tion of further intervention by the EU in planning and property systems.

It is also the case that leading firms of property professionals are very highly europeanized; but the concept of a European property profession, promoted by the RICS and the Euro- pean Association of Chartered Sur- veyors, is not mentioned. The index does not help a reader seeking a Euro- pean view, as there is no entry for the EU, the Commission or any other keyword that may help for this or for use of the book for comparative analy- sis.

This book represents a major step forward in providing foundations on which the comparative analysis of planning and property systems in Europe can begin. Given the consider- able extent to which the property pro- fession is already Europeanized, and the recognition of non-tariff barriers still remaining after the Single Market programme, it is unfortunate that the pan-European dimension was not bet- ter recognized in the introductory and final chapters.

However, this book will be very valuable for teaching and for the many professionals who do need to learn about new cities and countries. Its greatest use is likely to be the indi- vidual chapters, for those who wish to gain an understanding of the cities in question. Authors may expect that organizers of study visits will be knocking on their doors.

Richard H Williams Centre .for Research in European

Urban Environments, Department of Town and

Country Planning University of Newcastle upon Tyne,

Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK

Reconstituting Rurality: Class, Com- munity and Power in the Development Process Jonathan Murdoch and Terry Mars- den UCL Press London (1994) 256 pp £40.00 (hardback)

Rural areas are experiencing a period of severe social, economic and en- vironmental change. This involves a

complex process of restructuring: the declining priority given to agricultural production and the growth of non- agricultural activities; the increasing significance attached to the consump- tion of the rural environment as a residential location and as space for recreation and leisure. The changes imply a redefinition of rurality itself.

Murdoch and Marsden investigate such processes through a detailed locality study of the district of the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, a relatively prosperous county in south- ern central England some fifty miles north of London. This book is the second of a series; the first (Marsden et al, 1993) established the broader, historical context of the restructuring of rural areas in Britain. The work derives from a major study of rural change funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

The changes are studied from a sociological perspective within the context of class formation. The central argument is that rural space is being increasingly occupied and shaped by 'middle class' interests. Rurality 'can be seen as an outcome of processes of class formation as individuals and col- lectivities [middle class groups (p xii)]. attempt to mould rural space into forms which reflect and perpetuate class identity and difference' (p 15). However, there appears to be some ambiguity in the analysis as to the direction of the causal relationships; whether the class determines the na- ture of rurality or whether the rurality determines the nature of the class. At the same time, 'middle class' is de- fined here specifically in the context of rural areas and as 'an outcome of collective action' (italics in original, p 8). It would seem sufficient to argue that social groups with certain income and employment characteristics are moving into the area and participating in local decision making processes in order to promote their own interests. It is not really clear to this reader that the emphasis on definitions of class adds greatly to the clarity of the story.

The processes are investigated through case studies linked to the land development process. After placing the area in a regional context (the domination of the service industries,

Book reviews economic buoyancy and an enhanced middle class presence), the book de- scribes a series of case studies in rela- tion to a number of selected issues. The first of these concerns the policy framework for and process of housing land development. The authors argue that the provision of rural housing has been socially selective, allowing for the increased middle class dominance by excluding those unable to compete in the housing market; this results from a 'process of calculation where certain assumptions are made about the workings of the housing market and others are made about the types of "consumers" this market should cater for' (p 63). The process is illus- trated by three housing case studies; of new development, barn conversions and development undertaken by the Oxford Diocesan Board. The first two illustrate the movement of middle class into certain areas, the third prop- osal was withdrawn in the face of local opposition.

The second case study area consid- ers development within three contrast- ing rural settlements, using in-depth interviews to establish social profiles of the villages. The studies emphasize the differences between the villages. There is not one 'culture' associated with the middle class and the villages 'offer contrasting ruralities'. The na- ture of the changes go beyond the development process itself, but the authors argue that:

the housing development process delivers particular types of housing and thus par- ticular social formations. Once these come into being they ensure that only certain sorts of housing get built . . . Thus, the process becomes cumulative. The planning system structures these processes and pro- vides resources for those actively seeking to mould these processes in particular ways. [p 124]

The next chapter concentrates on agri- culture, in particular on responses to the 'crisis of agriculture' on individual farms. Businesses are modified in va- rious responses to external and inter- nal pressures with farmers adopting different strategies. Land is used flex- ibly both in terms of acquisitions and disposal and within and outside of agriculture. Diversification is an im- portant aspect: 54% of farm house- holds in Buckinghamshire were en-

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Book reviews gaged in off-farm work. This inevit- ably affects the relationship between agriculture and the local economy although a lack of historic data means that it is difficult to judge the extent to which these are new relationships.

