Book briefs

World food marketing systems, Butterworth & Co, London, 1986.

Faces of hunger. An essay on poverty, justice and development, Studies in applied philosophy, Allen & Unwin, London, 1986. xiii + 178, distributed in South Africa by MacMillan South Africa, Braamfontein.

Decentralization and development — Policy implementation in developing countries, Sage Publications, London, 1983, 319 pp

Soviet interests in the Third World, Sage Publications, London, 1985, xi + 329 pp

No shortcuts to progress — African development management in perspective, Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, London, 1983, xv + 223 pp.

Strategies for African Development, University of California Press, London, 1986, xii + 603 pp.

Labour and poverty In Kenya 1900‐1980, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986, xii + 296, £20,00     

The main findings of the district pilot project of labour‐intensive road construction and maintenance in Botswana and the implications for similar projects in South Africa

Unemployment has been identified as one of the main problems confronting South Africa. Recently, in order to improve rural infrastructure and create employment, several pilot projects of rural road construction have been initiated in South Africa. In such a context it is considered that attention should be drawn to a pilot project carried out some time ago in Botswana to examine the potential of labour‐intensive methods in the construction and maintenance of rural roads.

The main conclusion of the pilot project was that labour‐intensive methods were viable, although attention had to be paid to several critical factors. In 1982, following its evaluation of the pilot project, the Government of Botswana decided that over the next five years the technical and organisational methods developed during the pilot project should be replicated throughout Botswana.

After a brief survey of the background to the project, the paper summarises several important features of the pilot project and its main findings. The paper closes with some comments on the implications of this pilot project for those currently underway in South Africa.     

The role and place of research and intellectual discourse in the reproduction of social relations of racial domination in South Africa

The South African research community which undertakes all research activity in the social and natural sciences, with and without state and corporate sponsorship, draws its membership mainly from the dominant social group. In this country, the dominant group is both economically and racially determined. Consequently, the white minority dominates the research community and intellectual discourse as it does other socio‐economic and political spheres of society. This situation guarantees the constant reproduction and perpetuation of the social relations of racial domination.

As an agent that generates knowledge and new ideas, research as an academic and intellectual tool of enquiry is an instrument of social control, producing new concepts, language and theoretical abstractions which are not accessible to those outside its multi‐farious disciplines. Insofar as the largest proportion of practitioners of these specialised disciplines is drawn from the dominant group, research has itself become a pivotal part of the dominant ideology. Its role is inevitably and inextricably bound up with the processes of systematic reproduction of the relations of domination.

The aim of this viewpoint is therefore to explore various ways in which research bodies and intellectual discourse in general in South Africa can be deracialised and be made more representative of the social make‐up of society.     

Government expenditure in the independent and self‐governing national states of Southern Africa: An evaluation

Various commentators recently drew attention to the expenditure and financing of the independent and self‐governing national states in Southern Africa. The inference has been drawn that this expenditure appears wasteful and ineffective and constitutes little more than a costly political luxury.

This article makes an attempt at evaluating government expenditure in the national states in terms of the type and level of expenditure, its benefit incidence, as well as its efficiency.

Expenditure of the governments of the national states is largely on collective or social goods and services and therefore of the type widely expected to be provided by governments. Since the benefit incidence of this expenditure is not confined within the borders of the national states, but spills over into South Africa, government expenditure by these states benefits the common integrated economic system of Southern Africa.

With regard to the levels of expenditure, indications are that expenditure in many instances is too low. Increased expenditure in some categories might well show significantly increasing returns.     

Social work and development

After a discussion of the background of development, the evolution of social work and its place in development is examined. Internationally, social work has only lately started focusing on community work rather than just on case or group work. In South Africa such concern with development has not been so evident, although there have been some dramatic turns in the past decade.

The profession of social work and its training are discussed and finally attention is drawn to the need for cooperation with a number of other professions. The author's conclusion is that social work in South Africa has not kept in close enough touch with social changes taking place.     

The contribution of urban and regional planning towards regional development in Southern Africa

Regional planning experienced a fast growth in South Africa, both in theory and practice, since the mid sixties. This growth was made possible by government support for regional planning and development and thus had a direct and beneficial effect on the development of less developed regions.

This paper describes the factors, both in SA and abroad, which contributed towards the growth of regional planning. It also outlines other contributions of regional planners and planning towards development of less developed regions.     

Inefficient land use in KwaZulu: Causes and remedies

Rural KwaZulu is a less developed region of South Africa. Despite intense population pressure, arable land is underutilized. Grazing resources are overutilized.

