Critical landcare: Stewart Lockie and Frank Vanclay, 239 pp., 1997, Centre for Rural Social Research, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia, $25.00 pbk (original) (raw)

1999, Journal of Rural Studies

Abstract

with environmental changes, whilst useful sources of inforand Prospects for Conservation, Martin Whitby (ed.), 271 mation, are almost entirely descriptive. For example, pp., 1996, CAB International, Wallingford, £45 increasing soil erosion in Britain is described in some detail with figures on the rates of erosion for a sample of Agriculture and Environmental Change: Temporal and sites. This is linked to the increasing proportion of winter Spatial Dimensions, A. M. Mannion, 405 pp., 1995, John sown cereals but other factors (fewer hedges, the decline Wiley, Chichester, £17.99 of mixed farming, etc.) are not discussed, nor arc the reasons for farm management changes examined in terms The study of agriculture is no longer, if it ever was, the of policy and market signals or structural changes. preserve of agriculturalists. There are now many disciplinary perspectives on farming. These books illustrate two The Whitby book is a thoroughly useful overview ol' the of them. Both deal with agriculture and agri-environ-impact of the 1992 European Commission agri-environmental issues, but beyond that there are few similarities, ment regulation (2078) through a series of national case-Whitby's focus is on policy and Mannion's on geography, studies. The shortcoming, to which 1 alluded in my Mannion writes as a geographer, and a rather traditional opening paragraph, is its title. This might seem a trifling one at that, while Whitby's collection is more eclectic: an criticism but, as a student of mainstream CAP policies, I environmental policy perspective with a less obvious disci-find it profoundly irritating that the book should be plinary slant. Both are immensely useful books and both, entitled 'the European Environment and CAP reform'. ultimately, have some shortcomings. Of the two, the This is a misnomer and I see no reason for it, other than Whitby book is more likely to be influential within rural as an example of the infatuation that some researchers social science than Mannion. seem to have had with Regulation 2078. Researching 2078 appears to lead some to disregard the remainder of the To deal with Mannion first, this is a text of global scope CAP! The 1992 CAP reforms to the commodity regimes dealing with world agriculture and its environmental and their impact on the environment are not dealt with in

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References (1)

1. river of Ewing, S. (1997)'Small is beautiful': the place of the case sociology, power, gender and resource management, study in Landcare evaluation. S, Lockie & F. Vanclay, Suddenly, without hearing the sound of rapids, the reader Critical Landcare. Centre for Rural Social Research, is confronted with Henry Schapper's chapter titled Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia. 'Western Australia's agriculture and pastoralism in Lockie, S. (1997) What future Landcare? new directions cultural and ecological perspective'. Schapper uses under provisional funding. S. Lockie & F. Vanclay, environmental history and sustainability concepts to impli- Critical Landcare. Centre for Rural Social Research, citly dismiss Landcare as ineffectual, advocating instead Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia.