nature unbound. conservation, capitalism and the future of protected areas – by d. brockington, r....

Book Reviews

Fundamentals of the physical

environment, 4th edition

Peter Smithson, Ken Addison and KenAtkinson. Routledge, NewYork, 2008. 792 pp.ISBN 978-0-415-39516-8.

First published in 1985 as the Fundamentals ofPhysical Geography, this classic textbook hasdeveloped a deserved reputation as an acces-sible, comprehensive and well-written intro-duction for undergraduate students in physicalgeography.

During the last 25 years, physical geographyhas undergone significant changes with anincreased emphasis on numerical modelling,computer and laboratory analysis, environmen-tal history and proxy records. Textbooks, suchas the Fundamentals of the Physical Environ-ment, have evolved to address these trends. Thebook changed its name to correspond with asecond and third edition in 1997 and 2002. Inthis fourth edition, published in 2008, all chap-ters have been revised, new chapters added,and, for the first time, the book is presented infull colour.

Providing accessible and broad coverage ofall aspects of physical geography, the book iswell structured and divided into five logical‘parts’: ‘Fundamentals’, ‘Atmosphere’, ‘Geo-sphere’, ‘Biosphere’ and ‘Environments’. Theauthors retain a systems approach and appearkeen to emphasise this perspective in theirrenaming of several chapters. For example,Chapter 14, ‘Flowing water at the land surface’,has been renamed ‘Fluvial systems’, andChapter 16, ‘The work of the wind’, has become‘Aeolian systems’.

Chapter 1, ‘The physical environment:scientific concepts and methods’, contains anew extended section on the paradigmshifts which have led to the development ofphysical geography as a modern academic

discipline. ‘Four giants of modern physicalgeography’ – Chorley, Houghton, Hare andPrance – and their respective disciplinary con-tributions are identified. The chapter con-cludes by acknowledging that Earth SystemScience is likely to be the next enduringparadigm shift.

A new chapter (23), ‘Environmental recon-struction: principles and practice’, examines thereconstruction of past environments usinginformation preserved in the present. The prin-ciple of uniformity, summarised as ‘the presentis the key to the past,’ provides a basis for dis-cussion of different types of environmental sig-natures and of the documentary evidence thatprovides proxy records.The authors extend thisprinciple, recognising the importance of pastevents in aiding future environmental manage-ment decisions.

Somewhat unusually, previous editions ofthis book ended without a concluding chapter.In this edition, a new chapter (28), ‘Currentand future environmental change’, providesthe authors with an opportunity to discussthe complexities associated with climatechange and the likely impacts of globalwarming. They allude to the important rolethat physical geographers can play in pre-dicting, communicating, and managingenvironmental change.

While these new additions add significantlyto the value of this edition, they also reflect therate of development within physical geographyand in our scientific understanding of environ-mental change. To make space for thesechanges, the former Chapters 20, 21, 24 and 25have been synthesised as Chapters 20, ‘Prin-ciples of biogeography’ and 24, ‘Polar andalpine environments’.

New, one page outlines, preceding each des-ignated ‘part’ of the book, explain the contentof each section and where they sit within thebroader context of the subject. As in previous

New Zealand Geographer (2009) 65, 234–242

© 2009 The AuthorsJournal compilation © 2009 The New Zealand Geographical Society

doi: 10.1111/j.1745-7939.2009.01167.x

editions, each chapter ends with a concise sum-marisation of key points, and further readingsand web resources are provided for thosewanting detail beyond a general text. All thisreference material has been modified andupdated since the previous edition.

Examples are used extensively to support thetext. Overall these provide good global cover-age, although, unsurprisingly a strong UKflavour does persist. Key events that occurredsince the last edition (2002) have been included(e.g. Hurricane Katrina, 2005). With over 450diagrams and 150 photographs, the arrival offull colour strengthens the appeal of thisedition. The diagrams and maps are clear anddetailed, and, in places, new photographsreplace those of the third edition.

One notable change in this new edition isthat all the key words and concepts have beenhighlighted within the text. This feature,common in other textbooks, typically linksthese words to a glossary of terms. Despite anupdated and comprehensive glossary, frustrat-ingly, not all the highlighted words or conceptsare included.

