338 Book Reviews

efforts during the 1980s aggregate public expenditure has not been substantially reduced testifies to this compiexity and possibly to a certain victory for pragmatism over the pure principle that Barry advocates.

JANE LEWIS Lcmdon School of Economics, U. K.

Politics in PIace: Social Power Reiatiuns in an Austratian Country Town, Ian Gray, 1990, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Ian Gray’s book is a study of local community politics in a rural area of Australia, though its careful co~nbin~~tion of theoretical and empirical material would make it a useful text for any students and researchers of politics and community in Western societies. Gray seeks power in structures and processes rather than individualistic explanations or the pluralistic representation of competing interests. At the same time, attention to spatial and historical contexts prevents what he criticises as a general static tendency in most community studies. Well grounded in British, Americ~~n and Australian literature on com- muliity and local government, this study of power in local government is strongly influenced by the Weberian tradition in community politics which, arguing from an empirical basis, gives a central place to relations between bureaucratic iIistitutions and people. The work makes its unique contribution through an intensive study of local politics in the Shire district of Cowra, based on a year’s fieldwork between 1985 and 1986. Though Cowra is a town in rural New South Wales, the administration area of the Cowra Shire Council which is central to this study covers a large and eeonom~caliy complex area which Gray divides into town, village and rural. This division provides some of the central ideological and material factors which determine power relations in the workings of local governnient.

Local government has often been ignored in Australia. overshadowed by interest in State and Federal govern- ments. Gray shows that local governments do act in relation to State governments but his point is that the local government-State government relationship is always negotiated, and that partly because of this, local people see the Council as central to the well-being of the town. As the focus of influence and representation, the Council becomes the political arena in this study of local politics. Power is thus theorised and explored in this context.

Throughout the work, Gray’s understanding of power is informed by Lukes’ ‘three-dime~lsional view’ of power, in which ideology plays a significant part. not just in enabling the powerful group to control the political agenda, but in the further stage of det~rminin~ the values of the dominated, who may actually come to ignore their own interests. The extension of power to this third dimension bears fruit throughout the study, so that Gray shows at times competing ideals operating within the council itself, within the constituency and in the relations between them, in both the raising of issues and their shaping once they are on the council agenda. Ideologies, as sometimes com- peting values and beliefs like localism, political neutrality and efficiency, are high on the list of the resources which people bring to any local political conflict and their

achievement of hegemonic status is consistently empower- ing of business people and farmers, at the same time obscuring the interests of subordjnate groups.

The question of how local politics works structurally for the benefit of the few, despite its ‘people’s corporation’ image, is pursued by Gray by considering areas of policy development to see what issues arise and how these are shaped and fought out, Though he concludes early that the council can be seen as elitist in composition and evidence of his studies indicates that certain groups, farmers and business people are more likely to be able to gain from local politics, this outcome actually eventuates from a complex interaction between sectional interests in the population and the council’s organisation, which includes it7 own (often divided) interests. The central three chapters of the book each focus on an area of the major council activities of allocation, economic development and redistribution to trace this interaction, with particular attention being paid to what groups succeed in raising issues and which find their interests consistently sup- pressed. In each case, Gray therefore considers ‘non- issues’ as a manifestation of power. no less than groups being able to get council to consider their interests, either in the raising of issues or in successfully opposing some council proposal. In each area too. Gray finds that the structure of the Council itself. its division between elected councillors and bureaucratic council officers. was a central factor in whether or not things became issues. In each case. non-issues resulted from a lack of opposition between these two sections of the Councif.

Though Gray consistently demonstrates the power of farmers and business people, the full class dimensions of power in local Cowra politics would seem to me to be obscured by a use of ‘political issue’ which, despite the ‘third-dimension of power’. still seems dependent on conflict. In a very real sense political issues in this account are created from conflict within council and its processes. Yet what Gray calls the ‘non-issues’ of Taragafa air pollution. the decline of the railway. Aboriginal welfare and gender concerns would seem to me to certainly be political issues, but issues which actually exist beyond the bounds of councif. What is clear in Gray’s account is that these issues are actuatly lost by struct~~rally linked groups and that council’s operations and ideologies are implicate$ in that defeat. The use of ‘non-issues’ and the focus on council as an ‘arena’ of local politics obscure the per- petuation of class, gender and race power and inequality which in Gray’s account seems to be a dimension of the very structure and operation of th Cowra Shire Council.

Women in development: a Resource Guide for Organis- ation and Action, ISIS Women’s international Information and Communication Service, 226 pp.. 1991, Intermediary Technology Development Group, London, f12.95

When this resource guide first appeared in 1983, it was a spectacular response to a real need. In the context of a critique of the current women and development direc- tions, the major literature related to women and multi- nationals, rural development, health, ~omm~ini~ation”

Book Reviews 339

migration and tourism was incisively reviewed, the major works annotated, and key organizations working in the field listed with names and addresses. Furthermore, it based its review and resources on grassroots feminist groups working around the world for change for women. Yet even as it came out, the ISIS Collective apologized for not being up to date. Most of the citations are for the late 1970s and the organizations are those in existence at that moment in history, with their old addresses.

