Book reviews

Stephen G. Hall and Fred Atkinson, Oil and the British Economy. London, Croom Helm, 1983–208 pp. $12.95.

Harvey B. Feigenbaum, The Politics of Public Enterprise: Oil and the French State. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1985. xvii + 194 pp. $US 33.00.

H.W. Arndt, A Course Through Life: Memoirs of an Australian Economist. Canberra, National Centre for Development Studies, Australian National University, 1985. ix + 177 pp. $10.00. Alan Rix (ed.), Intermittent Diplomat: The Japan and Batavia Diaries of W. MacMahon Ball. Carlton, Melbourne University Press, 1988. $37.50.

Benjamin Higgins, The Road Less Travelled. A Development Economist's Quest. Canberra, National Centre for Development Studies, Australian National University History of Development Studies 2, 1989. x + 204 pp. $20.00.

Francis Stuart, Towards Coming of Age. A Foreign Service Odyssey. Brisbane, Griffith University Centre for the Study of Australian‐Asian Relations. Australians in Asia series no. 2, 1989. vi + 264 pp. $12.00.

Edward L. Warner III and David A. Ochmanek, Next Moves: An Arms Control Agenda for the 1990's. Council on Foreign Relations, New York, 1989. xi + 163 pp. $US10.95.

Malcolm Saunders and Ralph Summy, The Australian Peace Movement: A Short History. Canberra, Peace Research Centre, Australian National University, 1986. 78pp. $3.75.

Malcolm Saunders, A Bibliography of Books, Articles and Theses on the History of the Australian Peace Movement. Canberra, Peace Research Centre, Australian National University, 1987. 115pp. $10.00.

Robert O'Neill, Alliances and International Order. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988. No price given.

Christine Jennett and Randal G. Steward (eds), Politics of the Future: The Role of Social Movements. Melbourne, Macmillan, 1989. xii + 471 pp. $69.95 (cloth), $34.95 (paper).

John Ravenhill (ed.), No Longer an American Lake? Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1989. ix + 226 pp. $17.95.

Peter Dennis, Troubled Days of Peace. Mountbatten and South East Asia Command, 1945–46. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1987. xi + 270pp. £40.00 (cloth), £13.95 (paper).

Geoffrey M. White and Lamont Lindstrom (eds), Pacific Theater. Island Representations of World War II. Carlton, Melbourne University Press, 1990. xiv + 433 pp. $44.95.

Rodney Tiffen, News and Power. Sydney Allen and Unwin, 1989. $19.95.

Janet Hunt el al. One World or ... None: Making the Difference. Canberra, Australian Council for Overseas Aid, 1988. 58pp. $5.95.

Tran Tri Vu, lost Years: My 1,632 Days in Vietnamese Reeducation Camps. Berkeley, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1988. xv + 381 pp. $US15.00.

Richard J. Kessler, Rebellion and Repression in the Philippines. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1989. xii + 227 pp. $US25.00.

Margaret Jolly and Martha MacIntyre (eds), Family and Gender in the Pacific: Domestic Contradictions and the Colonial Impact. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989. xiii + 296pp. $49.50.

Frank G. Jarrett and Kym Anderson, Growth, Structural Change and Economic Policy in Papua New Guinea: Implications for Agriculture. Pacific Policy Paper No. 5. Canberra, National Centre for Development Studies, Australian National University. 1989. xx + 122pp. $20.00.

Trevor W. Parfitt and Stephen P. Riley, The African Debt Crisis. London, Routledge, 1989. vii + 228 pp.     

Building blocks of polycentric governance

Success or failure of a polycentric system is a function of complex political and social processes, such as coordination between actors and venues to solve specialized policy problems. Yet there is currently no accepted method for isolating distinct processes of coordination, nor to understand how their variance affects polycentric governance performance. We develop and test a building-blocks approach that uses different patterns or “motifs” for measuring and comparing coordination longitudinally on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Our approach confirms that polycentric governance comprises an evolving substrate of interdependent venues and actors over time. However, while issue specialization and actor participation can be improved through the mobilization of venues, such a strategy can also fragment overall polycentric capacity to resolve conflict and adapt to new problems. A building-blocks approach advances understanding and practice of polycentric governance by enabling sharper diagnosis of internal dynamics in complex environmental governance systems.     

Interpretation and its others

An interpretive approach to political science provides accounts of actions and practices that are interpretations of interpretations. We develop this argument using the idea of ‘situated agency’. There are many common criticisms of such an approach. This paper focuses on nine: that an interpretive approach is mere common sense; that it focuses on beliefs or discourses, not actions or practices; that it ignores concepts of social structure; that it seeks to understand actions and practices, not to explain them; that it is concerned exclusively with qualitative techniques of data generation; that it must accept actors' own accounts of their beliefs; that it is insensitive to the ways in which power constitutes beliefs; that it is incapable of producing policy-relevant knowledge; and that it is incapable of producing objective knowledge. We show that the criticisms rest on both misconceptions about an interpretive approach and misplaced beliefs in the false idols of hard data and rigorous methods.     

Public School Search Policies and the "Politics of Sin"

In recent years, high school students have been subjected to greater levels of drug searching and surveillance on school grounds. The effect of such searching is potentially wide-ranging, because public schools "play an important role in socializing students according to the norms and mores of society" ( Vergari, 2000 ). Using the "morality politics" framework, this study reports and analyzes the presence of random, suspicionless drug searches in the Nebraska public schools. Whereas most studies of morality policy have focused on the state as the unit of analysis, we consider the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of principals in regards to drug policies in schools. Our findings, based on a survey of 181 high school principals, reflect several features of morality policy. There has been a significant rise in the number of random drug searches, despite the principals' observation that these measures neither lessen drug use nor catch perpetrators. The most important predictors of drug policy are pressure from local sources, perception of the problem within the community (but not the schools), and the racial composition of schools. Principals articulate limited concern for student rights, and students largely accept searches without resistance. In the discussion, we consider these findings in light of recent court rulings and introduce the potential ramifications of waging the drug war in our nation's classrooms and hallways.     

House-Yard Burials of Enslaved Laborers in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

Four burials were excavated from discrete house-yard compounds in an eighteenth century African Jamaican slave settlement at Seville plantation. Though only four in number, these individuals provide significant information on burial practices and physical conditions within a clearly defined African Jamaican community. The analysis of material remains illuminate living conditions and social relations within the African Jamaican community. Each individual was interred within a separate house-yard and with a unique set of artifacts that yield information about their unique identities and positions within the Seville community. Bioarchaeological assessments describe the osteological remains and detail findings concerning pathologies. To date, they are the only excavated individuals who represent the African Caribbean practice of house-yard burial.