JPER, Volume 19, Number 2, Winter 1999: Book Reviews

The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture

Volumes I, II, and III

Manuel Castells

$64.95. (PB Boxed Set)

Volumes:

Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell

1996. 556 pages. $27.95 (PB)

Malden, Mass.: Blackwell

1997. 461 pages. $73.95 (HB), $27.95 (PB)

Malden, Mass.: Blackwell

1998. 418 pages. $73.95 (HB), $27.95 (PB)

Review by Ann Forsyth

Department of Urban Planning and Design

Harvard University

In the 1970s, Castells argues, the world changed. As he explains in the conclusion to Volume III of his trilogy The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture:

A new world is taking shape in this end of millennium. It originated in the historical coincidence, around the late 1960s and mid-1970s, of three independent processes: the information technology revolution; the economic crisis of both capitalism and statism and their subsequent restructuring; and the blooming of cultural social movements such as libertarianism, human rights, feminism, and environmentalism. The interaction between these processes, and the reactions they triggered, brought into being a new dominant social structure, the network society; a new economy, the informational/global economy; and a new culture, the culture of real virtuality. The logic embedded in this economy, this society, and this culture underlies social action and institutions throughout an interdependent world (1998, 336; italics in original).

It is the newness of so many interacting major phenomena that interests Castells, from computers and the planetary interlinked capitalist economy to the rise of Asia and widespread ecological consciousness. However, in a note for Volume III, Castells argues that even if one does not believe that all this is new, his analysis still stands as a way of explaining the contemporary world, "our world, the world of the Information Age" (336).

This is a world where technology has linked economies together, Castells talks about "networks of production, power, and experience", but allows new forms of identity to flourish, some highly resistant to the potential for global homogenization of culture (1998, 350). The aspect of culture that Castells is most interested in, however, is the culture linked to technology, that of real virtuality. This is "a system in which reality itself (that is, people’s material/symbolic existence) is entirely captured, fully immersed in a virtual image setting, in the world of make believe, in which appearances are not just on the screen through which communication is mediated, but they become the experience" (1996, 373; also 1998, 350). It is a comprehensive culture, incorporating diverse interests in settings from electronic bulletin boards to video-on-demand, although marginalizing those with only access to the more centralized and prepackaged forms of media. From a more economic perspective, Castells also argues that some locations and individuals obviously benefit from the rise of the information economy, including those highly educated persons he dubs "self programmable labor" (1998, 341) and the "dominant, managerial elites" (1996, 415). However others, including the group Castells (1998) calls "generic, expendable labor" (343) live increasingly difficult lives in the "black holes of information capitalism" (344).

Of course, Castells is not the only one to make this kind of argument, in urban studies Harvey and Sassen have made similar analyses, but Castells provides a grand synthesis of this line of thinking, working across a variety of scales and a wide area of the globe. He also deals in an extended way with issues that are frequently on the sidelines of urban studies, the global criminal economy (Volume III) or the social, and implicitly urban, implications of religious groups such as Aum Shrinrikyo (Volume II).

These are big books, together they add up to over 1,400 pages; they deal with a large number of topics related to the trilogy’s subtitle of "economy, society, and culture"; and they made something of a hit on the Internet, where for a while all three were on the amazon.com top 20 list. Abu-Lughod points out in her review of Volume II that, by placing "culture" in his subtitle, Castells even goes "one topic beyond Max Weber!" (1998, 164). While stating that "inevitably, in a work of such ambition, one could make many criticisms" Giddens’ argues that "taken as a whole it is the most compelling attempt yet to map the contours of the global information age" (1998, 45).

Many of his students, and an international network of colleagues, seem to have contributed to the wide-ranging empirical work on which the book is based. However, Castells has managed to do an enormous job of weaving together a vast story, even if it is only loosely woven rather than tightly argued, taking Castells nearer to Giddens than to Marx. The books also fit together as a whole. While each does have a distinct theme, technology (Volume I), identity (Volume II), and political economy (Volume III), they are tied together with an intense interest in the importance of information.

Castells’ writing has become more accessible over the years and this trilogy follows that trend meaning that one can actually read the 1,400 pages rather than just dipping into them. In fact, although much longer than Harvey’s (1996) Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference, the trilogy as a whole was much easier to read than Harvey’s very dense work. Some chapters are particularly memorable, an exciting account of the rise of information technology (1996, 29-65); an analysis for the changing meaning of time including the issue of death (1996, 429-468); and an account of the fall of the Soviet Union linked to its inability to take part in the new informational economy (1998, 4-69). There are even some light moments. For example, Castells describes how many erotic exchanges on Minitel, the pioneering French videotex system, were not part of a "generalized sex bazaar, but a democratized sexual fantasy ... based on impersonation of ages, genders and physical characteristics." Castells cites as his "source" for this analysis "author’s participant observation" (1996, 344). This readability means that these books, or sections of them, can easily be assigned graduate, or even upper level undergraduate, courses. The numerous charts and figures can also be used to illustrate lectures.

