Reviews

AUSTRALIA IN WORLD AFFAIRS 1956–1960. Gordon Greenwood and Norman Harper (eds.). For the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Melbourne, F. W. Cheshire, 1963. Pp. viii + 430. 63/‐.

AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE POLICY 1951–1963: MAJOR INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS. Sir Alan Watt. A.N.U. Department of International Relations: Working Paper no. 4. 1964. Pp. ii + 92. 10/‐.

THE DEBATABLE ALLIANCE: AN ESSAY IN ANGLO‐AMERICAN RELATIONS. Coral Bell. R.I.I.A., Chatham House Essays, no. 3, 1964. Pp. 130, Australian price 14/3.

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE UNITED NATIONS: MYTH AND REALITY. R. B. Ballinger. Johannesburg, The South African Institute of International Affairs, 1963. Pp. 32. 32 cents.

THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA AND THE HIGH COMMISSION TERRITORIES. Lord Hailey. London, Oxford University Press. Pp. viii + 136. Australian price 29/9d.

APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA. New York, United Nations, 1963. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES. New York, United Nations, 1963. Pp. 84. $1.00. STUDY OF DISCRIMINATION IN THE MATTER OF POLITICAL RIGHTS. New York, United Nations, 1962. Pp. viii + 105. $1.50.

STERLING IN THE SIXTIES. Christopher MoMahon. R.I.I.A., Chatham House Essays no. 4. London, Oxford University Press, 1964. Pp. vi + 118. Australian price 14/3.

INTERNATIONAL LIQUIDITY. Ian Shannon. Melbourne, P. W. Cheshire, 1964. Pp. 143. 21/‐.

IMPERIALISM. THE STORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF A POLITICAL WORD, 1840–1860. R. Koebner and H. D. Schmidt. London, Cambridge University Press, 1964. Pp. xxvi + 432. £3/3/‐ stg.

SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY 1924–1926. Volume Three, Parts I and II. E. H. Carr. London, Macmillan, 1964. Australian price 363/‐. THE RUSSIAN PEASANT MOVEMENT 1906–1917. Launcelot A. Owen. New York, Russell & Russell, 1963. $7.50.

THOUGHT AND BEHAVIOUR IN MODERN JAPANESE POLITICS. Mosao Maruyama. Edited by Ivan Morris. London, Oxford University Press, 1963. Pp. xx + 344. Australian price 68/‐.

THE CHINESE VIEW OF THEIR PLACE IN THE WORLD. C. P. Fitzgerald. R.I.I.A., Chatham House Essay No. 1. London, Oxford University Press, 1964. Pp. 72. Australian price 10/‐.

COMMUNISM IN NORTH VIETNAM. P. J. Honey. Cambridge, Mass., M.I.T. Press, 1963. Pp. xvi + 207. $4.95.

SOUTH‐EAST ASIA: A SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY. C. A. Fisher. London, Methuen, 1964. Pp. xix + 831. Maps. £4.4.0 sterling.

INDONESIA: PERSPECTIVES AND PROPOSALS FOR UNITED STATES ECONOMIC AID. Report to the President by the VS. Economic Survey Team to Indonesia. Yale University South East Asia Studies, 1963.

INDONESIA. Bruce Grant. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1964. Pp. x + 190. 32/6d.     

Contesting Neoliberal Urbanism in Glasgow's Community Gardens: The Practice of DIY Citizenship

In this journal, it has been suggested that citizens practising community gardening “can become complicit in the construction of neoliberal hegemony”. Such hegemony is maintained, it is argued, through the day‐to‐day work of neoliberal citizen‐subjects, which “alleviates the state from service provision”. In this paper we acknowledge that community gardens are vulnerable to neoliberal cooptation. But, even where neoliberal practices are evidenced, such practices do not define or foreclose other socio‐political subjectivities at work in the gardens. We contend that community gardens in Glasgow cultivate collective practices that offer us a glimpse of what a progressively transformative polity can achieve. Enabled by an interlocking process of community and spatial production, this form of citizen participation encourages us to reconsider our relationships with one another, our environment and what constitutes effective political practice. Inspired by a range of writings on citizenship formation we term this “Do‐It‐Yourself” (DIY) Citizenship.     

