Book Reviews

The Way the Modern World Works: World Hegemony to World Impasse. Peter J. Taylor, 1996. Chichester and London: John Wiley. 276 pp.; £18.99 paperback. ISBN 0 471 96586 3

Imagineering Atlanta: The Politics of Place in the City of Dreams. C. Rutheiser, 1996. London: Verso. 324 pp.; £14.00 paperback. ISBN 1 85984 800 1

Represénter la ville, coll.. A. Bailly, C. Baumont, J. Huriot and A. Sallez, 1995. Paris: Economica. 112 pp.; £7.00 paperback. ISBN 2 7178 2956 3

Continental Trading Blocs: The Growth of Regionalism in the World Economy. R. Gibb and W. Michalak (Eds), 1994. Chichester: John Wiley. 302 pp.; £45.00 hardback. ISBN: 4719 49 094

Mapping Desire. D. Bell and G C. Valentine (Eds), 1995. London: Routledge. 370 pp.; £15.99 paperback. ISBN 0 415 1164 1     

The Millennium Development Goals and Ambitious Developmental Engineering

Donor governments have been accused of not doing enough to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (mdgs), while the mdgs have been accused from other quarters of not doing enough for development. The former position takes the mdgs as an unquestionable good, while the latter posits them as a Western ruse for the sedimentation of core–periphery relations. This paper transcends this debate, identifying in the goals a logic of ambitious social, cultural and spatial engineering. Inspired by Foucauldian development anthropology, the paper highlights three themes implicit in mdg texts, requiring biopolitical interventions on bodies, societies and spaces, namely risk, sex, gender and family; Homo Economicus; and the city. The paper concludes with a reflection on the likelihood of resistance to such interventions.     

Law and Politics in the Reign of Charles I: The Case of John Prigeon

The case of John Prigeon (1634) was an important precedent in the development of administrative law, and the control of local agencies by the central courts. This article shows that its apparent simplicity is misleading. The case was relevant to a major conflict between two powerful personalities, Archbishop Laud and Bishop Williams, over the religious policies of the Caroline regime, and over patronage in the church and the royal court. It also raises issues of the independence of the judiciary in Charles I's reign and the common law judges' understanding of their role both in their own courts and in Star Chamber. This latter is the particular focus of this article.     

‘Coping with the job’: prison staff responding to self-harm in three English female prisons: a qualitative study

This study considers how those who work in prisons are affected by and respond to repetitive self-harm of imprisoned women in English prisons. This paper considers the perspectives of custodial staff working in this area on a day-to-day basis. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 14 prison staff and explored using techniques of thematic analysis. The interviews examined: the emotional impact of working with and witnessing self-harm incidents, coping strategies used, training and the support available to prison staff. Findings indicate the strategies used by staff to cope emotionally with such incidents and these include presenting a ‘façade of coping’, rejecting support and becoming desensitised. It is concluded that staff felt they must portray themselves as coping well with self-harm in prison even when they were troubled and emotionally affected by it. However, some did describe accepting help when outside of the prison and this has implications for how support can be offered in the future. It is recommended that more should be done to support and train staff in this area.     

The Intensification and Bifurcation of Surveillance in British Criminal Justice Policy

This paper explores the relevance and applicability of recent theoretical developments in surveillance studies in the context of contemporary British criminal justice policy. It will be argued that surveillance now occupies a privileged position in official policy. In a raft of new policy initiatives undertaken either as part the general project to modernise the criminal justice system or in response to particular crises, the surveillant solution occupies the central stage. Thus, whether it be in response to anxieties over sex offenders, failures of social services in protecting children at risk, or the management of the prison population, for example, the policy response has been to increase the surveillance capacity of the state. In particular, in line with the new penology thesis we are witnessing an expansion of the generalised surveillance capacity, in relation to all citizens, which may be characterised as passive and reactive. Simultaneously, vestiges of the old criminology remain as an officially designated ‘hard core’ of persistent or problematic offenders subject to the full panoply of surveillance techniques, which are proactive, extensive and intrusive. Thus, we are witnessing both an intensification and a bifurcation of surveillance practice. This paper was prepared for the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research special edition on Fear vs. Freedom post 9/11-The European Perspective.     

Who needs fact when you’ve got narrative? The case of P,C&S vs United Kingdom

Legal arguments and judgements ostensibly rely for their credibility and persuasiveness on the presentation of factual claims and determination of facts through due process. While it should follow that proceedings that are undermined by disregard for facticity and due process should not appear credible or persuasive, in practice this is not always the case. In cases where narratives are not firmly underpinned by factuality and due process a series of narrative techniques and processes can be brought into play to enhance the persuasiveness and credibility of those narratives. These processes include the reliance on a narrative trajectory, the presentation of consensus, drawing on supportive discourses, the privileging of certain narrators and the smoothing over of contradictory evidence. This paper examines these processes in the case of P,C&S vs United Kingdom in which in the absence of fact and due process a local authority and the domestic courts in the UK constructed and confirmed a narrative of a dangerous mother.     

What is ‘fair compensation’ for death or injury?

This note demonstrates that David Friedman's recent assertion that, because full ex post compensation means that the potential injuror is overcompensating, ‘it follows that he will be overdeterred from imposing risk …’ cannot be supported, a priori, except in special cases. It is argued that this finding actually strengthens the case for compensation which is ‘fair’ as defined by Friedman.     

Youth and generation in South African history*

In recent years, “the youth” have captured (or perhaps recaptured) public attention in South Africa. This paper reflects on South Africa’s experience of generational conflict and places it in the broader context of South African history. After attempting to define “youth,” this paper makes two key points. First, far from being a recent development, generational tension has been a continuous feature of Southern African history since at least the late nineteenth century. Second, organized political mobilization is not the way this tension usually manifests itself. Mass youth politics is a specific phenomenon, which needs to be explained historically rather than assumed. The paper focuses on three historical examples to illustrate this: early migrant labor in South Africa, the formation of urban youth gangs, and the sustained youth uprising from 1976 until the early 1990s. It concludes with a tentative attempt to draw some parallels between that phase of rebellion and recent student upheavals.     

A paradigm shift for ethics committees and case consultation: a modest proposal

In conclusion, the expert-consultation model of ethics consultation is deeply imbedded in modern health care. The paradigm of consultant as expert rather than as community-enabler shapes the expectations and behaviors of healthcare personnel and institutions. This paradigm has also shaped the early stages of HEC development and ethics case consultation. It is time to shift paradigms and adopt one that derives more from the nature of ethics than from the nature of scientific medicine: the role of HECs should be to enable key professionals to carry out the ethical dimensions of patient care. When the HEC does review cases, it should be with the purpose of improving the institution, not of resolving individual cases. One consequence of this is that there will be more individual case reviews than before, but the function, emphasis, agents and locations will shift substantially. A second consequence is that the HEC will function more as an agent of social change by helping to harness the institution's resources. We judge both of these to be a welcome evolution in healthcare ethics.