Geographies of Disability by Brendan GleesonReview by: Ruth ButlerArea, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Jun., 2002), pp. 217-218Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of BritishGeographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20004229 .

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Book reviews 21 7

each firm to be unique. The sociological and institutional bases of the development of overseas operations by Chinese business firms concludes Part 1 with Zhang and Bulcke suggesting a framework for understanding the processes involved from a business network perspective.

The focus of the five chapters in Part 2 shifts to empirical studies of the ways in which overseas Chinese business firms actually manage their cross-border operations. At issue here is whether these firms have a particular

way of achieving these particular operational objectives. The evidence to date suggests that they are relatively more successful in South and South East Asia than in Europe and in North America. Particularly interesting here are the chapters by Zhou, who examines the rise of

Chinese-owned producer service firms in Los Angeles, and by Mitchell and Olds who chart the involvement of

Hong Kong investors and developers in the Vancouver property market. Zhou focuses on the development of immigrant-run accounting, banking and computer distri bution. She demonstrates an important contrast between the way in which large European and North American

service TNCs have provided business services to clients in host markets and the preponderance of overseas Chinese producer service SMEs supporting new and established Chinese client firms. In order to enable globalization, these producer service operations are strongly dependent on social and ethnic social networks as the basis for

establishing a client base or obtaining investment capital

via international or local markets. The conclusion is similar for Vancouver where the ambitions of Chinese property

firms in major development projects have been well served by the availability of informal credit lines, the

strength of trust in negotiating and closing deals, or the

access to information and knowledge facilitated by

extended family ties. Both chapters demonstrate how the flexibility of the 'bamboo' networks is a source of com

petitive advantage in an environment where other busi

nesses are operating in ways that are prescribed by the

institutional and regulatory framework in which they are embedded.

There is no doubt that this book is a valuable inter

disciplinary contribution to the literature on the internation

alization of overseas Chinese business firms. The Editors

rightly suggest that the analyses raise as many questions as

answers. Readers will be struck, for example, by the

absence of contributions that inform the European experi

ence; an omission noted by the Editors in their concluding

chapter. In part this is symptomatic of the fact that the

global expansion of overseas Chinese firms is ongoing and

not perhaps as 'visible' in Europe as it is on the west coast

of the US and Canada. It has therefore yet to attract the

curiosity of economic geographers and others based in

Europe but this book should help. This will be encouraged

by the research agenda signposted by the Editors. This

includes studies of the impact of overseas Chinese business

firms outside their 'core' operations in South and South

East Asia, the role of family networks in businesses that

are increasingly international, or the relationships between Western financial institutions and ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs. This book will be a valuable read for economic geographers and others steeped in the 'Western' interpretation of corporate globalization but grappling

with trying to understand the evolving world space economy. It should also be essential reading for under graduates and postgraduates taking more advanced courses in economic geography, international business or political economy.

P W Daniels The University of Birmingham

Geographies of disability by Brendan Gleeson London: Routledge, 1999, 253 pp, ?16.99 paperback ISBN 0 415 17909 2

(Dis)ability is an area of growing interest across the social sciences and as Gleeson explains, one of great importance to Geography. There has been a marked increase in

research articles and conference sessions in the area and many undergraduate programmes, particularly in social and medical geography, have been amended to incorporate this material. As one of the first books in the area this text is well

overdue and should be welcomed by students and staff alike.

Having said this, the book is not, as the title may

misleadingly suggest, an eclectic volume of chapters addressing a wide range of issues affecting the lives of disabled people in a broad variety of spatial contexts. You will need to look elsewhere to Disability Studies Readers and other edited collections for such material. However, this can hardly be laid down as a criticism, as

this is neither the book's aim nor something it claims to

achieve. It is a discussion of how the production of space has

shaped the lives of disabled people that lies at the core of

Geographies of Disability. Gleeson's aims are: to theorize the broad historical-geographical relationships that have conditioned the social experience of disabled people in

Western societies; and to describe and explain the social

experiences of disabled people in specific historical geographical settings (p 3).

This I believe he does, offering insight into some of the social and historical causes, not just the symptoms, of the

marginalization of people with disabilities (predominantly physical, rather than mental or sensory) in Western society. The book falls into three main parts. The first section of

the book introduces medical, social constructionist and embodied theoretical approaches to disability in a critical,

but highly accessible manner. The socio-spatial model that

Gleeson then puts forward works as the framework in

which the remainder of the book considers historical and

contemporary case studies of disabled people's experi

ences of socialization. Part Two of the book considers

the historical cases of feudal England and the industrial

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218 Book reviews

city (Melbourne). The third section discusses the three contemporary scenarios of the 'Western city', 'community care' policies and 'access regulation' (p 9).

