The City in Modern Africa. by Horace MinerReview by: William O. BrownSocial Forces, Vol. 47, No. 3 (Mar., 1969), p. 369Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2575066 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 369

group status of many of G-ulick's key informants, as additional reasons for caution in generalizing. By the same token, the utility of this research as a "deviant case" is weakened somewhat by these two facts. In sum, I find it hard to accept this work as representing a significant challenge to con- ventional urban theory, desirable as such a chal- lenge may be.

The problems of sociological research in cities such as Tripoli are far from simple. As Gulick remarks, "Students of ecology and demography will find this book deficient in the kind of statistics they value. Few such statistics exist in Tripoli" (p. ix). And again, "Urban sociologists will decry the lack of survey data in the book. Such a survey would require the services of a trained corps of Lebanese, and preferably Tripolitan, interviewers. This I did not have the time or facilities to develop" (p. ix). The first problem, of course, is not easily remedied. The second, however, is one to which urban anthro- pologists will have to address themselves if they are to maximize their special contribution to social science research and provide a basis for compara- tive studies of value.

GORDON F. LEWIS

Uniiversity of Vernmont

THE CITY IN MODERN AFRICA. Edited by Horace MINER. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967. 364 pp. $7.50.

This study is based on ten papers prepared for the Conference on Methods and Objectives of Urban Research in Africa. The Conference, held April 1-3, 1965, was sponsored by the Joint Com- mittee on African Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies.

In his Introduction, The City and Modernization, Professor Miner raises basic questions as to theory and method in urban studies in general, identifies some of the essential features of the city, calls attention to earlier studies of urbanization in Africa and notes some of the contributions of the individ- ual papers in the volume. He makes the modest claim that these studies "shed some new light on African cities and, in so doing, highlight the pos- sibilities of urban research on a variety of dis- ciplinary fronts" (p. 2). The contributors include anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, economists and psychologists, all more or less pre- occupied with aspects of modernization and urbani- zation.

A quick review of these papers reveals con- siderable diversity in themes, theories and methods. In the first paper, Lerner identifies the nature and processes of modernization in general, with some attention given to the specifics of the African case. Marris, using his knowledge of slum clearance projects in London and Lagos, comes up with some insightful generalizations about social networks and social change in urban communities. Spengler's erudite presentation on the theory of optimum city-

size perhaps has limited relevance in a continent of few large cities, except, as he notes, for future planning. Barber, among other things, depicts the somewhat ambiguous relation between urbanization and industrialization in former Southern and Northern Rhodesia. Kuper presents an incisive analysis of aspects of racial pluralism in African urban centers, with primary focus on South Africa. The Hannas dissect the politics of polyethnic situ- ations in two small urban centers, one in Nigeria, the other in Uganda. Their presentation has some features in common with the studies by Barber and Kuper: all are concerned with the ethnic factor in relation to position, status and power. Tiger views bureaucracy in Ghana with particular reference to its urban context and the growing ascendancy of the bureaucratic elite over the politi- cal leaders. LeVine and his colleagues compare father-child relationslhips between a traditional group and a modern elite group in Ibadan. Clignet assesses the role of urbanization in modifying "the contrasts between the child-rearing practices of two Ivory Coast ethnic groups: the Abure and the Bete" (p. 257). Finally, Southall gives an im- pressive account of the background. structure and dynamics of the Kampala-Mengo (Uganda) com- plex. It slhould be noted that Southall, like Kuper, the Hannas, and Barber gives considerable attention to the ethnic factor in status arrangements.

This set of papers diverges in certain significant respects from former studies of urbanization in Africa. For one thing, many of the previous studies were intensive studies of particular urban com- munities, in the main, systematic and comprehensive surveys, or analyses. In this volume, only Southall's brief study of Kampala-Mengo could be so char- acterized. Again, in previous symposia presenta- tions tended to focus on common themes or prob- lems, or to deal with aspects of the African urbani- zation complex. Such is not the case in the present study. There is no concerted attack on given prob- lems, substantive or theoretical. The Hannas, Barber, Kuper, and Southall do consider different aspects of ethnic and racial pluralism, but not in concert. Despite the editor's excellent introduction, in which, among other things, he indicates the rational and logical connections of the individual contributions, the impression persists that this is a collection of loosely related papers, not an inte- grated study.

In positive terms, the contribution of the present volume derives from the fact that the individual contributors focus in depth on problems or situa- tions within the African urban setting; and in the course of their analyses they use and derive con- cepts and generalizations that have applicability beyond the African context. The result is both increased knowledge of varied aspects of African urban life and a measure of enrichment of the social science field as a whole.

WILLIAM 0. BROWN

African Studies Center Bostomt Uniiversity

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