Supply response to price incentives and farmer support programmes is inelastic as the potential gains to farmers are limited by small farm sizes. Facilitating the land rental market could improve efficiency informing, and also has equity advantages. Institutional changes are needed to encourage land rental

Overstocking occurs primarily because grazing is an open access common property resource. Unlike most solutions to overstocking (eg cattle taxes and quotas), privatization of grazing land (even in the limited sense that arable land is privately controlled) would not only encourage stock‐owners to reduce stocking rates but would also improve their incentive to upgrade herd and pasture quality. It is recommended that privatization be promoted in areas where it is more acceptable to households.     

Book briefs

G Antonelli and A Quadrio‐Curzio (eds) The agro‐technological system towards 2000 North Holland.

W J Baumol Superfairness: Applications and theory The MIT Press, Massachusetts, 1986

E Boonzaier and J Sharp (eds) South African keywords: The uses and abuses of political concepts David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg, 1988

C Bryant (ed) Poverty, policy, and food security in Southern Africa Lynne Rienner Publishers. Boulder, Colorado, 1988

J Butler. R Elphick and D Welsh (eds) Democratic liberalism in South Africa: Its history and prospect David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg. 1987

D P Chaudhri and A J Dasgupta Agriculture and the development process: a study of Punjab Croom Helm, London, 1985

R Cohen (ed) Satisfying Africa's food needs: Food production and commercialization in African agriculture Lynne Rienner Publishers. Boulder/London, 1988

J M Conrad and C W Clark Natural resource economics: Notes and problems Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987

D E Janvry and K Subbarao Agricultural price policy and income distribution in India Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1986     

What can economists do with South Africa's SAMs?

The South African Central Economic Advisory Service has recently published a report containing social accounting matrices for the economy as a whole, and for eight planning regions. This article provides a critical evaluation of these SAMs.

The Black states are includes in the SAMs, and the national SAM identifies seven income categories, four race groups, and ten occupational categories. Interindustry transactions are portrayed in a twenty‐four sector inter‐industry matrix. The regional SAM includes an analysis of racial incomes, and interregional flows of transfers from households, and trade and government transfers. A paradoxical result is that African migrant workers, who often hold the lowest occupations, appear in the top decile of the distribution of African incomes in the national SAM. The SAMs do not identify rural households, African households, in the rapidly growing fringe settlements around the metropolitan regions, and informal sector activities, and the article argues that these SAMs provide a snapshot of the economy which is severely out of focus.

The SAMs are based on a 1978 input‐output table and 1980 expenditure patterns. Since then changes in wage levels, the strength of Black unions, and the exchange rate of the Rand may have caused significant alterations in certain coefficients in the economy, possibly making the SAMs unsuitable for modelling policy changes.     

The South African brain drain: An empirical assessment

There is no reliable data on the extent of South African skilled emigration and return migration. Statistics South Africa stopped collecting emigration data more than a decade ago. This paper provides data from the turn of the century collected in the countries to which South Africans emigrate. It first provides detailed data on emigration to the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States – the main destinations for emigrants from South Africa. It then provides estimates for the United Arab Emirates. Finally, it presents data for twenty-five other OECD countries. By contrast with widespread claims that there has been a very large brain gain as South Africans have returned following the global financial crisis, it shows that there was still a net brain drain, albeit at a slower pace. The most recent data suggest that the rate of emigration may be accelerating again.

Abbreviations: OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development     

The impact of environmental change on relocated communities in South Africa

The last thirty‐five years have seen the relocation of several million people in South Africa, for reasons related mainly to the implementation of the South African government policy of ‘apartheid’ or ‘separate development’. As a result, most studies of relocation have focused on the political causes and aspects of relocation, often to the neglect of its social consequences.

Community relocation, whatever its causes, involves the transformation of the physical and social environment in which people find themselves. This paper suggests that a focus on the nature and degree of environmental modification involved in particular cases of relocation will provide a useful start to understanding the social and economic consequences of relocation in South Africa. Various kinds of relocation (relating to Betterment Planning, Group Areas, relocation townships and closer settlements) are considered in these terms.     

Utilisation of indigenous workers and its relevance to human service organisations and development projects in South Africa∗

The article discusses major issues related to the employment of indigenous workers in human service organisations and development projects.

Main motives for introducing this new type of worker and the essential tasks they perform as well as their unique attributes are presented.

The discussion concludes by advocating the expansion of the efforts in the South African context.     

The identification of South African technological innovations: A proposed methodology

Technological innovations represent significant indicators of scientific and economic vigour in any society. They are however, extremely difficult to both identify, and to evaluate in terms of their importance.

This paper addresses itself to the problems of identification and measurement. As such it forms a necessary prerequisite to a survey of technological innovations in South Africa, and, in the process, seeks to contribute to the general field of technological enquiry.     

Book briefs

Key variables in social investigation, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1986, vii + 276 pp.