Book reviews

THE SECOND WORLD WAR; Vol. 1: THE GATHERING STORM By Winston S. Churchill. (Cassell. pp. xv+640).

WORKSHOP OF SECURITY. By Paul Hasluck, 1948. (F. W. Cheshire, Melbourne and London. 121 pp.).

AUSTRALIA. Edited by C. Hartley Grattan. (University of California Press, 1947. 444 pages with index).

BURMESE ECONOMIC LIFE. By J. Russell Andrus. 1947 (Stanford University Press. $4.00).     

Playing war

This paper argues that war video games are transitional spaces that connect players to the ‘war on terror’. It explores the pervasive influence of militarism in video games and how the US Army is enlisting play as an active force in blurring the distinctions between civilian and soldier. The paper begins by theorizing what exactly it means to ‘play’, and settles on the concept of ‘transitional space’ provided by psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott. It then investigates the ‘military entertainment complex’, an assemblage of institutions and sites that produce military video games for commercial release. Next, the paper looks at the aesthetics of video games, revealing an entrenched colonial logic instrumental for military recruitment and consent. The final section pulls all of this together to argue that video games are transitional spaces instrumental to understanding the everyday geographies of violence, terror, and warfare.     

A comparison study of children's independent mobility in England and Australia

We compared independent mobility (freedom to move around the neighbourhood – or similar – without adult accompaniment) among English and Australian schoolchildren. Parents reported mobility licences granted to their children (e.g. allowing them to cross main roads alone) and accompaniment on local trips. Children reported travel mode to school. We examined associations between mobility licences and independent school journeys, and accompaniment on local trips. Among 10–12-year-olds, English children had more licences than Australian children. Mobility licences were directly associated with independent school journeys among primary but not among secondary schoolchildren who travelled further; and inversely associated with parental accompaniment to other destinations. Influences on parental restrictions should be examined to promote children's independent mobility.     

Political Staff in Executive Government: Conceptualising and Mapping Roles within the Core Executive

Political advisers are attracting increasing attention in Westminster jurisdictions. Typically, scholars focus on the corrosive impact they allegedly have on elements of Westminster convention and practice. We argue that a concern with accountability detracts from other important matters, including understanding and theorising ministerial advisers' roles. In this article we address these issues using primary data from a survey of ministerial advisers in New Zealand. We draw on Maley's typology to classify advisers' activities according to the contribution they make to executive government policy-making. We then theorise these activities through the lens of the core executive. We conclude that ministerial advisers are increasingly important actors in governing environments characterised by complex resource dependencies, modes of operation that are as often relational as they are hierarchical, and bargaining relationships that are often positive and not zero-sum in nature.     

Independent creative subcultures and why they matter

Independent creative subcultures, in their various hybrids of music, theatre, art, and new and old media, are the primordial soup of cultural evolution. They have the capacity for a highly definitive influence on their participants – catalysing the transition from consumer to producer for instance – often conferring much broader cultural and social benefit. Creative subcultures make continuing, well-documented, contributions to established city cultures for relatively low outlay. Indie creative activities in particular do not make much money and they do not cost much to set-up. They tend to cluster in areas characterised by low rents and non-residential uses such as retail and industrial areas, but as third wave gentrification reaches into the dark pockets of many cities, cheap rental properties are becoming scarce. This article uses time-series maps of inner Melbourne to show a pattern of tighter and tighter clustering of indie cultural activities as alternative spaces disappear. It looks at where they are going and why, considers the implications of this pattern for the ‘creative city’, and suggests some policy initiatives to help maintain and nurture independent creative scenes. As Melbourne’s live music scene is particularly vulnerable to displacement from increasingly dense and contested inner-urban space, the article focuses on interventions relating to music venues.