Geoforum 19174 91

BAKER,A. R. H. and R. A. BUTLIN, eds.

(1973): Studies of Field Systems in the

British Isles. 702 pp., Illus, Index.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

f ll,-.

The editors, on behalf of themselves and

their ten co-authors, suggest in the light of

work by H. L. GRAY and M. BLOCH that

this volume is a timely synthesis of the

current information and ideas regarding the

ways whereby the inhabitants of the British

Isles in the past subdivided and cultivated

the agricultural lands available to them. This

would appear to be a well defined and

limited topic which could serve as the cen-

tral theme for a compilation of extended

essays sufficient for a book. However, a full

study of field systems as a functional aspect

of historical, rural geography cannot be con-

tained today even within so generous a

dimension as this book of seven hundred

pages, the work of a dozen active scholars.

What one finds is a selection taken from a

much larger and more varied stock of ex-

amples and topics, and one welcomes this

volume produced by BAKER and BIJTLIN

because a broad and lively display of wares

has been achieved.

Appropriately, the two editors start the

book with an introductory chapter con-

cerning materials and methods suitable to

and employed in studies of field arrange-

ments and tenure conventions. Clearly, the

balance existing between maps and early

documents or between documents and field

evidence will influence in large measure the

degree and type of field system reconstruc-

tion which one can produce. A welcome

postscript to this first chapter is contained

within the pages which examine the

peculiarities of the “geographical” approach

to the topic. While such a compressed des-

cription of source materials cannot go deeply

into illustrative examples or into critical

evaluations of individual sources, the non-

British reader is carried to a level of ap-

preciation which is essential for a reading of

the subsequent pages.

There follow eight chapters which deal in

turn with field systems in England from

Cumberland to Kent with only the South-

west of the country having been omitted.

Thereafter, two chapters are devoted to

Wales and one each to Scotland and Ireland.

Such a regional breakdown would appear to

have been the only feasible way to organize

coverage of this topic; for, as is well known,

field systems are notoriously varied from

place to place, and given the volume of data

available today, they present a discouraging

assignment to even the most ambitious

generalists among us. An additional gain

from this regional format is that each con-

tributor has had an approximately similar

assignment to cover, and the resulting purpose of our teaching industrial geo-

varied approaches and personal experiences graphy? GEIPEL does not hesitate about

- as reflected in choice of evidence or of the answer: to educate our students for a

field exampies - provides us with a hand- job in industry, to get them started on a

book on the methodology of field systems learning process that will make them under-

study. The individual reader will rejoice in stand how a modern industrial economy

his recognition of famihar names among the works, why plants are located where they

authors of these particularized contributions, are today and what may be expected in

and the regional arrangement will allow him terms of structural and geographic changes

to choose a known area with which to start in the future. This learning process may be

or perhaps to explore South Wales, Scotland intellectually stimulating as seen from this

or East Anglia if these are less familiar to him. interesting book.

Champion versus woodland field systems in

the West Midlands, agrarian change in North-

umberland between 1550 and 1740, the

implications of village bylaws for the systems

of the East Midlands, medievai Welsh law

and the lands of North Wales, infield versus

outfield in Scotland and the impact of

enclosure in Ireland are but a few of the

specifics chosen by some of the contributors

to build upon in their respective chapters.

Eighty - three figures and fourteen tables have

been provided as graphical illustrations of

points which otherwise are difficult to

appreciate, given the frequently complicated

arrangements which the division of township

lands or parcels can assume. The extensive

bibliography accompanying this volume will

serve as a resource for those seeking further

opinions or additional examples of British

field system lore.

In the words of the editors, “The resultant

patterns of farming being practised at any

one moment in time throughout the British

isles were, not surprisingly, very varied, and

the problems of generalising about their

organisations and origins are certainly sub-

stantial, perhaps intractable”. Nonetheless,

if one reads in this hefty volume and adopts

the suggestions made by the editors in the

concluding chapter about a study of proces-

ses as being a lead to further field system

research, he will, as a result, look for an

opportunity to take this book and his

Ordnance Survey maps to go and study

selected examples of historic field patterns

spread over the varied surface of the

British isles.

I fully agree with GEIPEL about the goal and

I think the goal is exceedingly worthwhile

but I think we shall run into problems when

trying to achieve the goal. Let me relate a

recent experience from the Stockholm

Schootl of Economics where students are

highly motivated for a career in business.