A basic but functional companion web-site (http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415395168) provides instructors andstudents with bullet-point chapter summaries,potential discussion and essay questions, and aselection of downloadable diagrams from thetext. Extra readings, further web links andextended case studies are also included. Unlikesome of the more interactive offerings fromsimilar texts, this website is static, but thecontent is sound.

The authors reflect not only the changingnature of the discipline, but also echo the kindof advice an instructor might reasonably give astudent when they state that, ‘the ability tounderstand and explain, rather than merelydescribe . . . , is central to the relevance ofmodern geography’ (p. 21). To this extent, thisnew, revised edition of the Fundamentals of thePhysical Environment deserves to retain theposition of its predecessors on the recom-mended reading list of undergraduate coursesin physical geography.

Joe FaganSchool of Environment

The University of Auckland

Nature unbound. Conservation,

capitalism and the future of

protected areas

D. Brockington, R. Duffy and J. Igoe.Earthscan, London, 2008. 249 pp.ISBN 978-1-844-074402.

Conservation is often represented in relativelyunproblematic, progressive terms. The authorsof this book immediately disrupt such comfort-able assumptions by asking why the most dra-matic growth in extent of protected naturalareas worldwide was between the mid-1980sand the mid-1990s, when neoliberal economicpolicies were in their ascendancy. Their scriptis ‘to recognise that capitalist policies andvalues, and often neoliberal policies and values,pervade conservation practice; indeed in someparts of the world they infest it’ (p. 3).

Their central concern is therefore to explorehow the benefits and costs of conservationactivities are distributed. Their approach is thatof social scientists seeking to bring a more criti-cally informed style of analysis to conservationdebates. Impressively, they are not limited toany particular country or region, but draw onextensive worldwide experience.Although theyare strongest on sub-Saharan Africa, they rangewidely across what is occurring in Australasia,Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas. NewZealand issues are often highlighted, but makea different sort of sense when read in this rela-tional context rather than within the nationalframe that almost always circumscribes discus-sions here.

The second chapter provides an overview ofthese histories, drawing out some surprisingregional differences, as well as ‘the tremendousvariety in places enjoying some form of stateprotection’ (p. 38). Chapter 3 explores theimperatives for conservation in the forms ofprotecting wilderness from human encroach-ment, and to preserve biodiversity and species.Commodification for consumption is left untillater chapters. The ‘power of parks’ is thesubject of the fourth chapter, asking two ques-tions: do they work better than other arrange-ments and what is their effect on people? It isonly later, in the fifth chapter about non-parkforms of managing resources, that parks them-selves are described as ‘fortress conservation

Book Reviews 235


arrangements’ (p. 88), a term that deservesmore comment. Yet the argument in thesechapters is strong precisely because it is notpresented as black and white. The difficulty ofconceptualising and measuring costs andbenefits is always stressed.

Many New Zealand readers will be fasci-nated by themes in Chapters 5, 6 and 7. Thesecover topics such as co-management, conserva-tion and indigenous peoples and, evocatively,‘The spread of tourist habitat’. The chapter on‘Local management of natural resources’ givesmany examples that stand in contrast to theneat division between land managed for con-servation and land managed for productionthat prevails in New Zealand. The authorsargue for ‘a more nuanced and contextualapproach . . . for doing conservation withindigenous communities’ (p. 128). At the sametime, they continually seek to disaggregate thewoolly concept of ‘community’ in their questto emphasise that whenever some peoples win,it is likely that others lose.

The chapters that argue the central thesismost strongly are left until last. Chapter 8 isabout international conservation, and chartsthe rapid growth in recent decades in bothnumbers and influence of conservation NGOs.Yet tracking their spending is hard and studiesof their effectiveness few. They are describedas ‘a potential threat to community-basedapproaches to conservation’ (p. 164), when fordonor organisations, saving species often leadsback to the appeal of a people-free wilderness.The final chapter attempts to theorise the sug-gestive link between contemporary conserva-tion practices and neoliberalism that hasinformed the whole book. It constructs twomodels, centred on the ‘black box of productivenature’ and today’s ‘green box of consumptivenature’, in which ‘both function to conceal theecological connections of people’s daily con-sumptive practices’ (p. 190). Conservation istherefore challenged to find ways to helppeople grasp the ecological implications ofthese practices, while at the same time beingone of the main reasons that these implicationsare obscured through its commodification ofnature.

