo; Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, pp. 288 $US22.00.     

From Sorcery to Laboratory: Pandemics and Yanyuwa Experiences of Viral Vulnerability

The COVID‐19 pandemic has prompted renewed attention among health professionals, Aboriginal community leaders, and social scientists to the need for culturally responsive preventative health measures and strategies. This article, a collaborative effort, involving Yanyuwa families from the remote community of Borroloola and two anthropologists with whom Yanyuwa have long associations, tracks the story of pandemics from the perspective of Aboriginal people in the Gulf region of northern Australia. It specifically orients the discussion of the current predicament of ‘viral vulnerability’ in the wake of COVID‐19, relative to other pandemics, including the Hong Kong flu in 1969 and the Spanish flu decades earlier in 1919. This discussion highlights that culturally nuanced and prescribed responses to illness and threat of illness have a long history for Yanyuwa. Yanyuwa cultural repertoires have assisted in the process of making sense of massive change, in the form of past pandemics and the onset of sickness, the threat of illness with COVID‐19 and the attribution of ‘viral vulnerability’ to this remote Aboriginal community. The aim is to centralise Yanyuwa voices in this story, as an important step in growing understandings of Aboriginal knowledge of pandemics and culturally relevant and controlled health responses and strategies for communal well‐being.     

Do more,with less: The realities of local government in rural Ontario

Over the past 30 years, the responsibilities, mandates, and activities of local governments in Ontario have undergone substantial transformations. Influenced by New Public Management, policy changes are characterized by marketization and managerialism resulting in downloading of responsibilities to local governments. This research examines the ebbs and flows of policy changes among different provincial governments since 1990 and the impacts of these policies on rural local governments in Ontario. Interviews were conducted with elected officials and senior staff in eight local governments to understand their realities. The findings demonstrate the continual policy changes led to the “do more, with less” approach currently faced by rural local governments—increased regulatory requirements, limited human and financial capacities, and small tax bases to support their activities. This experience, combined with limited fiscal levers, hinders the ability of rural local governments to address both new demands for infrastructure and existing infrastructure deficits, housing stock and affordability, and economic and workforce development strategies. The reality has necessitated local governments to seek alternative strategies to deliver programs and services through partnerships and collaboration.     

An economic and financial geography of the Australian superannuation industry

The Australian superannuation industry has grown enormously over the past 30 years. Whereas working people are automatically enrolled at their workplaces, the head offices of many industry funds are in Melbourne rather than Sydney. Melbourne’s dominance of the superannuation industry is explained, in part, by happenstance—the location of major unions and employer groups and their initiatives in response to the enabling legislation. Other factors identified include opportunism, cooperation, and the advantages of growth. Government-prompted mergers and acquisitions have also reinforced the dominance of Melbourne, notwithstanding attempts by Sydney-based superannuation funds to out-compete their Melbourne rivals. Whereas the geographical bifurcation of the Australian superannuation industry has been mediated by the formation of a Queensland-based superfund “champion,” it is suggested that it faces numerous challenges. In conclusion, avenues for future research are sketched, focusing upon the future of Melbourne as the centre of the superannuation industry, the role of digital platforms in service delivery, pension adequacy, and the increasing importance of Australian funds in global financial markets.     

Tangible belonging and national indifference: Being German in interwar Hungary1

Building on arguments from my book Tangible Belonging: Negotiating Germanness in Twentieth-Century Hungary, this article examines the sense of ‘being German’ in Hungarian-German villages in interwar Hungary. The basic argument is that rural dwellers possessed a kind of tangible belonging (a tangible sense of being German, in this case) defined by the immediate world around them and that this tangible belonging was continually in negotiations with other constituencies trying to define Germanness, such as Reich Germans, Hungarian-German leaders, and the Hungarian state as well as other Hungarians. This article also engages with the concept of national indifference, which has become a very common catchphrase in explanations concerning belonging in East Central Europe, especially in borderland regions and on the margins of states.