A group of 250 freshman students with top

grades from high school were given four

essay questions after an introductory course

in economic geography with emphasis on

current problems and on the Nordic coun-

tries. One was on the population problem in

the world, one on migration to the Greater

Stockholm Area, and one on the pulp and

paper industry in Norden. The first was

based on one of my lectures and the iast

two on my book on the Nordic countries.

On a fivepoint scale, from very good to

very poor, the answers to the first two

questions clustered between very good and

good but the answers to the industrial geo-

graphy question clustered between good and

very poor.

The first two questions deal with social

issues given much exposure in mass media.

The students were interested and could very

well summarize and structure my reasoning

in the lecture or in the book. The last ques-

tion has very little backing in mass media

coverage in Sweden. Answers were thin and

dull to a question that in my view covered

the best chapter in the book and a question

that should be central to anyone living in a

Nordic country. The type of penetrating

material on manufacturing industry that

GEIPEL is advocating in his book and of

which he provides several excellent examples,

e.g. the cement industry, is missing in

Swedish mass media. The most common

coverage is of the muck-raking type: How

can Svensson stand his dull job in that dirty

pulp mill? How long shall we survive the

air and water pollution of those pulp milis.

With this type of mass media coverage given

ud nuuseam, usually with a Marxist termino-

logy, any young person should get a negative

attitude towards the industry from which

he will eventually make a living. I am afraid,

that Sweden is rather typical of the in-

dustrial nations.

Robert M. NEWCOMB, Aarhus

GEIPEL, Robert (1969): lndustriegeographie

als Einfiihrung in die Arbeitswelt. 201 S.,

5 1 Abb., 8 Luftbilder, 20 Tab., 2 Karten.

Braunschweig: Westermann. DM 28,-.

Robert GEIPEL has addressed himself to a

pedagogic problem that is central not only

to high-school teachers in geography but to

university lecturers as well. What is the GEIPEL has an important message. He does

not want to glorify industrial work, not

92 Geoforum 19/74

unknown in Marxist countries. His basic

assumption is that man needs to see his

own work or the work of his friends in a

wider context; geographically, socially,

economically and historically. In thisrespect

man differs from robots or machines. But in

order to reach his goal GEIPEL will have to

form his own maffia and start to compete

with the muck-rakers for coverage in mass

media. Textbooks alone cannot achieve the

learning process advocated by GEIPEL.

Young people must be educated, not only

trained, to take over our complex industriat

society. It is easy to train people to assemble

cars and even easier to train them to drive

cars. It takes more intellectual effort on both

sides to educate people about what the car

has meant in terms of increased mobility,

increased productivity, changes in the urban

landscape, or in short, in terms of our daily

life. And the car is just part of our industrial

society, which some people prefer to call our

postindustrial society.

GEIPEL uses the Rhine-Main-region as his

reference area. He hopes that seven industry

studies based on this region will help him

show the mechanisms behind the industrial

development in the world. He includes many

aspects; the complexity and the links of the

real world are well emphasized. He aims for

a book on the industrial development in the

world rather than a book on the industrial

development of the Rhine-Main-region. Read-

ers may differ whether or not GEIPEL

achieves to provide the world survey that is

essential to any educational program. But

most readers will agree that GEIPEL provides

much stimulating material within the covers

of one book. It should be valuable not only

to highschool teachers and university lecturers

but to mass media courses as well.

Gunnar ALEXANDERSSON, Stockholm

HERB&RICH, Edda (1971): Untersuchungen

iiber die zeitliche und raumliche Immissions-

verteilung im Stadtgebiet Miinchen (A study

of the areal and temporal variations in the

distribution of emissions in the Munich

conurbation). Giessener Geographische

Schriften, Heft 24. 80 S., 47 Abb., 19 Tab.

Giessen: Geographisches lnstitut der Justus

Liebig-Universitit.

Urban air pollution is an extremely com-

plex physical phenomenum. For varfous

reasons, both socioeconomic and physical-

environmental, its dimensions are constantly

changing, making it difficult to define and

almost impossible to measure accurately in

the long-term. HERBERiCH’s remarkable

study of air pollution in Munich begins to

answer some of these difficulties and pre-

sents a unique portrait of air quality in a

major urban area. The conception is ambi-

tious enough to comprehend the scope of

the problem, but this has not been allowed

to mar the precision and care with which

the data has been collected and analysed.

The data for the research were collected

over a six year period up to the end of

1969, from a whole series of recorders,

scattered throughout the built-up area of

the city. There was a basic network of seven

continuous recording stations for SOa, set

up between September 1963 and June 1966,

all giving half hourly mean concentrations.

In addition, sixty four stations were set out,

in a geometric pattern, at regular intervals

across the city and extra sites were operated

in the city centre itself. All these recorders

measured the levels of SOz, but thirty-one

of them also recorded the concentrations of

carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. The net

result was a formidable apparatus for investi-

gating air quality.

HERBERiCH begins her analysis with the

fundamental hypothesis, that among the

very large number of factors that could

potentially affect levels of urban air pollu-

tion, three would be of outstanding im-

portance:

a) the distribution of sources of pollution

and the variations in the strength of the

emissions;

b) the frequency and duration of the dif-

ferent types of meteorological situation;

and c) urban morphology.

She then proceeds to examine her data in

the light of this hypothesis and comes to

three very clear-cut and statistically sound

conclusions. First of all it is clear that there

has been steady fall in the level of SOa in

virtually all parts of the city, mainly due to

the changes and improvements that have

taken place recently in domestic space

heating systems. It would appear that

virtually al! SO2 pollution derives from this

source. There are for instance spectacular

differences, between a suburb of the city

with an area central heating system and the

rest of the urban area. The second important

discovery is the sharp rise in the concentra-

tions of both carbon monoxide and hydro-

carbons. It is known that both these sub-

stances can be highly toxic and the high

correlation, between the levels of concen-

tration and the density and speed of move-

ment of road traffic, is most important.

It shows that in the future not only the

number of cars on the road, but also the

standard of traffic engineering is going to

directly affect the quality of the air we

breathe. The third conclusion relates to the

meteorological conditions and forms the

most surprising and, perhaps, controversial

part of the study. Prevailing meteorological

conditions are shown to have but little effect

on the level of air pollution. Wind direction

marginally affects the general distribution,

particularly in the suburbs; wind speed helps

to reduce overall concentrations slightly; but

temperature would only seem to be important

insofar as it effects the total amount of heat

used in the city and, therefore, the overall

level of emissions. After a detailed factor,ial

analysis of all these factors HER5ERlCH is

in no doubt, that it is the pattern emissions

rather than meteorological conditions, whrch

explain the variations in the level of urban

air pollution.

In her conclusion the author expresses the

hope that the resuits of this study will be

used to formulate better governmental

policies for controlling air pollution and,

certainly, there would appear to be some

important lessons to be learnt. In the United

Kingdom, for example, similar trends have

been found in the historical pattern of

emissions, but the change has traditionally

been ascribed to the impact of the Clean Air

Acts. In Munich there has been no such

legislation, yet the changes are almost

identical. In this respect it is a pity that this

piece of research totally ignored particulate

poltution. Finally, there could usefully have

been some discussion of the costs of this

research project, for there is no question,

but that it is a most effective methodofogy

for studying an intractable social problem.

Mark BLACKSELL, Exetet, UK

MAGURA, W. (1970): Die Entwicklung der

Landwirtschaft in den Bantugebieten von

Siid- und Siidwestafrika. Afrika-Forschungs-

berichr Nr. 26, Afrika-Studienstelie des

IFO-lnstituts. 21 1 S., 4 Karten. Miinchen:

Weltforum Verlag. DM 20,-.

Der Verfasser dieser Untersuchung ist land-

wirtschaftlicher Fachmann. Sein besonderes

lnteresse gilt der Entwicklungshilfe. Daraus

ergibt sich such die Zielsetzung seiner hier

vorliegenden umfangreichen Arbeit, nam-

iich: am Beispiel von Siid- und Siidwestafrika

aufzuzeigen, wie sich untet der weitgreifen-

den Anleitung und Hilfe det sudafrikanischen

Behorden die Landwirtschaft der Bantuge-

biete in den letzten 20 jahren entwickelt hat.

Der Verfasser stiitzt sich auf Ver~ffentlichun-

gen und Statistiken der Repubiik Siidafrika

sowie auf eingehende Erhebungen und An-

gaben rahlreicher Fachleute. Er hat ein