Welsh Journals

geographer can make to the problems of contemporary society and an incisive examination of the problem of juvenile delinquency. Through the use of camera-ready copy and a Hong Kong printer, the book is quite moderately priced and hopefully, as a consequence, the results of this particular piece of research will not be left simply to gather dust. David A.Kirby St. David's University College, Lampeter. Poverty and Social Inequality in Wales. G.Rees and T.L.Rees (Ed- itors). Croom Helm (1980) pp. 279. ISBN 0 7099 2205 1. Price (paper- back) £ 5.50. This collection of essays will make a useful contribution to our under- standing of poverty and inequality in Wales because, as the editors state in their introductory chapter, this substantive area of research is typified by 'a poverty of knowledge' (p. 32). The twelve essays are divided into two groups. The first contains six essays which are about 'the dimensions of social inequality in Wales' and cover the traditional fields of interest in social policy terms: income, housing, education and health. All of these subject areas are, to a greater or lesser extent, touched upon in a further essay on urban deprivation. The remaining six papers are in the sec- ond group, entitled 'towards explanation', and the emphasis here is clearly on poverty as the result of the demands of, and the problems faced by, advanced capitalism. This explanatory emphasis can be the only reason for the division of the papers into two groups because several of the papers in the first group are about explanation and not simply describing problems. Some of the papers in the first group are, however, guilty of moving from description to prescription with- out first of all offering an adequate explanation of the circumstances of poverty and inequality. Many of the essays in the second group point to the many weak- nesses of classical economics and modernisation theories with their optimism in 'a gradual evolution towards uniformity', (p. 234) as explanations of relative poverty. These contributors stress the crucial importance of the role of the state. Although recognition is given to the fact that relative poverty would be greater were it not for state intervention, what is ultimately stressed is the role of the state in fostering those circumstances which will maintain capitalism in its present form. The final chapter of the book that by Graham Day gives an excellent account of the weaknesses of traditional modes of explanation and offers refinements on some of the cruder structuralist interpretations. Day's conclusion that tackling poverty requires far-reaching structural changes is almost as inescapable as it is depressing. My overall and lasting impression of the book is one of despondency mainly because much of its content succeeds in triv- ialising debates about the relative virtues of different forms of government intervention. Day, in fact, describes the results of diff-