In short, this is an exciting book that sum-marises the debates about conservation withclarity and depth, but takes them several stages

further to confront the reader to recognise themany ways in which conservation practicesshape and are shaped by contemporary capital-ism. It deserves to be read in New Zealand,where conservation, like anywhere else, is any-thing but unproblematic. It is, however, fre-quently constructed as such: to the extent thatwe seem often to lack the analytical tools toengage in proper debate. In contrast, this bookprovides plenty.

Eric PawsonDepartment of Geography

University of Canterbury

The amazing world of James Hector

Simon Nathan and Mary Varnham (eds). AwaPress, Wellington, 2008. 185 pp. ISBN978-0-9582750-7-1.

Few individuals in history have been as deserv-ing of the epithet of ‘Mr Science’ as JamesHector was in colonial New Zealand. As thechapters in this small volume ably demonstrate,his responsibilities went far beyond hiswell-known leadership of the New ZealandGeological Survey and editorship of the Trans-actions of the New Zealand Institute, andextended into roles such as superintendingNew Zealand’s contribution to internationalexhibitions, helping to set the direction of itstertiary education and even acting as thenation’s official timekeeper.As pivotal to scien-tific research and administration as Hector was,his work has, however, largely eluded scholarlyattention until recent times. The publication ofthis series of papers from the James Hectorcentenary symposium held at Te Papa in2007 therefore represents an important step infilling this considerable void.

For the student of nineteenth-century NewZealand, all of the chapters are revealing,although geographical themes feature morestrongly in some than others. Hector’s geologi-cal explorations in western Canada (1857–1860) and Otago (1862–1865) are ablysummarised by Peter Hector and Tony Hocken,respectively, while George Gibbs explains howHector’s observations make him one ofNew Zealand’s pioneering biogeographers.

Book Reviews236


The chapters on the Wellington BotanicGardens by Winsome Shepherd and WalterCook, and the Ratanui homestead by JohnAdam and Louise Beaumont, also provide aninteresting counterpoint, as they trace Hector’sendeavours to modify the environment throughlandscape change and biotic introductions atboth the macro and micro scales.

Indeed, the clever synergy throughout thebook between the story of Hector the publicscientist and administrator, and that of Hectorthe private individual, is one of its key merits.Some chapters have a greater focus on organi-sational development, such as Francis LucianReid’s on the New Zealand Institute, IanSpeden’s on the New Zealand GeologicalSurvey, and Jock Phillips’ on the New ZealandMeteorological Service, but each offers insightsinto Hector’s role as a nodal individual innational and sometimes international scientificnetworks. Lastly, the public representation ofNew Zealand society, both domestically andinternationally, is a theme of Conal McCarthy’schapter, which although principally on theColonial Museum, also includes details of NewZealand’s presence at foreign exhibitions.

Inevitably, in a work based on a series ofpapers, there will be areas covered in greaterdepth than others. How the leading sciencefigures outside Wellington got on with Hector isone topic which might fruitfully have beenexpanded upon. For example, Ewan Fordycealludes to Hector’s role in trying to pacify theMoa-bone Point Cave controversy, but the con-troversy itself is never expressly mentioned.Equally, more might have been said onHector’s views of the colonising project. Onewould suspect Hector had some appreciation ofthe value of Maori culture and society, given hisadaptation of Maori words when giving namesto New Zealand fossil species, but the Maoriworld features to any extent only in the discus-sion of the management of artefacts that theColonial Museum collected. It is also a pity thatthe pioneer weather recording efforts of indi-viduals such as Henry Torlesse have been over-looked, and that the Colonial Laboratoryreceives little attention, although it is pleasingto see that its soil-testing efforts do get somerecognition. However, the overwhelmingfeeling upon reading a chapter is not frustra-tion, but a wish to know more, which is prob-

ably no bad thing.As a whole, the chapters havebeen crafted into a coherent story, for which theeditors deserve to be congratulated.

In terms of the accoutrements to the text, itwould be fair to say that the work is richlyillustrated, much more so than one wouldnormally expect. The use of so many archivalimages throughout is a testament to thethought and effort that has gone into theirselection. While the addition of an index ishelpful, the bibliography is somewhat wantingthough. The references supplied for eachchapter do not include manuscript sources, andat least a select list of Hector’s publicationsshould have been provided, given that theappendices do contain a list of species namedfor and by Hector.