The empirical historical studies place what can be other wise difficult to grasp ideologies and theories in context and, perhaps most importantly, undergraduate students' reach. Many issues raised will be familiar to those working in the area of disability, but the historical approach offers them a refreshing and thought-provoking new perspective.

The text will no doubt be critiqued for its singular perspective on the issues raised; the 'materialist' standpoint that Gleeson takes (p 8). Those from other philosophical persuasions will surely wish to question the author's theory. However, this is not something the author will find a surprise or fail to welcome. He states quite clearly that he does not expect 'the theoretical arguments and empirical studies in this volume will be received with universal favour' (p 197). Such critique and analysis he welcomes, expressing at length his desire for the book to provoke further debate in both Geography and the broader arena of disability studies.

There are in the author's own words 'other histories' which need to be written. Those that Gleeson does throw a necessary light on will surely be told from different perspec tives in years to come. However, it is a significant starting point, an important piece of the puzzle that comprises the social, economic and political worlds in which we all live.

Other important issues tackled in the book include ethical questions over the legitimacy of able-bodied aca demics discussing disability issues, and the relationships between the researcher and researched. Gleeson's discus sion of the value of geographers' input to broader disability studies debates is equally a welcome and thought provoking addition to the book's conclusion.

My main fear is that a book entitled 'Geographies of Disability', will like so many on minority groups before it, be considered of interest only to a collection of social, cultural and medical geographers who are already converts to the

issues raised. Terms such as industrialization, capitalism and the commodification of labour, familiar to economic geog raphers litter the book's pages and I sincerely hope will

whet their appetites, and encourage them to take up the new challenges Gleeson so clearly lays before them. I welcome his further calls for political, urban and historical, amongst other geographers to take up the challenge of disability issues and recognize the significance of (dis)ability to their fields of inquiry. Flick through the index of any recent first-year textbook and you will find that gender, race, ethnicity and class can be found in most if not all

chapters. This book makes a solid case for the need to

attain a similar recognition of (dis)ability's impact upon the geographies we study. There is a long way to go to a

comprehensive understanding of the 'Geographies of Dis ability' (sic) which surround us. This book, I am sure, will

prove to play an important role in setting an agenda.

Ruth Butler University of Hull

Migration and gender in the developed world edited by Paul Boyle and Keith Halfacree London: Routledge, 1999, 328 pp, f55.00 ISBN 0415 17144 X

It is remarkable how recently many migration researchers apparently assumed that gender was not an issue that needed to be taken into account in their work. Migrants were seen as male, generally in employment, with women (if thought about at all) being seen as their dependent

wives, unemployed or working in activities that were secondary to those of their husbands.

Yet, as long ago as 1885, Ravenstein had observed differences between the migratory behaviour of males and females, and successive researchers have investigated one of the phenomena that partially explained Ravenstein's observations - migration at the time of marriage (a gen dered aspect that is somewhat surprisingly not covered in the book under review here).

Paul Boyle and Keith Halfacree have now produced an edited collection that firmly demonstrates the importance of gender in migration, highlighting different migratory behaviours of males and females, but also going further to consider cultures of migration, and the separate (and sometimes contrasted) outcomes of movement for males and females. The Editors contribute a well-argued and

wide-ranging introduction to the volume, and there then follow a series of 18 individual contributions. One of the

most refreshing aspects of Migration and Gender in the Developed World is its highly eclectic methodological approach to its theme, and its refusal to be confined to one

specific research paradigm. It is rare today to find chapters reporting probit analysis and multi-level modelling rubbing shoulders with others using in-depth interviews or focus groups as sources of evidence. In this respect Boyle and Halfacree have overseen the creation of a book that could be profitably considered by many who believe that those using different approaches have little to say to each other.

Reading the book from end to end, as a reviewer perhaps uniquely does, creates a very varied image of the multi

faceted ways in which gender produces issues within the generation, process and impact of population mobility, and the creative potential for methodological triangulation in this field (and possibly many others).

Chapters Two and Three demonstrate that there indeed are gender-specific migration patterns and examine related parameters such as social class and regions of origin and

destination. Discussion in the next two chapters concen trates on the outcomes of migration for women's employ

ment, and Chapter Six then provides a bridge between the early discussions of women and men as separate migrants

to consideration of women moving (or remaining immo

bile) as partners (Chapters Seven to Ten). Chapters Eleven

and Twelve return to single women movers and pursue

social considerations of their living circumstances and role in gentrification processes. The threads drawing together the remaining six chapters are a little less clear. Chapter

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