Graduate Students' Research SeminarAuthor(s): Terry MarsdenSource: Area, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Mar., 1985), p. 69Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20002138 .

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Annual Conference 69

services in Shropshire; Andrew Hull (Liverpool Poly) conducted the session through 10 years of changing access in East Kent; and Michael McCall (Twente) led a brief but welcome excursion into the tropical African world of head-loading and bicycles.

Several new stages of research were broached in the peak load of the session. The experienced partnership of Graham Bentham and Robin Haynes (East Anglia) on health and the more recent firm of Mark Blacksell, Kim Economides and Charles Watkins (Exeter) on legal services marked a welcome widening of the access debate beyond the bus garage. Gareth

Edwards (ex-Lampeter, but now a private operator) stressed the practicalities of route planning in Mid Wales where NBC stands for no bus connections, and Rod Glover (KCL) explored the top deck of local decision-making in a stimulating analysis of managerialism and elitism within shire hall decisions on public transport.

Finally Richard McKenzie (Oxford) and John Farrington and Rod Harrison (Aberdeen) drove a coach and horses through existing conceptualisations of the assessment of transport and access needs. These two excellent papers deserved a bigger passenger rating, but Leeds timetablers had placed them as the last service before shutdown.

The symposium as a whole? It was just the ticket! The proceedings of the symposium will be published in due course. Please contact Paul

Cloke for details. Paul Cloke

St David's, Lampeter

Graduate students' research seminar

Four papers were presented by rural geography postgraduates demonstrating the breadth of

research being undertaken in Britain by members of the study group. The papers covered rural service provision, water authorities and planning policy implementation, the effects of planning interventions on woodlands, and rural housing provision and the role of the state. The theoretical and methodological questions encountered in the research and the impact and effectiveness of planning and the state in regulating changes were underlying themes which arose throughout the session

Simon Farnsworth (Trent Poly) concentrated upon the needs for a more humanistic approach in conducting research into rural provisions, and the need to blend positivist and humanistic approaches. Philip Bell (Lampeter) presented a very thorough investigation of the role of water authorities in South East England and the interaction with planning authorities. Some changes in the priorities of water authorities towards assisting new development were identified. Stephen Essex (Nottingham) in a case study of the Peak District National Park reviewed the effectiveness of planning interventions on woodlands. Interesting data collected from a sample of landowners showed that type of landownership was crucial for understanding of woodland management, and more particularly the conservation of woodland. Pattie Richmond (Exeter) concentrated on the growing significance of the Housing Association sector in rural areas. Evidence suggested that they are tending to follow strategies defined by central government rather than to respond to the needs and demands of local populations, moving further away from their original objectives. The meeting was encouragingly well attended, suggesting the need for similar meetings to be arranged in the future.

Terry Marsden South Bank Polytechnic

Atlas of the Industrial Revolution

The Atlas was conceived in 1978 as a joint endeavour between the Economic History Society and the Historical Geography Research Group, and this exciting compendium of maps of the

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