Overall, The Amazing World of James Hectorhas much to offer anyone interested in thedevelopment of natural sciences in NewZealand, or globally, for that matter, during thenineteenth century. Given its quality, and itsvery modest price (RRP NZ$25), it is deservingof a large readership.

Vaughan WoodDepartment of Geography


In dwelling: Implacability, exclusion

and acceptance

Peter King. Ashgate, Aldershot, 2008. 149 pp.ISBN 978-0-7546-48703.

Peter King has once again presented a stimu-lating discussion that provides direction for thefield of housing studies. There is no doubtingKing’s commitment to the expansion of thisfield or his knowledge of the subject. This bookphilosophically probes relations between indi-viduals, their housing and home, ultimatelyre-imagining peoples’ acts of place making andtheir dwelling. King achieves this by privilegingpersonal experience and autobiography whileexploring cinematic film and traversing a rangeof theoretical perspectives. Questions regard-ing the role that intimate personal experienceand perceptions may play in shaping the waywe each use, shape and are influenced byhousing are pertinent to the continued devel-

Book Reviews 237


opment of housing studies and are in focushere. The subjective dimensions of housing andpersonal meanings are emphasised by King insuch a way that the reader is prompted toscrutinise her/his own particular experiencesand meanings. This investigation and personalexploration is both valuable and productive inextending thinking pertaining to the relation-ship between people and their dwelling.

King introduces his discussion with a critiqueof housing studies in which he argues againstapproaches that only superficially examineconnections between people, their houses, andpersonal experience and meaning. King pro-mulgates the idea that investigations of housingmust focus on the personal and employ socialscience theories to do so. This discussion isfollowed by the assertion that a theoreticalemphasis on personal experience and meaninggrounded in the social sciences is vital, sincethis viewpoint demonstrates how we eachrelate and respond to housing to produce ourown individual houses as mine. This argumentcould usefully be applied to understanding awide range of individual place experiences,practices and attachments. Central to King’sargument is the idea of the dwelling as impla-cable. King employs this term to articulate thenotion that the way we access and use housingdetermines whether it works for or against us.Our dwelling, King continues, can have positiveor negative impacts on our lives.

What King does well in this discussion is toposition subjective and personal meanings asof paramount importance, and to call to ques-tion people’s deeper relationships with theirdwelling. Questions regarding how and whypeople may thrive or weaken in line with theirintimate experiences of living at home areraised by the arguments King develops,making this book a thoughtful and valuableaddition to King’s work to date. However,while thought provoking, overall, King’s dis-cussion is unconvincing due to its overly indi-vidualistic emphasis and obvious biases. Kingis ultimately speaking from his own experienceand therefore his own position in time andplace that is not generalisable to others. Hisconcept of dwelling as mine, for example, doesnot allow room for dwelling to be consideredin any alternative or pluralistic sense, as maybe more applicable in social and cultural set-

tings outside of King’s own experience. Kinghas, of course, been criticised for generalisingfrom his own experience in earlier publica-tions, and his tendency to do so here ultimatelyundermines his call to examine housing from asubjective and personal perspective by assum-ing a set of universal truths.

Also concerning is King’s reliance on filmcriticism as a method of investigation. Kingdoes make a strong argument that to investi-gate the subjective and the personal research-ers may usefully turn to methods that areinstinctive and focused on meaning-making.However, because King persistently generalisesfrom his own experience and draws conclusionsby focusing on particular films, his claims areundermined. The method employed actuallyworks to de-personalise the illustrations drawnregarding relations between people and theirdwelling, since these illustrations are so one-sided and unique to King himself and his posi-tion in time and place.

Despite these shortcomings, this book offersa range of compelling ideas based on a diverserange of theories, sometimes used in unex-pected ways. King’s arguments will provoke thereader to consider the issues even whilst theymay not agree with King’s assumption of ashared vision of what is commonplace andcommon experience.

Tara ColemanSchool of Environment

The University of Auckland

Non-representational theory.

Space politics affect

Nigel Thrift. Routledge, London, 2008. 325 pp.ISBN 978-0-415-393218.

