Antidote to Alienation: The Voluntary Association in the Work of Robert Nisbet

Abstract

The American sociologist Robert Nisbet argued that alienation was endemic in the modern world. He blamed processes of individualization and politicization where political power was utilized to separate individuals from intermediate associations. While Nisbet was accused of nostalgia for a lost past of medieval communalism, he pointed to the voluntary association as a source of community in the modern world. Using Nisbet's historical and sociological analysis, this article explains the phenomena of alienation in Nisbet's thought and argues that the voluntary association is capable of integrating individuals into meaningful communities.     

Tourism consumption and the imagination of money

This paper supplements exisiting research on tourism consumption through a focus on money. It draws upon recent work in the geography of money and economic sociology, arguing that the understandings of money used by consumers are of importance to the social formation of tourism. Using a theoretical framework that links consumption studies and reconceptualizations of money, the paper develops a qualitative case study of British long-haul travellers. It concludes that consumers' understandings of money are integral to the ways in which tourists seek to engage with destinations, and points out some implications for the politics of tourism.     

Demographic and budgetary influence on the geography of the poll tax: alarm or false alarm?

"The paper examines the influence of demographic change and the adaptation of local authority budgets on the level of poll tax between local authorities. The changes introduced by the Local Government Finance Act [in the United Kingdom] are argued to make almost all the possible variation between areas depend upon demography and local decisions on expenditure. Means of assessing local expenditure need are outlined and a consistent measure is developed which is used to estimate the relative contributions of changing need, tax base, new expenditures and grants over the period 1974-85 and up to 1991. 'New realism' in local authority spending is argued to combine with demographic change to allow radically reduced potential poll tax levies to be estimated than have been forecast by other sources. The reductions are particularly significant in inner London and many metropolitan districts."     

Pacific Coconut: Comestible,Comfort and Commodity

ABSTRACT

As the title implies this special issue concentrates on the coconut in its older usages and its transformation into commodities. The coconut has many histories, with specific intersections with each Pacific island society, indeed each community and family. This brief introduction seeks to give an overview of its penetration into the lives and societies at several levels, from small clans to major companies, from growers to governments, all implicated along the commodity chain. In spite of the coconut’s ubiquity, the historiography has never addressed it fully but taken it rather as a given, one player in capitalism in the region, yet in fact, for over a hundred years, it was the star product upon which many governments and people across the tropical Pacific depended for income. We hope that some aspects of the coconut’s complexity and meaning are brought to light in the following new contributions to its history.     

Biodiversity Conservation: The Process of Economic Assessment and Establishment of a Protected Area in Vanuatu

This article describes the framework adopted for the socio-economic assessment of protected areas intended to safeguard biodiversity. This framework, which can be described as a three-tiered approach to conservation, is applied to the process of assessment and establishment of a protected area (PA) in Vanuatu. The potential benefits that the landowners of the PA could derive from logging activities, and the subsistence values derived from the PA are considered. It appears that if the PA was to be established without the payment of any compensation, the landowners would face substantial net costs. During the research process, it was suggested that the Government of Vanuatu could take up a lease on the land to compensate the landowners for the loss of potential logging royalties. When the benefits accruing to the landowners from a lease agreement are compared with the foregone logging royalties, it is found that the net present value of a seventy-five year lease agreement is approximately equivalent to the net present value of logging royalties.     

Book reviews

Australian. J. S. Western and Colin A. Hughes, The Mass Media in Australia. Use and Evaluation, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1971, pp. 178, $6.50.

R. G. Casey, Australian Foreign Minister: Diaries 1951–60, ed. T. B. Millar, Collins, Sydney, 1972, pp. 352, $7.95.

Ian Bellany, Australia in the Nuclear Age: National Defence and National Development, Sydney University Press, 1972, pp. 144, $6.00.

