Book reviews: Art and womanhood: From the female imagination to feminine consciousness

The Female Imagination, by Patricia Meyer Spacks. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975, $10.

Feminine Consciousness in the Modern British Novel, by Sydney Janet Kaplan. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975, $7.95.     

Book reviews

United States Development Assistance Policy: The Domestic Politics of Foreign Economic Aid. By Vernon W. Ruttan. Baltimore, MD and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. Pp.xxiv + 657. £54. ISBN 0 8018 5051 7

India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity. By Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. Pp.292. £25. ISBN 0 19 829012 8

Regaining Marxism. By Ken Post. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press for Institute of Social Studies, 1996. Pp.x + 393. £45. ISBN 0 333 65444 7

Inflation and Investment Controls in China: The Political Economy of Central‐Local Relations during the Reform Era. By Yasheng Huang. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp.xviii + 371. £40. ISBN 0 521 55483 7

The Village Concept in the Transformation of Rural Southeast Asia: Studies from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Edited by Mason C. Hoadley and Christer Gunnarsson. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1996. Pp.xviii + 229. £35. ISBN 0 7007 0350 0

African Industry in Decline: The Case of Textiles in Tanzania in the 1980s. By Peter de Valk. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996. Pp.xii + 370. £45. ISBN 0 333 65445 5

The Urban Opportunity: The Work of the NGOs in Cities of the South. Edited by Nicolas Hall, Rob Hart and Diana Mitlin. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1996. Pp.xv + 128. £9.95 ISBN 1 85339 347 9

Doctrines of Development. By M.P. Cowen and R.W. Shenton. London: Routledge, 1996. Pp.xv + 554. £18.99. ISBN 0 415 12516 2

Democracy, Development and the Countryside: Urban‐Rural Struggles in India. By Ashutosh Varshney (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp.xi + 214. £35. 0 521 44153 6

Ethnicity and Development: Geographical Perspectives. Edited by Dennis Dwyer and David Drakakis‐Smith. Chichester: J. Wiley &; Sons, 1996. Pp.296. £35. ISBN 0 47196354 2

Indigenous Organizations and Development. Edited by Peter Blunt and D. Michael Warren. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1996. Pp.xv + 253. £16.95. ISBN 1 85339 321 5

Sustainable Tourism in Islands and Small States: Issues and Policies. Edited by Lino Briguglio, Brian Archer, Jafar Jafari and Geoffrey Wall. London: Pinter, 1996. Pp.xiii + 226. £45. ISBN 1 85567 371 1

Sustainable Tourism in Islands and Small States: Case Studies. Edited by Lino Briguglio, Richard Butler, David Harrison and Walter Leal Filho. London: Pinter, 1996. Pp.xiv + 317. £45. ISBN 1 85567 371 1

Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. By Mahmood Mamdani (Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996. Pp.xii + 356. (Also published: Kampala: Fountain Publishers. ISBN 9970 02 090 0; Cape Town: David Philip. ISBN 0 85255 399 4; London: James Currey. £14.95. ISBN 0 852555 399 4)     

Review essay: Provincialising ‘geo‐politics’

Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space. G. Ó Tuathail, 1996. London: Routledge. 315 pp.; £15.99 paperback. ISBN: 0 415 15701 3 paperback     

Ultrafast STR Separations on Short‐Channel Microfluidic Systems for Forensic Screening and Genotyping

There are situations in which it is important to quickly and positively identify an individual. Examples include suspects detained in the neighborhood of a bombing or terrorist incident, individuals detained attempting to enter or leave the country, and victims of mass disasters. Systems utilized for these purposes must be fast, portable, and easy to maintain. DNA typing methods provide the best biometric information yielding identity, kinship, and geographical origin, but they are not portable and rapid. This study details the development of a portable short‐channel microfluidic device based on a modified Agilent 2100 bioanalyzer for applications in forensic genomics. The system utilizes a denaturing polymer matrix with dual‐channel laser‐induced fluorescence and is capable of producing a genotype in 80 sec. The device was tested for precision and resolution using an allelic ladder created from 6 short tandem repeat (STR) loci and a sex marker (amelogenin). The results demonstrated a precision of 0.09–0.21 bp over the entire size range and resolution values from 2.5 to 4.1 bp. Overall, the results demonstrate the chip provides a portable, rapid, and precise method for screening amplified short tandem repeats and human identification screening.     

Models of funding and reimbursement in health care: A conceptual framework

Abstract: What is the best way to pay providers to deliver health services? The research evidence strongly suggests that there is no single answer; rather, one must consider the incentives and disincentives inherent in alternative health‐care funding models. This article suggests a conceptual framework for categorizing payment mechanisms that highlights different policy options and their associated tradeoffs. It concentrates on the following: distinctions between need, demand, and utilization as they affect the rationale for government involvement; models of the possible funding flows (two‐way, three‐way, and four‐way) as they affect policy levers; and implications of various approaches to payment. The framework is then used to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of particular approaches to financing health care and to clarify the tradeoffs involved. Sommaire: Quel est le meilleur moyen de payer les fournisseurs pour leur prestation de services de santé? Les données probantes de la recherche laissent fortement entendre qu'il n'existe pas une seule et unique réponse; il faut plutôt tenir compte des incitatifs et des désincitatifs inhérents aux autres modèles de financement des soins de santé. Pour classer par catégories les mécanismes de paiement, le présent article propose un cadre conceptuel qui souligne différentes options de politiques et les compromis qui leur sont associés. Il se concentre sur : les distinctions entre besoin, demande et utilisation qui ont une incidence sur la justification de l'intervention du gouvernement; les modèles des flux de financement possibles (à deux, trois et quatre directions) qui ont une incidence sur les leviers politiques; et les implications de diverses approches à l'égard du paiement. Le cadre est alors utilisé pour préciser les avantages et les inconvénients des approches particulières concernant le financement des soins de santé, et pour clarifier les compromis impliqués.     

Community‐based environmental management in Vietnam: the challenge of sharing power in a politically guided society

The article presents the challenges of introducing a ‘shared‐power’ community‐based management approach in the socialist society of Vietnam. The Portland State University (PSU)'s Oregon Environmental Management Alliance partnered with Vietnamese organisations in a shared‐power pilot project aimed at strengthening stakeholder participation in environmental improvements in two communities along the Tan Hoa‐Lo Gom (THLG) canal in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The Oregon Solutions model, a community‐based environmental management (CBEM) approach, was adapted for the shared‐power project. This article analyses three core ingredients of the shared‐power CBEM approach: multiple stakeholder structure, dispersed authority arrangements and diverse policy instruments. Critical reflections are offered on the meaning and appropriateness of these shared‐power ingredients when they are reinvented in Vietnam's politically guided governance system. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.