As with Spatial Formations (1996) andKnowing Capitalism (2005), Non-Representational Theory is a compilation ofNigel Thrift’s recent work. Each of the 10 chap-ters – eight previously published and two newlywritten – is concerned to articulate a non-representational style of thought.This has beenThrift’s intellectual project for over a decadenow. At its heart is a commitment to movebeyond styles of analysis that privilege what

Book Reviews238


humans think and to give more attentionto generative interactions between diverseentities.

To elaborate briefly, non-representationaltheory contends that what humans think is onlythe tip of the iceberg in terms of what is goingon. For a start, human attention is highly selec-tive: only a portion of ambient stimuli are evernoticed. In addition, as Thrift explains, only thesmallest part of human cognition is explicitlyconscious (perhaps as little as 5%). The restoccurs at pre-, sub- and unconscious levels, aspart of complex forms of processing that aredistributed across the body as much as centredwithin the brain. If we ask people to account forthe actions of themselves or others, we shouldnot therefore be surprised when highly attenu-ated narratives emerge, in which intention,motives and rationality are to some extentinserted retrospectively. For analytical pur-poses, the constructivist emphasis on humanrepresentations of the world, whether linguisticor visual, can thus only take us so far. To theextent that such approaches remain common incertain quarters of contemporary human geog-raphy, Thrift unsurprisingly distances himselffrom them.

A further impetus for non-representationaltheory is the recognition that places are com-prised of diverse entities that are constantlyinteracting, forming and reforming alliances.Instead of geographies in which humans rou-tinely take centre stage, we need analyses thattake seriously the activities and capacities ofthese assorted others, whether animate orinanimate, and the interactions between them.Such arguments are, of course, integral to actor-network theory, which Thrift acknowledges asan important influence, and form an importantstrand within his broadly post-humanistperspective.

In the first chapter of the volume, ‘Life, butnot as we know it’,Thrift elaborates upon theseand other tenets of non-representationaltheory, addressing potential objections, as wellas methodological implications. Following thisintroduction, the collection then has threeparts. The chapters in Part I each develop anon-representational approach to a particulartheoretical-cum-empirical domain. In ‘Re-inventing invention: new tendencies in capital-ist commodification’, the focus is contemporary

business and its relentless quest for extractingvalue. ‘Still life in nearly present time’ then con-siders nature as a ‘key site of contemplationand mysticism in the modern world’ (p. 56),touching on issues of spirituality, embodimentand stillness in the so-called fast societies.The third and fourth chapters cover driving inthe city and movement space, respectively.Throughout these discussions, Thrift seeks toconvey rather than dampen the liveliness of theworld. The pace of exposition is sometimesbreathless, but the style is such that one oftengets a feel for what is being advocated, evenwhen a slower or fuller treatment may havebeen welcome.

Part II consists of a single chapter, ‘After-words’, which begins by asking how we mightbest value and speak about the richness of ahuman life. This piece acts a pivot for thevolume, and leads into the more directly politi-cal terrain of Part III. The four chapters hereare concerned with the interplay betweenaction, affect and everyday hopefulness, ratherthan mainstream politics in the sense of elec-toral contests and democratic representation.We read about the flow of positive and negativefeelings within cities, the marshalling ofemotion through advertising and rhetoric, andthe need for new forms of counter-public asalternatives to the traditional left and right.As in the rest of the volume, a diverse range ofauthors is enrolled in support of the argumentsdeveloped. A recurring theme, however, isThrift’s desire to facilitate ‘. . . an affirmativemicropolitics of productivity which attemptsto inject more kindness and compassion intoeveryday interaction’ (p. 215).

As the work of a leading human geographer,Non-Representational Theory is a stimulatingand challenging collection. The terrain coveredis extensive, and the arguments spark off allsorts of questions and possibilities. For geogra-phers interested in social theory, the volume islikely to repay a number of readings. For thosewanting an overview of non-representationaltheory, the first chapter provides a valuableoverview and would be good reading groupmaterial, while the last offers a useful perspec-tive on the relationship between affect andemotion. The chapters on contemporary capi-talism, nature/embodiment, urban mobility andemergent forms of political practice will also

Book Reviews 239


be of interest to those researching in thesespecific areas.

