8/2/2019 1992 the Soviet Far East Geographical Perspectives on Development 1

1/3

The Soviet Far East: Geographical Perspectives on Development by Allan RodgersReview by: Denis J. B. ShawArea, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Jun., 1992), pp. 187-188Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20003096 .Accessed: 17/02/2012 06:59

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Blackwell Publishing and The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) arecollaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Area.

http://www.jstor.org

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=blackhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rgshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rgshttp://www.jstor.org/stable/20003096?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/20003096?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rgshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rgshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black

8/2/2019 1992 the Soviet Far East Geographical Perspectives on Development 1

2/3

Book reviews 187

see some attention being devoted to such issues within the introduction, and consideration of the

costs and benefits incurred inMalaysia's drive for' modernisation '.Related to this, throughout the book there is an over-reliance on government statistics. This is

in part understandable, but compares unfavourably with the lack of contribution from minoritypeoples themselves. Some qualitative or ethnographic material would have considerablyenhanced the rather dry content and style, with too much detail cluttering up the text itself ratherbeing separated out into more tables, diagrams and maps.

As regards theory, most of the papers are concerned with empirical material rather thanconceptual issues. The editors grapple valiantly with the concepts of marginality and peripherality in their introduction, but, again, Iwould have wished for a greater concentration on, forexample, the role of minorities in the global economy, consideration of the concept of locality

within the Malaysian context and more on theories of uneven development as aids to explanationof the processes under consideration here.

With these points inmind, this book does fill a useful niche, and I am sympathetic to its generalconclusion that more notice must be taken byMalaysian officials of the development needs andwishes of theminorities themselves. I found the chapters by Vokes on agricultural developmentand poverty eradication in peripheral areas of Malaysia; by Emby on the Orang Asli regroupingscheme; the two chapters by King on Sarawak and that by Jawan on the Dayak in Sarawakparticularly informative. On balance, therefore, this text is a reasonable addition to thedevelopment literature on South East Asia.

Ian CookLiverpool Polytechnic

The Soviet Far East: geographical perspectives on development edited byAllan RodgersLondon: Routledge, 1990, 318 pp, ?50.00 hardbackISBN 0-415-02406-4

These days almost any book on the USSR will be considerably dated by the time it is published,unless it sets out to be a history book in the first place. This volume reflects the state of affairsround about the latter half of 1988, after Gorbachev had been in power for just over three years.By no means all the chapters take us even that far. Since then a great deal has happened: theSoviet economy has plummeted to new depths of crisis, there have been ever strengtheningforces operating in the direction of increased republican, regional, even district and urbanautonomy, new moves have been made to marketise the economic system and to open it up toforeign participation, new developments have occurred on the disarmament front. By the timethis review appears, things will no doubt have changed even further. To talk about developmentprospects in these circumstances appears to verge on the foolhardy.

Little on the current maelstrom would have been apparent when this book was contracted for,or even when it was completed and sent to the publishers. In any case, the Soviet Far East is suchan inherenty interesting territory that almost any book is welcome, particularly one written by aset of geographers with a high degree of expertise in the field. The region lies at the easternextremity of the USSR, endowing that pre-eminently continental (if not utterly European) statewith a Pacific presence. It occupies almost 30 per cent of the national territory but contains lessthan three per cent of its population. It is characterised by its extreme remoteness from theeconomic core of the country and by amarkedly harsh environment. It lies adjacent to one of the

fastest-growing economic regions on earth and is regarded as a storehouse of natural resources.Yet the practically uniform message of this book is that its development will be a long andexpensive business, in fact one that is hardly viable in the immediate future without a muchgreater degree of foreign involvement than has yet been apparent.

There are signs that that greater degree of foreign involvement will become a reality withcurrent and projected changes in Soviet trade policy, though the effects may be counteracted toan unknown extent both by other repercussions ofmarketisation and by the vagaries of the world

market in natural resources. In other words, the future is as uncertain now as it was when this

8/2/2019 1992 the Soviet Far East Geographical Perspectives on Development 1

3/3

188 Book reviews

book was written in 1988 and though much has changed in the details, it is hard to dispute the

broad conclusions. The essays are of a high standard (which is more than can be said of some ofthemaps) and examine many facets of the environmental, resource, industrial and trade-relatedpotential of the region. The focus is obviously economic-geographic (with some interesting

material on the military dimension). One would have liked to see more on the fascinating social,political and ethnic issues (we now know far more than before, for example, on the plight ofnorthern minorities), but sadly to commission such essays would probably have meant recruitingnon-geographers. Even so this valuable book is testimony to the fascination which the resourcefrontier has for the geographical mind; would that the same fascination were exercised by the

metropolitan core.Denis J B Shaw

University of Birmingham

The geography of contemporary China: the impact of Deng Xiaoping'sdecade edited by Terry Cannon and Alan JenkinsLondon: Routledge, 1990, 316 pp, I&14.95 paperbackISBN 0 4415 00102 1

The editors of The geography of contemporary China, and the contributors, have writtenan excellent and much-needed book. China's development is a notoriously difficult field ofstudy, and it is only too easy to take refuge in oversimplification. The book successfullyavoids this danger. It is easy to read and at the same time pays due regard to the complexities anddifficulties inherent in any study and interpretation of the reforms implemented in China since

1978.The main aim of this volume is to provide an introduction toChina's changing geographychanges which have been determined largely by government policies. The book is not restrictedto the period since 1978, for it is argued that in order to understand the changes which thereforms have brought about, a historical perspective is required.

The book comprises twelve chapters including the introduction and a postscript. The chaptersdo not have to be read in order, although there is a logical progression. The introduction lays outthe basic political and administrative context, noting key political and ideological tensions. Thefollowing ten chapters focus on those issues which are regarded as central to an understanding of

China's contemporary geography: regional policy (Cannon); the historical influence (Edmonds);the physical environment (Derbyshire); population (Jowett); rural policies (Leeming andPowell); industry, energy and transport (Howard); urbanisation (Tang and Jenkins); foreigninvestment and trade (Philips and Yeh); the impact of economic development on the environ

ment (Glaeser); and strategy and geopolitics (Jenkins). The postscript considers the events thatoccurred immediately after the Tiananmen Massacre in June 1989.

A few questions arise from a reading of this book. Is it entirely satisfactory to imply that whathas happened in Communist China can best be analysed in three 'periods'? Is it always validto assume clear causal links between 'geographical' changes and changes in economic policy?

Why is there so little emphasis on the interaction of the reforms implemented in different sectorsof the economy? Also, why are some of the major writers on China not at least referred to?Onehas the uncomfortable feeling that the Editors and some of the other contributors are a little tooself-consciously and defensively geographical in their approach.

Written for A-level and undergraduate students, this book provides an introductory textbookon

contemporary Chinathat is

lucid, readableand

authoritative.It is very well

producedand it

contains a number of excellent maps and some helpful touches-like the chronology of majorevents from the Opium Wars right up to the events of June 1989 in Beijing. There is also aninteresting and valuable selection of case studies. The geography of contemporary China will be

welcomed by all those wishing to understand the often dramatic events that have been takingplace inChina over the past decade or so.

R HodderLondon School of Economics