I do have some quibbles. For example, I would rather he had not treated the natural environment merely in terms of environmentalism as a social movement, he titles that chapter "The Greening of the Self" (1997). In any work of this scope, however, there will be areas where expert readers may disagree with the priority or interpretation given to certain events; Castells should be recognized for performing a massive task in compiling and ordering a large number of disparate phenomena. Particularly important is his very serious view of the issues of identity, seen as more than an offshoot of economic forces. This includes some wide ranging examples from Taiwanese lesbians to the U.S. militia movement. Also important are his imaginative analyses of the implications of technology for all kinds of understandings of space and time, including the cycle of life. Again, these are not totally new insights but Castells brings them together in an intriguing and interesting way.

Overall, the trilogy raises issues about the problems of producing grand theories of the city, or of the wider society, in the current era. Castells has constructed a heroic story of a new world created in recent decades and has done this in a way that, at its best, captures the imagination. He also aligns himself with the sociological tradition of Weber and Durkheim, in the sense of grounding the work in somewhat carefully prepared empirical work, rather than that of urbanists such as Mumford, who more frequently expects the reader to trust his expertise. This makes Castells attempt at a contemporary form of grand theory much more compelling and interesting than I had expectedeven as it lacks closure. Of course, it would be possible to do more detailed work testing Castells various propositions, and that is of course happening, but this is unlikely to make any of the phenomena Castells deals with more amenable to unified explanations. This kind of open-ended explanation of the contemporary world is likely to be with us for some time.

References

Abu-Lughod, Janet. 1998. Review of the power of identity. Contemporary Sociology 27(2): 163-164.

Giddens, Anthony. 1998. Review of end of millennium. New Statesman 23 January: 44-45.

Harvey, David. 1996. Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.

Tom Daniels

Washington, D.C.: Island Press

1999. 361 pages. $32.50 (PB)

Review by Robert D. Yaro

Regional Plan Association, New York

When City and Country Collide provides a comprehensive investigation of the issues faced by communities at the urbanizing fringe of metropolitan areas across the United States. It explores the underlying causes of metropolitan expansion, the implications of the phenomenon for metropolitan fringe communities and their residents, and the planning responses that are being utilized to manage change in these places. The book contains a large number of case studies and profiles describing how communities, regions, and states across the country are responding to the challenges of managing growth at the metropolitan fringe. These illustrate the principles described in the book and make its findings understandable even to those who are new to this field.

The book will have great value for instructional purposes and as a reference work for scholars teaching or conducting research in this area. It also contains several model regulations and sources of technical assistance for those interested in developing plans or policies in these places. These features will make it of particular interest to practicing planners, planning commission members, and civic leaders concerned with these issues.

When City and Country Collide is an exceptionally timely and important book. Across the U.S., exurban development is spreading beyond the metropolitan beltways into the urbanizing fringe, making these places the front lines of the national smart growth, sustainable development, and new urbanist movements. Daniels moves beyond the platitudes of these movements to look at the metropolitan fringe both as a place and as a process. He clearly analyzes both the reasons for growth in these places and the potential for positive change. Daniels defines these places as being different than traditional suburbs, given their lower population densities (generally under 1,000 residents per square mile) and dynamic mix of farms with subdivisions and other activities.

The author describes the economic and demographic processes behind the massive growth at the fringe by updating Lewis Mumford's well-known allegory of American history as a series of migrations. In Daniel’s version, 20th century metropolitan growth can also be described as three migrations. The first of these was the movement of millions of Americans in the first half of the century from farms to industrial cities. Beginning in 1950, a second migration from cities to suburbs transformed America into a predominantly suburban nation. Daniels believes that, since 1980, we have experienced a third migration from suburbs to the metropolitan fringe. When City and Country Collide focuses on ways of managing the results of this migration.

The heart of the book is Daniel’s description of growth management strategies, the obstacles to their implementation, and an in-depth description of state, regional, and local implementation techniques required for each strategy. He begins by laying out a typology of growth management strategies, ranging from pro-growth to managed growth to no growth strategies. Concise case studies, from Prince William County, Virginia’s pro-growth strategy to Boulder, Colorado’s slow-growth approach, illustrate how communities have adopted each of the strategies.

The legal and political ramifications of each strategy are then highlighted. These include the legal issues raised by the latest series of Supreme Court "takings" cases, and the political challenges posed by the "wise use" property rights movement. Four main rural design models are described, ranging from large lot rural development to cluster to very large lot zoning (i.e., requiring minimum of lots of 50 acres or more), with a discussion of the politics and results of each model. Finally, the author describes the considerable obstacles, political and otherwise, to managing growth at the fringe.