David ConradsonDepartment of Geography


Space, difference, everyday life:

Reading Henri Lefebvre

Kanishka Goonewardena, Stefan Kipfer,Richard Milgrom and Christian Schmid (eds).Routledge, New York. 2008. 329 pp. ISBN0-415-95460-6.

During his long writing career, the Frenchthinker, Henri Lefebvre [1901–1991], managedto upset many of those who surrounded him byshaking up and challenging assumptions theyheld as self evident. His academic engagementsincluded his early critiques of Europeanfascism, his tumultuous involvement and finalbreak with the French communist party, hisongoing conflict with established academicinstitutions, and his emblematic role in thestudent and worker revolts in Paris in 1968. Heresolutely held to the view that the process offorming ideas should not be isolated into aca-demic institutions, but should emerge in dia-logue with the stark realities and socialmovements that mark a particular time andplace. True to the spirit of Lefebvre, this editedbook presents 17 thoughtful and passionatelywritten chapters that reflect Lefebvre’s disdainfor staid and doctrinaire thinking and bring hiscentral ideas forward into a modern worldpreoccupied with urban environments,globalisation, lived aesthetics, and reinter-preted citizenship.

While the focus is primarily on applicationsof Lefebvre’s thinking within the disciplines ofsocial geography and urban planning, the chap-ters also link discussion to developments incritical theory within the disciplines of philoso-phy, sociology, art criticism, political studies andglobal theory. This multidisciplinary focusreflects the breadth and depth of Lefebvre’sown academic pursuits. The novice reader ofsocial theory may find the complexity of refer-ence to these different theoretical traditionschallenging. In many places, the discussion

assumes some familiarity with contemporarythinkers of the time, such as Debord, Gramsci,Heidegger, Axelos and Breton. Nonetheless, ifthe reader is prepared to suspend this unfamil-iarity, the chapters still provide an engagingintroduction to the relevance of Lefebvre’sideas to modern concerns.

Individual chapters focus on ways in whichone or two of Lefebvre’s key concepts shedlight on or can be applied to current socialissues. In Chapter 4, Lukasz Stanek provides astimulating analysis of how Lefebvre’s conceptof a ‘concrete abstract’ assists in understandingthe structuring of space. Several chaptersexplore Lefebvre’s concept of ‘totality’ inunderstanding the subjectivities of space(Chapters 2 and 7) and the dynamics of coloni-sation and hegemony (Chapter 13). Otherchapters explore his concept of ‘everyday life’and how it relates to engagement with art anddesign (Chapters 10, 11 and 16). Another set ofchapters focus on his later writings on globaland urban citizenship, where concepts such as‘difference’, ‘centrality’ and ‘peripheralisation’help in understanding the ever-changing natureof modern urban environments (Chapters 14and 15). One aspect of Lefebvre’s writing thatthe book is light on is the influence of Marx andhis interpretation of dialectics. However, giventhat the focus is on urban environments, thisomission is understandable. At either end ofthe book, the book’s editors have providedsuccinctly written and lively introductory andconcluding chapters that manage to cont-extualise the diversity of chapter offerings.

The general orientation of most chaptersinvolves by-and-large an enthusiastically posi-tive take on Lefebvre’s ideas, but this is notadopted uncritically. For example, in Chapter 6,Geoffrey Waite accuses Lefebvre of being ‘asometimes avid and always mediocre and care-less reader of Heidegger’, who appropriates histhinking into a form of ‘Left-Heideggerianism’that is part of ‘a strangulating weed system thatis anti-communist and anti-thinking’ (p. 95).These comments further illustrate the forth-right and enthusiastic style that characterisesthe writing throughout the book.

Perhaps as a consequence of Lefebvre’s will-ingness to challenge intellectual orthodoxies,his ideas attained less recognition than thoseof other contemporary thinkers. This book

Book Reviews240


re-evaluates his contribution. It identifies howover the course of his many original works,Lefebvre’s thinking evolved gradually into acoherent set of ideas grounded in his key con-cepts of ‘space’, ‘difference’ and ‘everyday life’.It illustrates how, when these ideas are appliedto modern contexts, they provide a surprisingwide range of insights into the ways peopleorganise and derive meaning from the spacesthey inhabit.