J. A. La Nauze, The Making of the Australian Constitution, Melbourne University Press 1972, pp. 369 + xi, $15.00.

Scott Bennett, The Making of the Commonwealth, Cassell Australia, Melbourne, 1971, pp. xi + 244, no price.

Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia, 17th ed., 1971, Australian Government Publishing Service Canberra 1972, pp xiii + 954, $11.50.

Naomi Turner, Sinews of Sectarian Warfare? State Aid in New South Wales 1836–1862, Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1972, pp. 272, $8.50.

Niall Brennan, John Wren Gambler, Hill of Content, Melbourne, 1971, pp. xii + 259, $6.95.

Irwin Young, Theodore His Life and Times, Alpha, Sydney, 1971, pp. 189, $4.50.

Don Whitington, Twelfth Man?, Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, 1972, pp. 180, $4.95.

J. E. Menadue, A Centenary History of the Australian Natives’ Association, 1871–1971, Horticultural Press, Melbourne, n.d., 1972, pp. x + 425, no price.

I. McKay, R. Boyd, H. Stretton and J. Mant, Living and Partly Living, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1972, pp. 195, $10.95.

Robin Boyd, The Great Great Australian Dream, Pergamon Press, Sydney, 1972, pp. 395 + xviii, $5.95.

Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers of Australian Government Publications, 2nd ed., Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1972, pp. 417 + xiv, $9.95.

Other. Marian W. Ward (ed.), Change and Development in Rural Melanesia: Papers Delivered at the Fifth Waigani Seminar, The University of Papua and New Guinea, Port Moresby, and the Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, A.N.U. Press, Canberra, 1972, pp. ix + 556, $6.00.

L. Cleveland and A. D. Robinson (eds.), Readings in New Zealand Government, Reed, Wellington, 1972, pp. 314, $NZ5.30.

Richard Crossman, Inside View, Jonathan Cape, London, 1972, pp. 117, $6.50.

Humphrey Berkeley, Crossing the Floor, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1972, pp. 170, $9.30.

Eleanor Kapp, Eleanor Marx, Volume I Family Life 1855–1883, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1972, pp. 319, £4.50 (English price).

U. Bronfenbrenner, Two Worlds of Childhood: U.S. and U.S.S.R., George Allen and Unwin, London, 1971, pp. xii + 190 (plus 4 blank pages), $10.60.

R. J. Mokken, A Theory and Procedure of Scale Analysis, with Applications in Political Research, Mouton, The Hague, 1971, pp xiii + 353, 45 guilders.     

Book reviews

Australian politics

Frank Brennan, Land Rights Queensland Style. The Struggle for Aboriginal Self‐Management (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1992) pp.182. $29.95 ISBN 0 7022 2407 3.

Frank Brennan, Sharing the Country: The Case for an Agreement Between Black and White Australians (Melbourne: Penguin, 1991) pp.176. $18.95 ISBN 0 14 013867 6.

Libby Connors, Lynette Finch, Kay Saunders and Helen Taylor, Australia's Frontline: Remembering the 1939–45 War (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1992) pp.244. $16.95 ISBN 7022 2446 4.

Peter Edwards with Gregory Pemberton, Crises and Commitments: The Politics and Diplomacy of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948–1965 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin in association with the Australian War Memorial, 1992) pp.515. $45.00 ISBN 1 86373184 9.

Dean Jaensch, The Politics of Australia (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1992) pp.446. $34.95 ISBN 0 7329 0396 3.

J.E. King (ed.), Readings in Australian Labour Economics (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1992) pp.363. $29.95 9 ISBN 0 7329 1261 X.

Patrick O'Brien and Martyn Webb (eds), The Executive State: WA Inc. and the Constitution (Perth: Constitutional Press, 1991) pp.389. $19.95 ISBN 0 646 04875 9.

David Pollard, Social Need and Social Policy (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 1992) pp.112. $24.95 0 86806 452 1.