Daniels provides his own perspective on the ongoing debate on the extent to which the federal government, through subsidies, infrastructure investments, loan guarantees, the tax code, and other measures, has directly or indirectly promoted growth at the urbanizing fringe. He makes a major contribution to this debate by outlining a series of proposals for new federal actions required to discourage sprawl. These range from the obvious but politically difficult (e.g., increased gas taxes and elimination or reduction of the mortgage tax deduction) to the less obvious but still politically difficult (e.g., a tax credit for those who live in distressed urban communities). Daniel’s menu of options would provide an excellent primer for presidential candidates eager to reach the growing number of voters concerned about suburban sprawl.

Daniels underscores that one of the major obstacles to effective growth management at the urbanizing fringe is the absence of effective regional planning and capital investment institutions. Daniels proposes that strengthened state and metropolitan planning organizations be established to improve the quality of these institutions. The book includes a concise review of recent innovations in state and metropolitan growth management systems.

A number of important books have been published recently on sprawl, the new shape of metropolitan regions, and metropolitan governance. These include Barnett (1995) and Richard Moe and Carter Wilkie (1997), which focus on the physical form and diminished sense of place of the nation’s sprawling metropolitan regions. David Rusk (1993) and Neal Peirce (1993) look at metropolitan economies and ways of reforming governance. Finally, Henry Diamond and Patrick Noonan (1996) and Douglas Porter (1997) take an in-depth look at innovations in growth management. But none of these books provide the kind of comprehensive approach to the subject that Daniel’s book does, nor do they provide an understanding of the interactions between these concerns.

Finally, Daniel’s book is written in straightforward, nontechnical English. It is clearly written, well edited, and accessible to both scholars and professionals, in short, a pleasure to read. One minor drawback is that the computer-generated maps and diagrams could have been larger and better rendered to make them more understandable.

This book will become the standard reference for anyone interested in understanding or managing change at the urbanizing fringe of America’s metropolitan regions.

n References

Barnett, Jonathan. 1995. The Fractured Metropolis. New York: Harper Collins.

Diamond, Henry, and Patrick Noonan. 1996. Land Use in America. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Moe, Richard, and Carter Wilkie. 1997 Changing Places. New York: Henry Holt.

Peirce, Neal. 1993. Citistates. Washington, D.C.: Seven Locks Press.

Porter, Douglas. 1997. Managing Growth in America’s Communities. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Rusk, David. 1993. Cities without Suburbs. Washington, D.C.: The Woodrow Wilson Center Press.

Karen Stromme Christensen

Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications

1999. 178 pages. $29.95 (PB), $51 (HB)

Review by Andreas Faludi

Department of Physical Planning

University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands

When Christensen published "Coping with Uncertainty in Planning" (1985), readers pricked their ears. That paper was a guide to contingency planning based on two-by-two matrices for analyzing planning situations. The matrices combined two sets of dichotomous situations: goal, agreed or not, and technology, known or unknown. Meanwhile, Christensen must have applied this type of matrix in her teaching with consummate skill: The number of such matrices in the present work, obviously an extension and elaboration of that article, has multiplied.

The reader should be warned: The book is about cities only in the sense that irrevocably, alongside with many others, city planners face complexity. The subtitle gives a much better idea of what the book is about: The real theme is decision-making.

Now, governmental decision-making of whatever kind is never about how to solve some substantive problem. The reason is simple: Problems are never what they appear. Rather, there is a matrix of actors involved in defining and/or solving any but the most trivial problem, and this matrix is responsible for problems undergoing sometimes countless transmutations before they appear on the agenda of governmental decision-makers. More often than not, things get more complicated during this process. This book is about this surplus of uncertainty caused by the idiosyncrasies of intergovernmental relations.

This surplus occurs in any form of planning involving more than one government agency, a situation that is the rule rather than the exception. Often, apparently coherent government agencies are in fact conglomerates of fiefdoms, each with its own expertise and clientele. (Arguably, private corporations may also be described in such terms.) Each of the parts puts its stamp on problem definitions and solutions. So the phenomenon that Christensen seeks to catch under the heading of "intergovernmental relations" is widespread, and her analysis may be even more pervasive than she claims.

Be that as it may, the book narrows the scope of analysis to intergovernmental relations under American federalism. While few readers will open the book with this purpose in mind, as a European interested in lessons that it holds for European integration generally and for European-wide planning in particular, this reviewer found the analysis of American federalism a very useful aspect of the work. Christensen shows that, under federalist arrangements, the villains in her piece, functional sector planners, often succeed in achieving premature closure of problem definitions. Such closure allows them to get on with their work. Like almost everybody, they hate uncertainty. At the same time, premature closure may have dire long-term consequences.

The claim of a structural propensity in American federalism toward sector dominance strikes a familiar chord. This is so because it is not particular to federalist arrangements. All systems of government face the same problem of how to sustain a territorial, community perspective in the face of expert-driven sector planning from the top commanding more resources than most planners dream of. This makes Christensen's work all the more convincing.