Reproductive change in developing countries, Insights from the World Fertility Survey, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1985, xvi + 301 pp, ISBN 0‐19‐828465‐9.

The world crisis in education, The view from the eighties, Oxford University Press, New York, 1985, vii + 353 pp ISBN 0‐19‐503503‐8

Reaching the Urban Poor, Project implementation in developing countries, Westview Press, Boulder Colorado. 1986, vii + 264 pp, ISBN 0‐8133‐7129‐5

Housing policy, An international bibliography, Mansell Publishing Limited, New York, 1986, ix ‐ 398 pp, ISBN 0‐7201‐1785‐2

Agribusiness and the small‐scale farmer: A dynamic partner for development, Westview Press, Boulder, 1985

Agriculture and employment in developing countries: Strategies for effective rural development, Westview Press, Boulder, 1985

Progress in natural resource economics, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1985

International agricultural trade: Advanced readings in price formation, market structure and price instability 1984

The role of markets in the world food economy, Westview Press, Boulder, 1983     

A preliminary evaluation of the new RIDP and its impact on regional development in South Africa

The debate on regional political autonomy makes regional economic development a subject of central importance. Current policy is embodied in the Regional Industrial Development Programme (RIDP), as revised in May 1991. Regional industrial policy in South Africa originated in 1956 with the Border Industry Programme, whose objective was to create economically independent sovereign states, Subsequent shifts of emphasis from socio‐political objectives towards a predominantly economic orientation in the 1991 RIDP were expected to concentrate the allocation of resources to industry at locations with greater natural potential for industrial development.

An evaluation of the preliminary results of the 1991 RIDP confirms these expectations in that, as far as capital investment is concerned, a certain degree of concentration is already discernible especially in metropolitan areas and secondary cities. However, it seems there are a number of factors present in the market‐place that are still inhibiting the full realisation of the objective of concentrated industrial development at locations with a natural potential for industrial development. The existing institutional development framework, the availability of relatively cheap excess infrastructure in certain locations and the spatial application of the new RIDP are some of the factors that could possibly have influenced locational decision making during the last 20 months.

Therefore, although the new RIDP is more market orientated than its predecessor and certainly much more economically sustainable, a number of issues still need attention, and further adjustments to the programme should be made if the various regions are to be developed optimally and scarce economic resources utilised effectively.     

Publications

Sajogyo, Usaha Perbaikan Gizi Keluarga (ANP Evaluation Study 1973), Lembaga Penelitian Sosiologi Pedesaan, Institut Pertanian Bogor, Bogor, 1975. Rp 1000 pp. xiii + 195.

Committee on Economics Teaching Material for Asian Universities (ed.), Economic Theory and Practice in the Asian Setting, Volume 1: Macroeconomics, pp. 172.

Economic Theory and Practice in the Asian Setting, Volume 2: Microeconomics, pp. 1970.

Economic Theory and Practice in the Asian Setting, Volume 3: The Economics of Agriculture, pp. 245.

Economic Theory and Practice in the Asian Setting. Volume 4: The Economics of Development, pp. 274.

New Delhi: Wiley Eastern Ltd., 1975 (Available through the Asia Office, The Agricultural Development Council, Inc. Tanglin P.O. Box 84, Singapore 10).

Seminar Hasil Penelitian Lapangan. Pusat Latihan Penelitian Ilmu² Ujung Pandang (Seminar on Results of Fieldwork, Social Science Research Training Centre, Ujung Pandang), 8–11 December 1976, Hasanuddin University and Social Science Research Training Centre.

Seminar Hasil Penelitian Lapangan 1976, Pusat Latihan Penelitian Ilmu² Sosial, Aceh (Seminar on Results of Fieldwork, Social Science Research Training Centre, Aceh), 6-9 December 1976, Syiah Kuala University and Social Science Research Training Centre.

Werner Rutz, Indonesien: Verkehrserschliessung seiner Ausseninseln (Transport Penetration of the Outer Islands), Paderborn, Germany, 1976. Pp. 182, 15 fold-in maps. DM58.00.

C.L.M. Penders (ed. & transl.), Indonesia: Selected Documents on Colonialism and Nationalism, 1830-1942. University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, 1977, pp. 347 + glossary and index.

J. D. Legge, Indonesia. second edition, Prentice-Hall of Australia, Sydney, 1977.

Tax Inspection For Foreign Bodies and Aliens, Indonesian Tax Guide For Foreigners, Jakarta, April 1975, pp. 75.

Drs. B. Usman, Kumpulan Karangan Pajak Sinar Harapan 1973-5, PT Sinar Agape. Press, January 1977, pp. 211 Rp 2500.