David Trigger, Whitefella Commin’: Aboriginal Responses to Colonialism in Northern Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.250. $45.00 ISBN 0 521 40181 X.

J.C. Altman (ed.), A National Survey of Indigenous Australians: Options and Implications. Research Monograph No. 3. (Canberra: Centre For Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University, 1992) pp.170. $4.80 ISBN 0 7315 1395 9.

Compartive and International Politics

Peter H. Argersinger, Structure, Process, and Party: Essays in American Political History (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharp, 1992) pp.219. $US29.95 ISBN 0 87332 798 5.

Jane H. Bayes (ed.), Women and Public Administration: International Perspectives (Binghamton: Harrington Park Press, 1991) pp.139. $US14.95. ISBN 1 56023 014 2.

Jonathan Boston, John Martin, June Pallot, Pat Walsh (eds), Reshaping the State: New Zealand's Bureaucratic Revolution (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1991) pp.408. $48.00. ISBN 0 19 558222 5.

Naomi Chazan, Robert Mortimer, John Ravenhill and Donald Rothchild, Polities and Society in Contemporary Africa (second edition) (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992) pp.483. $19.95 ISBN 155587 283 2.

Cal Clark and Steve Chan (eds), The Evolving Pacific Basin in the Global Political Economy: Domestic & International Linkages (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1992) pp.226. $n.p. ISBN 1 55587 271 9.

Jacques Delors (trans Brian Pearce), Our Europe: The Community and National Development (London, New York: Verso, 1992) pp.166. $59.95 ISBN 0 86091 380 5.

David Denver and Gordon Hands (eds), Issues and Controversies in British Electoral Behaviour (London: Harvester Wheatsheef, 1992) pp.390 $n.p. ISBN 0 7450 0976 X.

Jean Bethke Elshtain (ed.), Just War Theory (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992) pp.336. $39.95. ISBN 0 631 17278 5.

Mark Franklin, Tom Mackie, Henry Valen et al, Electoral Change: Responses to Evolving Social and Attitudinal Structures in Western Countries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.475. $140.00 ISBN 0 521 37460 X.

Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, The Gulf Conflict 1990–1991: Diplomacy and War in the New World Order (London: Faber and Faber, 1993) pp.504. $45.00 ISBN 0 571 16457 9.

Rebecca Grant and Kathleen Newland (eds), Gender and International Relations (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991) pp.176. $29.95. ISBN 0 335 09740 5.

Janette Habel (trans by Jon Barnes), Cuba: The Revolution in Peril (London: Verso, 1991) pp.241. $59.95. ISBN 0 86091 308 2.

Anthony Heath, Roger Jowell, John Curtice, Geoff Evans, Julia Field, and Sharon Witherspoon, Understanding Political Change: The British Voter 1964–1987 (Oxford and Sydney: Pergamon Press, 1991) pp.334. £11.95 ISBN 0 08 037256 2.

Martin Holland (ed.), Electoral Behaviour in New Zealand (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1992) pp.202. $35.00 ISBN 0 19 558261 6.

Eamonn Hughes, Culture and Politics in Northern Ireland: 1960–1990 (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991) pp.182. $32.95 ISBN 0 335 09712 X.

John Kingdom, No Such Thing as Society? Individualism and Community, (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1992) pp.134. $34.95 ISBN ISBN 0 335 09726 X.

Jan‐Erik Lane, David McKay, and Kenneth Newton (eds), Political Data Handbook OECD Countries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) pp.257. $75.00 ISBN 0 19 827718 0.

Arend Lijphart (ed.), Parliamentary Versus Presidential Government (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992) pp.257 $22.95 ISBN 0 19 878043 5.

David Marsh and R.A.W. Rhodes (eds), Implementing Thatcherite Policies: Audit of an Era (Buckingham, England: Open University Press, 1992) pp.212 $45.00. ISBN 0 335 15682 7.

Anthony G. McGrew and Paul G. Lewis et al, Global Politics (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992) pp.337. $39.45 ISBN 0 7456 0756 X.