Christensen takes the reader from a general statement of planning being mediated by the intergovernmental system, through a confrontation with theories of the U.S. intergovernmental system to an analysis of interactions among governmental institutions and the vertical, horizontal, and time dimensions of same system. What follows is the penetrating analysis of the impact of sector dynamics upon area interests that is one of the core themes of this book. Christensen describes this impact in telling terms, speaking about the debris of sector dynamics as "the lasting and ill-understood effects sector’s trials and errors on people and places" (85).

There follows a restatement of the messages of the earlier article. They are (a) that governmental planners should abandon the search for illusory certainty where none is to be had and (b) that, depending on the situation, viable strategies exist for coping with uncertainty. Two concise chapters summarize the conclusions for the intergovernmental system and for decision-making practice.

The argument is didactically structured throughout, with a profusion of examples. Many current authors seem obsessed with quoting as recent sources as possible. Not so with Christensen, who draws on material spread over several decades. Whilst practitioners will certainly benefit from reading it, its greatest use will to be in the classroom (where it has obviously been tested out before). This is the more so since the text does not flow easily and may thus require more discipline to work through than many a hard-pressed practitioner can afford. However, with the pressure of assignments to be completed, the student who delves into it will benefit from the experience.

Considering the class of literature that encompasses this book, I have two more comments. First, it is amazing how deeply the Atlantic divides the literature. Uncertainty, especially in relation to intergovernmental decision-making, is a well-rehearsed theme in British planning literature of the last 30 years (Friend and Jessop 1977 [1969]; Friend, Power, and Yewlett 1974; Friend and Hickling 1997 [1987]). Yet Christensen does not refer to it, nor does uncertainty appear to be discussed in other U.S. textbooks since Robinson (1982) and Michael (1973) tried to make readers aware of it.

Second, Christensen shares with others the predilection of castigating rationalism as standing for the mindless pursuit of narrow problem definitions and solutions for the sake of being able to demonstrate technological prowess. However, no rationalist defends the single-minded pursuit of functional goals that she attacks. There are classic texts galore, like Mannheim (1940), juxtaposing functional or technical rationality with a broader concept that she, too, would undoubtedly subscribe to. Indeed, how else could one justify Christensen’s type of contingency planning but to claim that there is a form of rationality seeking closeness of fit between planning approaches and the context in which they are brought to bear? So why not put the rational planner as a bogeyman to rest?

n References

Christensen, K.S. 1985. Coping with uncertainty in planning. Journal of the American Planning Association 51:63-73.

Friend, J., and A. Hickling. 1997. Planning under Pressure: The Strategic Choice Approach. 2nd edition. Oxford, U.K.: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Friend, J.K., and W.N. Jessop. 1977. Local Government and Strategic Choice. 2nd edition. Oxford, U.K.: Pergamon.

Friend, J.K., J.M. Power, and C.J.L. Yewlett. 1974. Public Planning: The Inter-corporate Dimension. London, U.K.: Tavistock.

Mannheim, K. 1940. Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction. London, U.K.: Kegan Paul.

Michael, D.N. 1973. On Learning to Plan, and Planning to Learn. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass.

Robinson, I.M., ed. 1973. Decisionmaking in Urban Planning. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Alexander J. Reichl

Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas

1999. 239 pages. $39.95 (HB), $19.95 (PB)

Review by David Gordon

School of Urban and Regional Planning

Queen's University

During the 1970s, Times Square was a symbol of American urban decline. Street crime, open-air drug dealing, hard-core adult entertainment, and prostitution shared the run-down public spaces and shabby buildings, which had once been the core of New York's theater district. Tourists and women were warned to steer clear of 42nd Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue, known as the city’s worst block.

The past five years have seen a remarkable change. Most of the theaters have been renovated and reopened. New shops, a hotel, and office buildings are open or under construction. Public spaces have been rebuilt, and dazzling electric displays once again light up the street at night. The pornography has disappeared; street crime is down; and the drug dealers and prostitutes have moved on, or at least cannot be easily discerned among the estimated 25 million visitors who annually visit the district.

Many recent commentators hail Times Square as an urban redevelopment success story, but Alexander Reichl disagrees. Reconstructing Times Square: Politics and Culture in Urban Development concludes that the new 42nd Street is a tragically squandered opportunity that destroyed "a public space of genuine diversity that served a wide range of racial, ethnic and income groups" (177). Reichl demonstrates that the pornography, drugs, and prostitution coexisted with a vibrant low-income entertainment district, featuring cheap action movies and martial arts shops that served African-American and Latino men. This working-class entertainment district was swept away with the criminal elements of Times Square, and not incorporated in the sanitized retail, office, and cultural district that replaced it. Surprisingly, historic preservationists, cultural groups, and Mickey Mouse are found among the villains of this tale. They helped justify the massive office towers added to the district.

