People Poverty and Shelter: Problems of Self‐help Housing in the Third world Edited R. J. Skinner and M. J. Rodell Methuen, London, 1983, 195 pp.
| Date | 01 April 1985 |
| Author | David Pasteur |
| Published date | 01 April 1985 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230050213 |
Book
Reviews
181
Caribbean countries the only long-term prospect for development beyond
an
advanced
‘plantation economy’ stage. As everywhere, give and take with close neighbours is
a
most
difficult accomplishment to sustain.
The third part of the book looks at the wider international setting. Chapters look at the
(very political) role of the U.S. and Reagan’s Caribbean Basin Initiative; relationships with
the EEC and the Lome negotiations; the influence of ‘hemispheric middlepowers’, Mexico,
Venezuela and Brazil; and the sequence
of
meetings and conferences in the late
1970s
attempting to establish the New International Economic Order. Because of their subject
matter, the chapters on Lome and NIEO make tedious reading in places, reflecting the awful
greyness and lack
of
achievement characteristic of almost all multi-lateral economic
negotiations during the last decade. Both chapters stress (not always uncontrived) the
prominent and valuable role of Commonwealth Caribbean representatives in these
negotiations, Jamaica and Guyana especially. The attractions of prominence in international
affairs perhaps allowed leaders in both countries to neglect domestic decline and regional
possibilities. Interestingly, ‘muddle’ and ‘mismanagement’ are prominent words in the earlier
national chapters on these two countries.
The ten contributions are bounded by introductory and concluding papers by the editors.
The first is
a
brief and valuable survey of dependency ideas, valuable in its own right, an
example
of
the usefulness of the book beyond
a
purely Commonwealth Caribbean focus.
Other sections
of
wider general interest include Thomas’s five-point utopian definition of
‘development’; the discussion of industrialization problems for small states; the detailed
statement of the content and dimensions of the Lome agreements; and the stages in the
attempts at global negotiation on the NIEO. It is more difficult to say how widely valuable the
purely Caribbean content will be. Through their omission of overall statistics on the region
and the countries concerned (their area, population, GDP, etc.) the authors assume in their
readers
a
considerable underlying knowledge
of
this group of states. Furthermore, no attempt
is made to be comprehensive in coverage. Non-Commonwealth Caribbean countries are
scarcely mentioned, let alone discussed, with a section on Cuba tantilizingly absent. The big
three ‘More Developed Countries’ share most
of
the attention, with reduced mention of
Grenada, an interesting maverick.
The editors’ ‘foreword’ gives no indication
of
motivation for the book
or
intended
readership. The main title is attention-catching, dependency being still
a
fashionable theme,
but the subtitle is the more accurate description
of
the contents. The chapters on regional
attempts on economic co-ordination will make valuable reading in the Pacific, and in Africa
where small economies are clustered, but will the book’s price allow it to reach such places?
The most appropriate readership would be the students on an MSc on Modern
Commonwealth Carribean studies.
Is
there such a course, outside the University of the West
Indies?
J.
D.
MACARTHUR
Project Planning Centre
University of Bradford
PEOPLE POVERTY AND SHELTER: PROBLEMS OF SELF-HELP HOUSING IN THE
THIRD WORLD
Edited
by
R.J. Skinner and M.J. Rodell
Methuen, London,
1983,
195
pp.
Sites and services and squatter upgrading are the ‘new conventional wisdom’ in low-income
housing policy. This collection of essays by seven people who work
for
or
have been
associated with the Institute for Housing Studies at Rotterdam provides
a
welcome review
of
the current state of the game, placed in the historical context of developments since the
60s,
and amply illustrated by case material, mainly from Africa and Asia. The editors place the
book between the technical works on project planning and works evaluating the social
relevance of self-help programmes in the Third World. There is no secret about the failures of
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