Eight years after the original publication, women and development literature has expanded exponentially. The sources cited remain important, but much has been added both theoretically and empirically since then. And during the restructuring of the 198Os, much has happened with women’s organizations, particularly in developing countries. We desperately need a publication that reflects those changes, while building on the enormous amount of work that went into this reprinted ISIS publication.

In the early 1980s much of the important literature on women and development, particularly that which linked gender equality with economic domination and inequality, was fugitive, published by women’s groups and not available through mainstream sources. The Guide lists prices and where to write for these important articles and organizational manuals. Unfortunately, some of the addresses are no longer current - and all of the prices are clearly out of date.

The work desperately needs an index. The well thought- out topical divisions help, but it still is difficult to access a source or a resource.

The topics chosen are well documented and well chosen. But the major social fact of the 1980s which particularly impacted women, is missing. Were this to be redone today, there would have to be a major section on the dept crisis and restructuring. Work on women and development has matured greatly by its ability to incorporate macro- economic phenomena and relate them to the reality of women’s lives. Our ability to address policy, not just development policy but monetary and fiscal policy, is perhaps the greatest area of development of theory and practice since the Guide was written.

Another important theoretical breakthrough that greatly affected practice is the conceptualization of women’s practical and strategic gender interests. First presented by Maxine Molyneux looking at socialist situations, and then applied by Caroline Moser to development planning in general, practitioners and grassroots groups were better able to define strategy and tactics that led to better organization, increased ability to generate resources, and greater awareness of the intersection of feminism with development. An updated volume would include a dis- cussion of the implications of this approach.

The original purpose, as stated by the ISIS collective, was to contribute to developing a new theory and practice of development which includes a feminist perspective. They consciously reject the notion of integrating women into development. Instead, they seek an alternative definition of development which includes women, particularly poor women in developing countries, as agenda setters. The wide circulation of the original document had that impact. We need to seek the kind of funding that would allow an updating of the Guide that reflects the progress made in the last decade. ISIS has been .a major actor in that

progress. It is sad that we only have a reprinting of this catalytic volume, rather than a work that reflects the change.

CORNELIA BUTLER FLORA Department of Sociology,

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, U.S.A.

Peasantry and Society in France since 1789, A. Moulin, 248 pp., 1991, Cambridge University Press and Editions de la Maison des Sciences de I’Homme

In October 1988 Annie Moulin, lecturer in history at the Universite de Clermont-Ferrand, published Les paysans dam la sock% francaise, de la Revolution a nos jours (Seuil). This appeared in pocket-size format, retailed at under lOOF., and followed her book entitled Les macons de la Haute-Marche au XVIIIe sickle (1986). Now geogra- pher Mark Cleary and his French wife have produced a faithful translation of Les paysans. They are highly qualified to cope with the nuances of such a task, since Mark has written Peasants, Politicians and Producers: the Organization of Agriculture in France since 1918 (CUP, 1989) and has undertaken a suite of rural social studies in central, southern and south-western France.

Rural life, farming and the French countryside have inspired a vast amount of research by historians, geogra- phers, anthropologists and other social scientists over recent years. Important but lengthy compilations have been produced, most notably the 4-volume Histoire de la France rurale (Seuil, 1975-1976) under the general editor- ship of Georges Duby and Armand Wallon. Annie Moulin’s text provides a much more succinct resume which, in addition, embraces findings from theses that appeared after the mid-1970s. Not surprisingly, her chosen structure is chronological, with five main chapters explor- ing the period from Revolution to Restoration; the slow transformation of agriculture and rural life 1815-1870; the difficult years 1870-1914, when the railway was beginning to change space relations and literacy, conscription and internal migration helped modify social relations; the period 1914-1950 when rural dwellers no longer formed a majority; and the apparently spectacular transformation of rural France after mid-century, which contains so many important elements of continuity as well as change. Particular attention is devoted to how the word ‘paysan’ has shifted its meaning through time and to how family farmers may be viewed as entrepreneurs, owning their own means of production, but also as exploited members of capitalist society who are poorly repaid for their hard graft.

This clear and challenging text is complemented by a handful of maps and diagrams (which are much more legible than in their smaller format); a well-organized bibliography of 330 items structured by period and then internally by topic; a most useful chronology of the main events in, and pertaining to, two centuries of rural life in France; and finally, a brief selection of key books and bibliographic aids in English. Peasantry and Society has the virtue of linking recent events to their antecedents, thereby broadening its disciplinary appeal. It is to be recommended to students of history, economics, politics and geography, who may need to examine a case study in