Miroslav Nincic, Democracy and Foreign Policy: The Fallacy of Political Realism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992) pp.200. $US43.50 ISBN 0231076681.

B. Guy Peters, The Politics of Taxation: A Comparative Perspective (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.338. $39.95 ISBN 1 55786 211 7.

Matthew Spriggs and Donald Denoon (eds) The Bougainville Crisis. 1991 Update. Political and Social Change Monograph No. 16 (Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University and Crawford House, Bathurst, 1992) pp.228. $n.p. ISBN 1 863 33013 5.

Ruy Teixeira, The Disappearing American Voter (Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1992) pp.256. $31.95 ISBN 0 8157 8302 7.

Loukas Tsoukalis, The New European Economy: The Politics and Economics of Integration (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) pp.333. $59.95. ISBN 0 19 828750 X.

Mark Turner, Papua New Guinea: The Challenge of Independence (Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin Books, 1990) pp.200. $16.95 ISBN 0 14 012390 3.

Jack Vowles and Peter Aimer, Voters’ Vengeance — The 1990 Election in New Zealand and the Fate of the Fourth Labour Government (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1993) pp.264. $32.50 ISBN 1 86940 078 X.

Bo Yang (trans. and ed. by Don J. Cohn and Jing Qing), The Ugly Chinaman and the Crisis of Chinese Culture (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1992) pp.162. $19.95 ISBN 1 86373 116 4.

Theory and Methodology

Terrell Carver (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Marx (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.357. $35.00 ISBN 0 521 36694 1.

William Galston, Liberal Purposes: Goods, Virtues, and Diversity in the Liberal State (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.343. $35.00 ISBN 0 521 42250 7.

Peter Hay and Robin Eckersley (eds), Ecopolitical Theory: Essays From Australia, Occasional Paper 24 (Hobart: Centre for Evironmental Studies, University of Tasmania, 1992) pp.238. $24.00 ISBN 0 65901 508 4.

Ernest Mandel, Power and Money: A Marxist Theory of Bureaucracy (London: Verso, 1992) pp.252. $34.95 ISBN 0 86091 548 4.

Patrick Riley (ed.), Essays in Political Philosophy (Rochester, New York: University of Rochester Press, 1992) pp.385. $n.p. ISBN 1 878822 08 X.

Dorothy Ross, The Origins of American Social Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.508. $59.50 ISBN 0 521 35092 1.

Stephen Sedley and Lawrence Kaplan (eds), foreword by Christopher Hill, A Spark in the Ashes: The Pamphlets of John Warr (London and New York: Verso, 1992) pp.116. ISBN 0 86091 599 9.

Judith A. Swanson, The Public and the Private in Aristotle's Political Philosophy (New York: Cornell University Press, 1992) pp.244. $US31.95 ISBN 0 8014 2319 8.     

‘The final decision is with the patient’: reproductive modernity and preferences for non-hormonal and non-biomedical contraceptives among postpartum middle class women in Yogyakarta,Indonesia

In Indonesia fertility has plateaued for more than a decade. Over the same period Indonesian women have increasingly accessed contraception via the private sector. Our qualitative inquiry into the contraceptive preferences of middle class women in urban Yogyakarta revealed limited interest in and intent to use biomedical and hormonal contraceptive methods. Women’s justifications for their contraceptive choices were complex and manifold: most had concerns about safety and the side effects associated with hormonal and biomedical contraceptives; others were ideologically opposed to fertility control. We conclude that contraceptive choices were an embodiment of women’s reproductive modernity, which in turn underpinned their reproductive agency. We also problematise the extent to which women’s contraceptive choices were comprehensively informed. Women’s reproductive modernity was shaped by their socioeconomic status; access to modern communication technologies; understandings of their right to health and contraceptive choice; pious yet pragmatic religious identities; and negotiations within their marital relationships.