The three succeeding chapters look at the transfer of land from agriculture to other uses: golf courses, quarrying and landfill. Each is supported by particular interests and is decided through a particular decision making process. In the last two examples, the proposals gained the attention of par- ticularly strong antidevelopment cam- paigns, successful in preventing many developments opposed by influential rural residents, and the prospects for golf courses have dimmed since these studies were undertaken. The final case study area concentrates on the conversion of agricultural buildings. The examples recorded indicate a shift in planners' attitudes from encourage- ment to hostility based, it is argued, on their coming 'to be concerned with protecting the property rights and positional goods of middle-class occu- piers through their emphasis on aes- thetic protection of the countryside "for its own sake" ' (p 216).

The treatment offers an important insight into the forces and processes that are shaping the development of rural areas, both socially and en- viromentally. The changes are, however, taking place on a small minority of the physical space within the area; indeed their impact is often judged in terms of developments that have failed to take place. Even agri- cultural diversification is largely con- fined to changes in the use made of existing buildings and small areas of land, the large proportion of the land remaining in agricultural use. The so- cial changes are thus not obvious to the casual observer of the local land- scape, and it remains more influenced by shifts in agricultural policy. This may explain an apparent common and continuing perception among the general public, and even among com- mentators, of the stability of rural areas in the face of urban change.

There is a certain irony in that the processes studied have been effective in maintaining 'a delightful stretch of countryside in the midst of an urban

region'. But only at the cost of exclud- ing potential immigrants from the area, of pushing development press- ures on to other areas less able to resist them, and of excluding some local interests from enjoying the be- nefits of development. Are these costs a necessary corollary of the environ- mental conservation? Does the system as it is established and implemented lead towards an appropriate balance between the competing interests? Is it appropriate to shift environmental im- pacts on to areas where the benefits of development may be more generally appreciated? This is an example of the pollution haven hypothesis writ small. The authors note the outcome but do not make any judgements on its appropriateness or consider any alternative options. The message is an important one in helping the wider debate on rural policy to recognize the altered context of rural society.

The authors argue that a new rural- ity is coming into being, which stresses aesthetic and residential values and which seeks preservation rather than development. However, they do not argue that all rural areas are alike. Indeed, they recognize variations within the area quite early on, although they fail to draw these out in the later stages of the book. Bucking- hamshire is defined as 'preserved countryside', characterized by antide- velopment and preservationist atti- tudes, in contrast to 'contested coun- tryside', outside the main commuter catchments, 'paternalistic countryside' dominated by large private estates and farms, and 'clientelist countryside' where agricultural and its associated institutions hold sway but where farm- ing can only be sustained by state subsidy (pp xi-xii). However, the au- thors do argue that the general shift in the composition of rural areas, documented in the case studies, is occurring almost everywhere in Eng- land, particularly in those areas within major commuting distance of major centres (p 229). We will await similar studies in the other types of country- side.

Ian Hodge Department of Land Economy

University of Cambridge Cambridge CB3 9EP, UK

References

Marsden, T, Murdoch, J, Lowe, P, Munton, R J C and Flynn, A (1993) Constructing the Countryside (Res- tructuring Rural Areas 1) UCL Press, London

Process and Policy Evaluation in Structure Planning edited by Abdul Khakee and Katarina Eckerberg Swedish Council for Building Research Stockholm (1993) 224 pp SEK 177 (paperback)

Remaking the Welfare State edited by Abdul Khakee, Ingemar Elander and Sune Sunesson Avebury Aldershot (1995) 297 pp (hardback)

Both these books emanate from work- shops held at the University of Umefi and bring together methodological re- flections and research accounts of the dismantling of the Swedish welfare state since the 1980s. Khakee and Eckerberg bring together a collection of nine papers which present different methods of evaluating both the pro- cess and policy impact of welfare plan- ning. There is little argumentation be- tween the methods in this first book and it is, therefore, appropriate for undergraduate students who wish to familiarize themselves with a wide selection of approaches. Khakee et al, in the second book, present 12 accounts of Swedish research projects with explicit formulation and refine- ment of concepts on the basis of litera- ture reviews and empirical material, and with future research outlined.

In Process and Policy Evaluation in Structure Planning the papers, as the title suggests, are loosely grouped into those which focus on how to evaluate the planning process and those which evaluate planning outcomes. Only the papers by Stromberg, by Gustafasson, and by Khakee and Eckerberg use Swedish examples.

In the first paper Khakee and Eck- erberg seek to explain how the post- war consensus around the centralized blueprint planning in Sweden has weakened. The process has gone hand in hand with the slackening of econo-

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