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the book would have been to include the datesthe articles were first published on the first pageof each. This would have avoided disjunctureamong some of the essays and would also havehelped to identify the ‘founders’ of this new field.

Helen Liggett

Cleveland State UniversityUSA

Australian Cities: Continuity and Change, 3rdEdition

C. Forster, Oxford University Press, Melbourne,2004, xx + 236 pp, ISBN 0 19551734 2 (paper-back), A$44.95.

In many ways the most effective review of thisvolume occurs on the page before the foreword:‘First published 1995, Reprinted 1996 (twice),1999. Second edition published 1999, Reprinted2001, 2002, 2003. Third edition published 2004’(p. iv). Clearly

Australian Cities

is an IAG/OxfordUniversity Press Meridian Series success story,notwithstanding the relative decline of urbangeography in the pecking order of Geography’ssubdisciplines over recent years.

Both the earlier editions received (with a few,albeit different, reservations) positive reviews inthis journal (Alexander, 1997; Chalkley, 2001)and this one will be no exception. Although thiswork has expanded in size (from 153 to 173 and236 pages) and price (from $19.95 to $32.95and $44.95), it remains eminently accessible tostudents in both financial and intellectual terms.

Forster’s ‘aim is to introduce readers to someof the main issues and debates concerning thegeography of contemporary Australian cities’(p. xix). As the book’s subtitle indicates, he pur-sues this aim in an explicitly temporal context. Thefirst chapter, ‘Foundations’, charts the developmentof Australia’s (mainland, colonial/State capital)cities from their largely nineteenth century originsto the 1980s. A new chapter, ‘Cities in a Glo-balising World’, then continues this history tothe present and introduces the global forces thathave contributed to urban change in Australia inrecent decades.

The next five chapters focus on specific aspectsof recent change in Australia’s five largest cities.Chapter Three, ‘Employment and Urban Struc-ture’, takes, at least initially, an economic approach,documenting the major changes in the nature,participation levels and location of urban employ-ment. This is then complemented by a consider-

ation of spatial perspectives, on both access to andthe journey to work, which allows for a concludingdiscussion of policy issues relating to employ-ment in terms of both equity and sustainability.

Chapters Four (‘Housing Questions’) and Five(‘The Residential Mosaic’) adopt a more socialand demographic approach. There is a thoroughdiscussion of the changing structures of Australia’spopulation, families and households which leadsin to a consideration of issues of housing afford-ability and the role of government in the privateand public housing sectors. This provides abasis for the treatment of polarisation within cit-ies. This discussion uses the classic Social AreaAnalysis framework of age and household struc-ture, socio-economic status and ethnicity. But,here as elsewhere, although ‘occasional referencesare made to some theoretical perspectives’(Chalkley, 2001, 258), this is done in an obliquemanner that often fails to give adequate credit totheir perpetrators.

The issues and debates raised in these discus-sions on homes and jobs provide a excellent basisfor the next chapter on ‘Governing the Cities’.This is a thoughtful evaluation of the argumentsover fragmentary and unified systems of urbangovernance. This chapter is even more effectivein its depiction of the move to smaller govern-ment overall and of the success of the affluent,the educated, and the organised in preserving, ifnot improving, their levels of urban amenityover recent decades.

The chapter on ‘Sustainable Cities?’ first intro-duced in the second edition, is both a thoroughreview of the environmental impacts of cities onair, water and land and an evaluation of thevarious policy measures used to minimise theseimpacts, be these spatial (for example, consoli-dation and decentralisation) or social (for exam-ple, education and legislation). The concept ofsustainability also provides a framework for theconcluding chapter on ‘Urban Futures (?)’. Thequestion mark is present on the first page ofthe chapter, but is absent from the contents page,perhaps indicating some uncertainty over whetherAustralian cities possess a future. (Possiblyreaders should take encouragement from the factthat the author dedicates the book to his grandson.)Nevertheless, this chapter is a superb recapitula-tion and reorganisation of the arguments put for-ward throughout the book under the ‘key debate’headings of economic development, sustainabilityand equity.