Reichl, now a political scientist at Loyola University in New Orleans, learned New York’s problems first-hand during six years with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and during his doctoral studies of New York. The research is a single case study based upon an extensive review of secondary sources and some government documents. Reichl uses Times Square as an empirical study to theorize about urban power, and the political analysis is the major strength of the book. He draws upon Clarence Stone's regime theory to demonstrate how the Times Square project fitted into Mayor Ed Koch's political strategy. Historic preservation and culture appealed to high-income white liberals, who were swing voters Koch needed to add to his probusiness coalition. Reichl also illustrates how the mayor and the redevelopment agency built a strong development coalition, which resulted in unanimous approval in the crucial 1984 Board of Estimate votes.

The renovation of the older theaters into a new version of the "Great White Way" proved to be a powerful image that Reichl demonstrates is based upon a selective reading of a brief period of Times Square's history in the 1920s. The "Great White Way" is also used by the author as a metaphor for the implicit racism involved in clearing the working-class entertainment district. The analysis should make advocates of historic preservation and the arts, who are usually on the side of the angels in urban redevelopment, acutely uncomfortable. Indeed, the Municipal Art Society appeared to be backing away from the bulky high-rise office towers once it became clear that the arts and preservation strategy might get started on its own, but it was too late. The developers were locked in and had spent over $200 million.

The project took years to implement, with several false starts in the 1980s and a long delay during the early-1990s real estate slump. The implementation agency facilitated some good small-scale renovation on Theater Row and attracted a family theater to 42nd Street. The corner was not turned until Disney Corporation agreed to renovate a theater and open a superstore in 1995. Other theaters were quickly picked up, and the long dormant office towers began to rise during the late 1990s real estate boom. Cultural critics had a field day with the image of "Disneyfication" of public space, but families have returned. No evidence is presented on the class or race composition of the current patrons of Times Square. It is simply assumed that Disney’s image and prices exclude working-class African-Americans and Latinos.

The Times Square story is well written and easy to follow, especially in comparison to most postmodern critiques of urban development; there is only one trope in the text and the signs are all electric billboards. Regrettably, the book shows a weakness common to political critiques, it is not very useful as a guide to action for planners. It offers no suggestions on how the criminal activities might have been removed while keeping the low-income entertainment district, and includes only a paragraph on what a genuinely diverse public space might include.

Urban design and financial issues were central to the debate on the Time Square project. Two entire plans were withdrawn as a result of aesthetic protests, yet illustrations of these plans and their design guidelines are not included. The financial information is almost entirely based upon newspaper reports; the deals are assumed to be immensely profitable to the developers without the real estate analysis of public-private partnerships found, for example, in Sagalyn's work (Sagalyn 1989; Frieden and Sagalyn 1989).

The book avoids the tough questions about street crime, other than to illustrate that "Hell's Kitchen" (the neighborhood area west of Times Square) had gangs and prostitution at the turn of the century. It acknowledges the problem in the 1970s (including a powerful photograph by Michael Ackerman), but provides no data on crime before and after the clean-up or much indication of how the clean-up was done. The controversial role of the Business Improvement District is touched upon, but the new combined local court and social service center for minor offenders is not mentioned.

Reconstructing Times Square is a good contribution to the urban political studies literature and may serve as a case study for college courses in this field, which is its chosen audience. Although Times Square has important urban design, financial, and real estate issues, the book would be difficult to use in urban planning or economic development courses dealing with implementation or professional practice.

References

Frieden, Bernard, and Lynne Sagalyn. 1989. Downtown, Inc.: How America Rebuilds Cities. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Sagalyn, Lynne. 1989. Measuring financial returns when the city acts as an investor: Boston and Faneuil Hall Market Place. Real Estate Issues Fall/Winter: 7-15.

Scott A. Bollens

Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press

1998. 340 pages. $75 (HB)

Review by Maureen Moriarty-Lempke

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

The recent conflict in Kosovo, characterized by bitter animosities and seemingly endless violence by ethnic Serbs and Albanians, serves as yet another painful reminder of the prominence of ethnically based conflicts that have permeated the latter half of the 20th century. With no end to such conflicts in sight, there is an urgent need to understand the underpinnings and dynamics of protracted communal conflicts and to apply this knowledge to seek models for ethnic accommodation.

Although ethnic conflict may be rooted in the quest for such lofty issues as group rights, autonomy, and territorial claims, difficult antagonisms can and do germinate. This occurs particularly in urban areas, over such pragmatic affairs as housing, economic development, municipal service delivery, and a variety of other land use decisions. Not surprisingly, planning practitioners who work within these "contested cities", as well as researchers including Yiftachel (1992, 1997), Benvenisti (1995), Boal (1990, 1995), Mabin (1992, 1995), and Smith (1992, 1994), are seeking to understand the effects, both positive and negative, of planning policies and practices within ethnically divided societies.