Drs. B. Boediono, Pajak Penjualan, Direktorat Jenderal Pajak, Jakarta 1975, pp. 931.

Sritua Arief, Indonesia Growth, Income Disparity and Mass Poverty. Jakarta, Sritua Arief Associates (P.O. Box 2250, Jakarta), 1977.

Indonesian language version, pp. xviii + 150, Rp 5000.

English language version, pp. ii + 207, Price on application.

Kumpulan Bacaan Sosiologi Pedessaan (Readings on Rural Sociology), Lembaga Penelitian Sosiologi Pedesaan, Institut Pertanian, Bogor. 1975.

Direktorat Jenderal Industri Tekstil, Buku Petunjuk Industri Tekstil (A Guide-book to the Textile Industry), Jakarta, 1976. Pp. ix + 410. Rp 6750.

Brian Lynch. Indonesia: Problems and Prospects. Sorrett Publishing Company, Melbourne, 1977, pp. 183. Recommended price $A11.95.

Dr Ir Herman Soewardi. Respons Musyarakat Desa Terhadap Modernisasi Produksi Pertanian, Terutama Padi, Gadjah Mada University Press, 1976, pp. 175.

Douglas Miles, Cutlass and Crescent Moon. A Case Study of Social and Political Change in Outer Indonesia. Centre for Asian Studies, University of Sydney, 1976, pp. 160.     

Book Reviews

Ruth McVey (ed.), Southeast Asian Capitalists, Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1992, pp. 218.

Joan Hardjono (ed.), Indonesia: Resources, Ecology and Environment, Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. xvi + 262. Cloth: A$50; £25.

Chris Dixon, South East Asia in the World-Economy: A Regional Geography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. xv + 281. Paper: A$29.95; Cloth: npg.

Kym Anderson (ed.), New Silk Roads: East Asia and World Textile Markets, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, for the Trade and Development Series, National Centre for Development Studies, Australian National University, 1992, pp. xxvi + 24. A559.50.

K. S. Sandhu et al. (comps), The ASEAN Reader, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1992, pp. xxvi + 582.

Kim Seung Jin and Suh Jang-Won (eds), Cooperation in Small and Medium-Scale Industries in ASEAN, Kuala Lumpur: Asian and Pacific Development Centre, 1992, pp. xiv + 389.     

Publications

H. S. Kartadjoemena, The Politics of External Economic Relations: Indonesia's Options, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1977(?), pp. 179, $S 12.00

Ingrid Palmer, The Indonesian Economy since 1965: A Case Study of Political Economy, London, Frank Cass, 1978, pp. ix, 196, £11.00.

Gadjah Mada University, Faculty of Economics, Graduate Program in Economics, Four Papers on Employment and Income Distribution in Indonesian Agriculture, Yogyakarta, pp. 118 + ii, mimeo.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Country Market Sectoral Survey, Indonesia: A Survey of U.S. Business Opportunities, U.S. Government Printing Office, May 1977, pp. 320.

Borrowing By Developing Countries on the Euro-currency Market P. A. Wellons, OECD, Paris 1977 $20, pp. 449.

Mayling Oey and Ketut Sudhana Astika, The Social and Economic Implications of Transmigration in Indonesia: A Policy-Oriented Review and Synopsis of Existing Research. L. P. E. M., Fakultas Ekonomi, Universitas Indonesia, 1978, pp. 228.

Paul A. Meyer and Colin MacAndrews, Transmigration in Indonesia. An Annotated Bibliography. Gadjah Mada University Press, 1978, 245 pages.

Fox, James J., Harvest of the Palm: Ecological Change in Eastern Indonesia. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1977.     

Publications

Mubyarto & Boediono, (Editors), Ekonomi Pancasila, Yogyakarta, Gadjah Mada University Press, 1981, pp. 263, Rp 3500.

Michael Beenstock, Health, Migration and Development, Farnborough, Gower Publishing Company, pp. vi + 183. A$23.00.

Zuidberg, Lida C. L. (ed), Family Planning in Rural West Java: The Serpong Project, Leiden, Rijksuniversiteit/Universitas Indonesia, 1978, pp. 325.

Charles Himawan, The Foreign Investment Process in Indonesia: The Role of Law in the Economic Development of a Third World Country, Singapore, Gunung Agung, 1980. Pp. xvi + 332.

Lepi Tanadjaja Tarmidi, Die Rolle der Textilindustrie im Entwicklungsprozess Indonesiens I966–1975, Hamburg University Dissertation, Hamburg, 1979. Pp. x + 240.

University of Wisconsin Land Tenure Centre, Land Tenure and Agrarian Reform in East and Southeast Asia: An Annotated Bibliography, Boston: G. K. Hall, 557 pp + xxviii, US$51.50.