Book Review: Policies and Strategies in Marginal Regions : Summary and Evaluations

This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details. Author(s): Title: Year: Version: Copyright: Rights: Rights url: Please cite the original version: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Book Review: Policies and Strategies in Marginal Regions : Summary and Evaluations © 2005 Copyright (2005) THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier B.V. Published version Hirvonen, Tatu Hirvonen, T. (2005). Book Review: Policies and Strategies in Marginal Regions : Summary and Evaluations. Papers in Regional Science, 84(1), 142-144. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1435- 5957.2005.00009_4.x 2005 chapter highlights the diversity of market structures that exist and the different ways in which transport policy has evolved in different transport sectors and countries. A final chapter draws together the various recommendations arising for transport policy from the economic principles addressed in the book. Reasons for divergence between theory and practice are identified. Recognition of institutional factors which provide the context of transport policy, an improvement of our understanding of the link between transport and spatial planning, together with a thorough understanding of the economics of transport, are key factors argued to be important in finding effective solutions to current transport problems. Principles of Transport Economics succeeds in providing a rigorous treatment of transport economics. It shows how economic theory can be applied to the transport sector and provides a set of tools to analyse and inform policy. Throughout the text there is a good balance between theoretical material, empirical evidence and policy which makes it particularly stimulating. Overall, the book offers a wealth of information. To take full advantage of the book, some prior expertise is required and, as the authors point out, readers should ideally have an intermediary level of economics. However, the policy and empirical sections as well as the less technical parts of the book should be easily accessible and of interest to anyone working in the field of transport, either as academic, practitioner or policy maker. To facilitate the reading for non-economists, the authors have placed the more technical material in boxes throughout the text. These can be skipped without loss of the main argument, but still provide the interested reader with the more advanced aspects of the material. Principles of Transport Economics should also prove useful as an excellent course text for advanced students. Adelheid Holl Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield Sheffield, UK Policies and Strategies in Marginal Regions: Summary and Evaluations. Walter Leimgruber, Roser Majoral and Chul-Woo Lee (eds). Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited 2003. 400 pp. $ 99.95/£ 55. ISBN 0 7546 3627 5 Take the events of 9–11 and the growing economic inequality, then mix and bake, and you’ll have several smoking ‘buns’ to prove that marginality is back on the agenda. The editors of this volume argue that the devastating events on 9–11 showed us in the most horrific form what desperate people can do when marginalized. Now, shouldn’t that be enough to make marginality the new post-9–11 buzzword for regional development and research? At least I am willing to raise my hand in the acceptance that all things marginal matter – and possibly more than ever. Since the book does not, at least not to any great length, deal with the question of why marginality research is important, I am bound to believe that most readers who decide to pick up this book take that as given. I would go as far as 142 Book reviews to argue that many of them, familiar with the themes addressed in this book, approach marginality with a moral mindset, and do not consider it narrowly. And they are right in doing so. The moral of the story, or of marginality, is that we should be concerned. And as such, scientists should do their part in finding out how to help solving the problem of marginalization in its many forms. After all, more than two thirds of the world’s population suffers from it every day. Indeed, for its universality we could argue that marginality should be the mainstream of all development research. Instead, it has been brushed aside. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy it has been, well, marginalized. Unfortunately, this book will not change that. After the tragic events of 9–11 and yet another book on this field, marginality will still be the hushword rather than the buzzword for regional development and research. The sixth volume in the Marginal Regions Series published by Ashgate (in association with the IGU – Dynamics of Marginal and Critical Regions), presents a selection of 29 articles drawn from two IGC meetings held in Seoul during the summer of 2000. The selection intends to cover the full scope of current research and debates on the topics of marginality and marginal regions. The book’s main tenet is to show how, in the past few years, the range of themes has widened. Marginality is no longer limited to purely economic considerations, but now encompasses a wide variety of subjects such as culture, society, geopolitics and the environment. Moreover, when considered spatially, the contexts and scales of marginality vary from urban to rural, from local to regional, and from national to global. The book is divided into five main sections. Economic aspects and scales of marginality are discussed at the beginning of the book. The following section entitled “Management, Policies and Conservation” presents some specific strategies attempting to reduce marginality in European mountain regions, EU’s rural areas, in border regions of Spain and Portugal, in Kyongbuk province in Korea, Bahia in Brazil, Galicia in Spain and Western Australia. The section on settlement dynamics relates to urban/semi-urban marginalization in Hungaria (urban network), Catalonia, Harare in Zimbabwe and in the communal villages of the Middle East and North Africa. Some very interesting interpretations of the problem of marginality are discussed in a section entitled “Perception and Awareness”. The last grouping of articles approaches marginality in different sociocultural contexts. This is definitely a researcher’s book. As a summary of several years of work, its scope of issues, methods and contributors is indeed wide. It definitely is not a basic introductory text on the subject. Nor was it intended to be such a book. Therefore, I recommend this book to researchers already familiar with the issues of marginality and interested in current debates in the scholarly community. However, I am afraid that researchers who are looking for new leads, innovative methodology or new avenues for future research, will be disappointed. Similarly, this book does not have much to offer for readers looking for conclusive policy proposals and insightful strategies. In the end, for all that marginality research should be worth, the reader may actually feel let down. That said, there are some articles which excel and are definitely worth a close perusal. Particularly recom- Book reviews 143 mendable are Leimgruber’s chapter on “marginality and diversity”, Capella and Font’s chapter entitled “Sort – fortune smiles on the margins”, and Mehrettu, Pigozzi and Sommers’s empirical analysis of spatial marginality in Michigan. As final question we may ask whether the book is an illustrative account of marginality. Most definitely. Is it an in-depth summary of marginalization processes and policies to eradicate marginality? I am afraid not. Tatu Hirvonen School of Business and Economics, University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä, Finland 144 Book reviews