Scott Bollens, who has published widely in urban and regional growth policy and intergovernmental approaches to planning, has also written extensively on urban ethnic conflict. In his compelling and articulate new book, Bollens examines the role of policy and planning in contested urban environments and the effects these urban strategies have on moving a society forward from instability and hostility to accommodation and peace. The research, derived primarily from interviews with current and former policy makers, nongovernmental organization officials, and academics within two deeply divided cities, also explores the potential for successful urban peace building initiatives to both influence and inform regional and national peace-building efforts. His selection of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Johannesburg, South Africa, represent two cities in the grip of ethnic conflict, though at different points along the peace continuum. While Belfast edges toward stabilization, Johannesburg faces the challenges of urban reconstruction and reconciliation.

The book is divided into four parts. Each part, with the exception of Part 4, contains three chapters. Part 1, "Urban Arenas of Nationalistic Conflict," both defines and describes the "contested city" and connects these dynamics to larger intra-state turmoil, thus positing his hypothesis that "city action can both reinforce and construct larger peace settlements" (20). He asserts, for example, that qualities of the urban system such as social interaction, economic interdependency, and local politics "may assist efforts to advance peace after a larger settlement is negotiated" (21). Conversely, urban policymaking, which promotes mutual tolerance and accommodation can "create the conditions for broader advances in peace" (21). Part 1 continues with an outline of the author’s guiding research issues as they are applied to both the Johannesburg and Belfast case studies. Although intended to provide parity in approaching two cities that are more different than similar, the outline also provides a useful lens in which to view the inherent complexities of the interplay between planning policy and urban ethnic conflict. For example, Bollens' research outline allows for consideration of contextual factors, policy issues and goals, the urban decision-making process, conflict control mechanisms, community dynamics, and policy outcomes on both sides of the ethnic divide, and contributes to a fuller, more balanced view of the effects of planning in divided cities.

In Part 2, "Belfast at the Sharp Edge," Bollens depicts a city with rigid sectarian geographies, characterized by physical barriers (such as corrugated metal walls called "peacelines") that separate proximate Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods, and symbolic barriers (such as flags, churches, and civic organizations) that serve as markers of the ethnic identity. These have only served to reinforce planning’s inadequate efforts to promote economic development and to provide housing, social services, and opportunities for Catholics and Protestants to co-mingle. According to Bollens, the "policy neutral approach" (274), in which the government’s official role is not biased toward either ethnic group, has resulted in planning institutions and policies that do not address the divergent perceived needs of the two communities and acquiesces to the existing sectarian geography, resulting in "unequal outcomes, poor public acceptance and ineffectiveness in addressing deprivation in Belfast’s ethnic neighborhoods" (122). Bollens concludes his study of Belfast with a call for a strategy of "progressive ethnic engagement" that actively considers "the complex reality of sectarian geographies," without necessarily forcing the integration of antagonistic groups (123). Successful implementation of such an urban bases strategy, he concludes, "may make the difference between peaceful co-existence and the reemergence of armed conflict" (145).

Part 3, "Johannesburg: A Delicate Balancing of Time," describes the geographic, political, economic, and social outcomes of nearly 50 years of "crushing exclusionist ideology, of which planning played a most prominent role" (254). Although further along on the peace continuum than Northern Ireland, planning institutions and processes in Johannesburg face the dilemma of developing transformative urban policies that seek to both rebuild government legitimacy and transcend ethnic wounds while meeting the "distressing conditions of basic unmet needs" (254). In the short term, policies must provide for housing, jobs, and basic services while, in the long term, they need to "reshape the urban system into an effective, sustainable city" (190). This temporal dimension of reconstruction combined with the emergence of a development-planning paradigm has demanded a more adaptable role for planners and planning institutions in the face of a tradition of regulatory control and blueprint planning. In addition, Bollens asserts that the challenge of urban "normalization" may mean different ideals across the ethnic divide.

Part 4, "Conclusions," synthesizes the findings of his research. Within the context of seeming endless ethnic conflict in both cities, Bollens prescribes an urban policy-making "resolver" strategy that fosters "coexistent viability of antagonistic sides in terms of territorial claims, public service availability, and preservation of ethnic identity" (291). He concludes the chapter by conceptualizing the tenets of this resolver strategy which include, among others, addressing the real concerns of communities and delink[ing] these from the maintenance of a static or counterproductive territoriality" (292).

The strength of Bollens book is his integrative approach to the research, which draws on work in political science, urban planning, geography, and social psychology. The latter approach is sorely neglected and most certainly addresses an ethnic group’s experience and perception of planning and is thus connected to potential positive or negative actions and reactions, which in turn can ameliorate or exacerbate ethnic tensions. Despite the limitations of tackling two cities in one volume, I believe the author succeeds in painting a holistic picture of the complexities inherent in ethnically based conflicts by contemplating how history, institutions, planning processes, geography, and group perceptions impinge upon the urban ethnic environment.

Although it may have not been Bollens’ specific intent, Urban Peace Building in Divided Societies also raises important methodological and epistemological considerations for the research of ethnic conflict. For example, the information culled for this volume comes primarily from interviews of planners, policy-makers, academics, and NGO officials. Several of the interviewees, however, are also members of the dominant ethnic group. Their words seem to indicate enthusiasm for accommodation and inclusion, but one wonders to what extent self-censorship and revisionism may obfuscate the actual roles and actions of planners in such environments. This is perhaps a more pressing question in the case of South Africa, where planners were both constructors of, or participants in, policies deliberately intended to limit and control the black population. For example, in a comment about the transformation of planning from a strictly regulatory to a more developmental approach that includes black representation, a Johannesburg planner’s thinly veiled resentments raise larger questions about the implementation of reforming measures in the face of lingering ethnic tensions:

I’ve heard that I am now to be a teacher, facilitator, mediator, psychologist, social worker; please be anything, but don’t be a planner because then I am elitist and reactionary ... we can’t just hand planning over to them because they don’t always have the bigger picture (217; italics added).

Some of Bollens’ interviews with Irish planners and governmental officials reveal such a degree of amenability to reform that one wonders why these two groups have even been fighting at all. For example, in speaking of the planning’s "official" policy of neutrality, one of the interviewees states that "urban policy makers feel the best way to create stability is to respect the needs and desires of communities and residents" (92). Many Catholics (and researchers into the Northern Ireland conflict) would contend that planning policy has been anything but neutral. As in the Johannesburg case, a question becomes: Is there a divergence between what planners say and what they do? If so, how can this be addressed in current and future research efforts?

More pragmatic concerns as to the viability of peace building are, however, addressed in the book. In discussing the prospects of stabilization of Belfast and normalization of Johannesburg, Bollens hints at post-conflict cities that will be fraught with difficulties not unlike so called peaceful societies. New forms of de-racialized inequality such as "mass poverty," "marginalization," and "warlord cities" (262) are reminiscent of Peter Marcuse’s (1995) "outcast ghettoes" in the United States. An interesting point to ponder is what role will ethnic affiliation have as the goals of peace building and accommodation are realized in ethnically divided cities such as Belfast and Johannesburg. Will the dualistic way in which ethnic conflicts are typically viewed be revised as class, economic, and social issues dilute ethnic affiliation?

Regardless of whether the reader agrees with Bollens’ observations or conclusions, Urban Peace Building provides unlimited opportunity for discussion and reflection by a planners working in the context of ethnic division, as well as students and researchers from all disciplines who are interested in understanding the dynamics of ethnic conflict. Further, it succeeds in articulating the need for further planning research in this area.

n References

Benvenisti, Meron. 1995. Intimate Enemies: Jews and Arabs in a Shared Land. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Boal, Frederick. 1995. Shaping a City: Belfast in the Late Twentieth Century. Belfast, U.K.: queen’s University, Institute of Irish Studies.

Boal, Frederick W. 1990. Belfast: Hindsight on foresight, planning in an unstable environment. In Geographical Perspectives on the Belfast Region, ed. P. Doherty. Newtownabbey, U.K.: Geographical Society of Ireland.

Mabin, Alan. 1992. Comprehensive segregation: The origin of the group areas act and its planning apparatus. Journal of South African Studies 18(2): 405-429.

Mabin, Alan. 1995. On the problems and prospects of overcoming segregation and fragmentation in Southern Africa’s cities in the postmodern era. In Postmodern Cities and Spaces, eds. Sophie Watson and Katherine Gibson. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell.

Marcuse, Peter. 1995. Not chaos, but walls: Postmodernism and the partitioned city. In Postmodern Cities and Spaces, eds. Sophie Watson and Katherine Gibson. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell.

Smith, David M. 1992. The Apartheid City and Beyond: Urbanization and Social Change in South Africa. London, U.K.: Routledge.

Smith, David M. 1994. Geography and Social Justice. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell.

Yiftachel, Oren. 1992. Planning a Mixed Region in Israel: The Political Geography of Arab-Jewish Relations in Galilee. Aldershot, U.K.: Avebury

Yiftachel, Oren, and A. Meir, eds. 1998. Ethnic Frontiers and Peripheries: Landscapes of Inequality in Israel. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.

Walter Isard, Iwan J. Azis, Matthew P. Drenan, Ronald E. Miller, Sidney Saltzman, and Erik Thorbecke

Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate

1998. 490 pages. 49.95 (PB)

Review by Tschangho John Kim

Department of Urban and Regional Planning

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

In dealing with the complexities of interregional analysis, Methods of Interregional and Regional Analysis is a welcome addition to the fields of regional science, urban planning, economics, geography, and environmental science. It is a long-awaited sequel to the pioneering work in solving spatial issues, Methods of Regional Analysis, published in 1960 by the first author of the sequel, Walter Isard.

The authors have laid out a challenging goal for the 1998 book: to provide methods for analyzing the causal interconnection and interrelationship of forces leading to changes occurring in regions. This reflects a shift in emphasis and attention among regional analysts who have successfully probed problem areas overlapping other fields of investigation. Published as a part of a series in the regional science studies by Ashgate, the book is dedicated to the two great regional analysts who also have had profound impacts in the field of urban and regional planning: Barclay G. Jones and Benjamin H. Stevens

Following the Introduction in Chapter 1, the book begins with Chapter 2, "Location Analysis for Industry and Service Trades: Comparative Cost and Other Approaches." The driving force of the service trades in creating jobs, which was not present in the past, is fully analyzed in conjunction with the location principles that realize these changes. GIS is introduced in this chapter, although in a very rudimentary form.