Peter AdamsSchool of Population HealthThe University of Auckland

The British Columbia atlas of wellness,

1st edition

Leslie T. Foster and C. Peter Keller. WesternGeographical Press, Canada, 2007. 233 pp.ISBN 978-0-919838-32-1.

The ever-increasing availability of geographi-cally referenced data in this digital age hasenabled the publication of several atlases por-traying the geography of health and society ingeneral. A common trait of the atlases is tohighlight the spatial distribution of disease and,in many cases, centre on the extent of inequal-ity between the areas with the best and worstrates of disease. While informative and acces-sible for the lay reader, these maps may unin-tentionally generate stigma for the individualsliving in those worse-off neighbourhoods. Itwas therefore a welcome surprise to see thatthe authors of the British Columbia Atlas ofWellness explicitly focus on the positive aspectsof health: ‘The vast majority . . . [of] mappingexercises to date have tended to focus on thenegative rather than accentuate the positive’(p. 6).

The purpose of this atlas is to communicatedata about key wellness indicators for BC, andto highlight patterns that emerge in an inter-esting and informative way. The Atlas alsosupplements the ActNow BC initiative, a com-prehensive health promotion program that wasestablished in 2005 to encourage residents ofBritish Columbia to enjoy a healthy, activelifestyle. Following the introductory chapteroutlining the purpose and goals of the Atlas

mentioned above, Chapter 2 discusses ‘well-ness’ in detail. As we’d expect from a Canadianpublication, the authors have adopted a holisticperspective of wellness, containing physical,emotional, social, intellectual, occupational,spiritual and environmental elements. Themeasurement of wellness is discussed beforedelving into the determinants of wellness.Although written for a lay audience, thischapter would also be useful reading for anyundergraduate course that discusses the deter-minants of health and/or wellness. Datasources and map interpretation are the focus ofChapter 3 before the physical and humangeography of British Columbia is provided inChapter 5. Chapter 5 is the engine room of theatlas, with seven sections presenting over 270maps related to the geography of more than120 different dimensions of wellness, such asthe determinants of health, smoking behav-iours, nutrition and food security, physicalactivity, healthy weight, healthy pregnancy, and‘wellness outcomes’. The wellness outcomessection centres on matters such as self-reported health and mental health, the absenceof long-term illnesses, being injury free for 12months or more and life expectancy at birth.

In the concluding chapter, the authors use asimplistic measure to create wellness ‘bench-marks’ for the province using data from the2005 Canadian community health survey, forthe 16 health delivery service areas (HSDAs).This is an attempt to summarise data portrayedin Chapter 5. Data representing a particularwellness domain are pooled, and those HSDAsthat are significantly higher than the regionalaverage are scored with a ‘+’; conversely, thoseHSDAs that were significantly lower than theregion were assigned a ‘-’. The index is simplythe sum of + or -, for each wellness domain.While this approach to benchmarking is rela-tively crude, it is nonetheless effective, and theauthors are to be commended for attempting tosynthesise so eloquently the data they havepresented in the Atlas.

Each topic introduces the reader to the datasource and how wellness was measured, beforedescribing the key points in the map, and howthese findings relate to the wider literature.A five-class map scale is used, with a green-beige-orange colour ramp, clearly emphasisingthe variations in the map. Regions that are

Book Reviews 241


statistically significantly different to BritishColumbia are identified using a simple hatchingtechnique. In addition to the obligatory five-colour legend accompanying the map, an‘extended’ legend is provided in a table, outlin-ing the rates for each region depicted in themap. My only criticism of the atlas was that theauthors adopted a three-scale colour ramp toportray their wellness indexes in Chapter 6.Retaining the five-class scale used in the previ-ous chapter would have more clearly demon-strated the gradients of wellness that wereapparent in the tables accompanying the maps.

This book was packed full of information andshould set the benchmark for future socialatlases. In addition, the authors are maintaininga companion website, which includes updatedmaps and further information. With so manycomparable data sources and geographicalscales used here in New Zealand, I hope thatan atlas of wellness for New Zealand hits ourshelves soon!

Daniel ExeterSchool of Population HealthThe University of Auckland

Book Reviews242


nature unbound. conservation, capitalism and the future of protected areas – by d. brockington, r....

Documents