This remains ‘a book with many admirablequalities’ (Chalkley, 2001, 259) which will be

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© 2006 Institute of Australian Geographers

‘warmly welcomed by students, teachers andothers involved in the difficult task of obtaininga coherent picture of the rapidly changing natureof Australian cities’ (Alexander, 1997, 274). Anumber of the reservations expressed by thesereviewers appear to have been addressed. Chalk-ley’s (2001, 259) concern that gender issuesreceived ‘relatively little’ attention is no longerthe case, particularly in the chapters on employ-ment and housing, and Alexander’s (1997, 275)request for ‘a little more pictorial originality’has now been granted extensively.

While this edition benefits from a wealth ofcontemporary information, particularly from the2001 census, it is, occasionally, still ‘weigheddown by statistical material’ (Alexander, 1997,275). Another concern expressed by Alexander(1997, 274) was that ‘it somehow lacks the “firein the belly” needed to inspire thinking on much-needed answers to Australia’s increasing urbanproblems.’ However, the series editors contendthat this volume remains ‘balanced’ and, whetherit comes from a conscious decision by the authoror merely from the massive shift to the right inAustralian public policy over the last decade,the third edition appears, to this reviewer atleast, to contain ample fuel for incendiary think-ing on these topics.

Chalkley (2001, 279) also regretted that ‘thecountry’s medium-sized cities feature only some-what fleetingly’. The author’s choice to limit thebook’s scope to the mainland capitals remainsunderstandable given the size and price limita-tions of the Meridian series. Nevertheless, in hisnew chapter, Forster includes a section on ‘mega-cities’, which points to an area that will certainlymerit attention in any subsequent editions. Manyof ‘the country’s medium-sized cities’ (for example,Geelong, Gold Coast and Wollongong) are closeto and are increasingly integrated with theirState capitals. Several potentially medium-sizedcities, such as Mandurah and the New SouthWales Central Coast, also share these locationaland functional characteristics. These urban fringe/mega-city areas are frequently growing rapidlyand are thus the subject of transport developmentssuch as the Brisbane-Sunshine Coast rail upgrade.Hitherto

Australian Cities: Continuity and Change

has tended to focus on the inner cities and theestablished suburban areas. But, like the citiesthemselves, the book may have to extend beyondits former boundaries in the relatively near future.

In disciplinary terms, however, this work hasalready crossed boundaries. Alexander commendedit from the perspective of a geographer-planner.

Chalkley acknowledged its value to students ofan overseas university. Forster (2004, xix) ‘hope(s)the result will interest readers other than studentsof geography.’ This reviewer at least can testifyto its success as a text for a double badged, teamtaught, anthropology/geography unit on ‘UrbanLife: Governance, Community and Resistance’.The editors of the Meridian series are to becommended for their perspicacity in commis-sioning this work in the first place and for their,and the author’s, commitment to ensuring itsongoing currency.

REFERENCESAlexander, I., 1997: Review of C. Forster, Australian Cities:

Continuity and Change.

Australian Geographical Studies

34, 274–275.Chalkley, B., 2001: Review of C. Forster, Australian Cities:

Continuity and Change (2nd ed.).

Australian GeographicalStudies

39, 257–259.

Roy Jones

Curtin University of TechnologyAustralia

The Human Impact on the Natural Environ-ment: Past, Present and Future

, 6th Edition

Andrew Goudie, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford,2006, xv + 357pp, ISBN 1 4051 2704 X (paper-back), Stg£24.99.

This now classic text that has served two gener-ations of students well has been brought up todate with four new chapters on ways in whichclimate change may have an impact on the earth.It has also been produced in a larger format akinto that of the major American textbooks. Thefocus of the book remains on people as physio-graphic agents, the concern being about changesto natural systems as a result of human activity.It is thus in the mode of the 1970s concern withenvironmental impact rather than the early 21stcentury concern with the sustainability of life onearth and the achievement of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals in the context of sustainableuse of ecosystems. What is missing is a sense ofthe dynamics by which humans change one partof the environment which, in turn, alters envi-ronmental flows that then have impacts on otherhumans, downwind or downstream, who thenmake another adjustment, which results, againin further environmental changes. This is thereal dynamic of geography, the environmentalfeedback and human behavioural responsemechanisms that produce a changing world.