Chapter 3, "Regional and Interregional Input-Output Analysis," provides both the basics and new developments in the application of the most extensively exploited and developed tool for regional and interregional analysis. In Chapter 4, "Regional and Spatial Econometric Analysis," the authors stress the importance of vigorously testing hypotheses toward making statistically significant estimates. This chapter provides the relevant basics of econometrics to the readers who do not have formal training in it.

Programming and industrial and urban complex analysis are discussed in Chapter 5. Advances in computing technology provide the potential for solving modern industrial and urban complexities in linear and nonlinear programming models, and the chapter fully realizes and reflects the recent developments in the field. Chapter 6, "Gravity and Spatial Interaction Models," provides both theoretical foundations and recent applications of the model in detail.

Detailed description of social accounting matrices and social accounting analysis is presented in Chapter 7. The chapter presents the formal mathematical framework of social accounting matrices (SAM) as an extended input-output model. The chapter also includes an excellent description on the application of SAM to Indonesia.

Chapter 8, "Applied General Interregional Equilibrium" (AGIE), provides readers with structural details of applied general equilibrium (AGE) and its inability to analyze spatial dimensions by not taking into account distance, transport input and costs, and space. The chapter leads readers to use a comprehensive interregional model that truly reflects the reality of spatial dimensions in urban and regional analysis.

In Chapter 9, interregional and spatial microsimulation is introduced, based on the recognition of its potential for analyzing difficult urban and regional problems. As a conclusion, Chapter 10, "New Channels of Synthesis: The Fusion of Regional Science Methods," summarizes what has been accomplished and addresses new directions.

Since the publication of the first book in 1960, we have witnessed tremendous changes that have shaped the socioeconomic and technological contexts of modern societies. Female labor force participation, declining birthrate, changing household size, the changing economic status of particular social and ethnic groups, and continuing decentralization of economic activity from the traditional central business district (CBD) are a few examples of changes in lifestyles that have had a profound impact on the form, function, and structure of urban and regional systems. Undoubtedly, these changes, along with changes in demography and social patterns, will continue to affect location behavior and travel demand.

Changes in technology also have had profound impact both on lifestyle and changes in functions and structures of urban and regional systems. Computers have become faster, smarter, and more efficient in computation, while the size has shrunk to a palm’s length. Some automobiles have an electronic map with Global Positioning Systems on their dashboard. Recent developments in superconductivity may advance the development of trains that could travel 250 miles per hour or more, as fast as some planes. High-speed trains called maglevs, which levitate on a cushion of magnetism, are being developed in various countries.

Easy access to telecommunication facilities including microcomputers, facsimile machines, and picturephones may also affect location and travel behavior. Some travel may be substituted by using one or more of these means of telecommunication. Ease of access to the CBD by a traditional mode of transportation may no longer be a consideration for some workers and businesses.

In fact, two decades of rapid advances in information and computer technology have led some analysts to claim that humans are now entering an "information society." With the growing use of telecommunication systems, it is becoming possible for different productive activities such as manufacturing, distribution, management, accounting, and inventory control to be located at different places, and yet operate efficiently as a single enterprise. New forms of economic agglomerations may represent this emerging trend in a noncontiguous manner.

The authors have embraced the rapid development of technologies conscientiously, particularly the revolution in computing for analytical purposes, throughout most of the chapters in the book. While it is not specifically mentioned, Chapter 7 presents a body of theory and methods that provide a framework for developing and evaluating realistic strategies for mitigating environmental degradation and promoting economic growth, which is another important issue that regional researchers face these days. Thus, in methods of interregional analysis, an understanding of both the technologies, by which resources are transformed into products, and the lifestyle choices that shape household use of such products becomes essential.

Given the current state of knowledge about technology, socioeconomic patterns, environmental degradation, and consumers’ lifestyles, this book provides a special set of methods for the analysis of spatial problems. Much more than the book title indicates, the authors have carefully demonstrated that the synthesis of various methods for the analysis of interregional phenomena, regardless of whether the analysis is of developed or developing countries, is not only desirable for policy analysis, but also feasible. They do this by integrating comparative cost, input-output, econometrics, programming, gravity and spatial interaction, social accounting matrix, AGIE, and microsimulation.

The book is an excellent addition to the current stock of knowledge for better understanding the forces that shape interregional economies, where the complexities of technological changes and changes of household lifestyle prevail. For urban and regional planners, regional scientists, economists, scholars, and policy decision-makers alike, the book will prove informative and useful. The book would be a good text book for advanced method classes in urban and regional planning, regional science, and geography.

Reference