Book Reviews

A geographer by declaration: Selected

writings by George Jobberns

Michael Roche (ed.). Canterbury Univer-sity Press, Christchurch, 2010, 135 pp. ISBN978-1-877257-90-2.nzg_1206 139..142

George Jobberns is a founding figure in geog-raphy in New Zealand. Although geographyhad been taught as a university subject before,usually as part of geology, in 1937, Jobberns wasappointed to be lecturer in charge of the nowindependent Department of Geography at theUniversity of Canterbury. In 1942, he becamethe country’s first Professor of Geography. Itwas a remarkable rise for a person who hadtrained and worked as a school teacher andgained a MA degree in geology. From hisappointment until his retirement in 1960, Job-berns established the discipline at Canterburybut was also instrumental in its spread through-out the country. Some of his appointments tothe department, including Kenneth Cumber-land, Andrew H. Clark and Murray McCaskill,went on to found other departments, or inClark’s case, take research on New Zealand toan international stage.

This edited collection of his writings is achance to learn about and assess his contribu-tion to geography in New Zealand. MichaelRoche does an excellent job as editor of thisbook. His introductory chapter provides a suc-cinct but rich account of Jobberns’ career andan overview of his writing.This alone makes thebook interesting and readable. It is supportedby a useful and no doubt difficult to compilebibliography of Jobberns’ work. Yet the realvalue of the editor’s hand is in the way it pullstogether this collection of writing, pieces thatwere produced over a long period of time, indisparate outlets and for a varied audience. Job-berns wrote for an academic audience at times,such as his papers for the Transactions and Pro-ceedings of the New Zealand Institute and theNew Zealand Geographer; there were chaptersand books produced for use in high schools;

there were contributions to widely read generalreference works such as McLintock’s An Ency-clopaedia of New Zealand; and a wide range ofpopular writing in outlets such as New ZealandMotor World.

Roche pulls these works together not chro-nologically nor by publication type but by threemajor thematic areas apparent in Jobberns’work: ‘geopolitics’, ‘regional geographies’ and‘geography and geographers’. These work veryeffectively and span a range of work, with anemphasis on those works (such as conferenceaddresses), which are not easily accessible.

Two major aspects of the work of GeorgeJobberns become apparent in reading this col-lection. Firstly, although there was a gradualmove towards regional and social and politicalbranches of the emerging discipline through hiscareer, he remained a geographer with a holisticperspective. His early training in, and publica-tions on, geology gave him a sound grasp ofphysical geography and he engaged in widerdebates to do with the development of thecountry, whether resource conservation orregional development. Nor did he remain fixedto the geography of New Zealand, dabbling inglobal geopolitics from time to time. It was abreadth of approach that did not allow him tospecialise and carve out a solid research-basedcareer based on international publications but itplaced him ideally to establish the teaching ofgeography at university and to support thedevelopment of the subject in secondaryschools.

The second notable aspect of Jobberns’career that should spark the interest of contem-porary geographers was his concern to commu-nicate to a broad public audience. Articles forNew Zealand Motor World may seem strangenow, but perhaps it is analogous to writing inmagazines or even blogging today: it demon-strated that geographers could help thecommunity more broadly understand theirlandscape and their social and political world inimportant ways.

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Jobberns was not a towering figure in geo-graphical research, but these writings indicatethat his contribution to the discipline in thiscountry was nonetheless substantial andpivotal. He built an institutional environmentthat was catholic in its approach to geographyand this allowed for a subject that could growand spread widely and be seen as relevant tothe developmental and political needs of theday. It is true that his writings are products oftheir time in that the style and subjects coveredreflected the interests and approach of the day.Yet, they give an unparalleled insight into theway geography in New Zealand developed inits early years. This fascinating book helps usrecognise and respect how George Jobbernshelped found and nurture a discipline that hascome so far since 1937.

John OvertonSchool of Geography, Environment

and Earth SciencesVictoria University of Wellington

Doing family photography: The domestic,

the public and the politics of sentiment

Gillian Rose (ed.). Ashgate Press, Farnham,2010. 135 pp. ISBN 978-0-7546-7732-1.

In this book, Gillian Rose explores family pho-tography as a social practice; the use of familyphotographs in British newspapers followingthe London bombings in July 2005; and the con-nections between these ‘familial’ and ‘publiccirculations’ through an analysis of the visualeconomy and the politics of sentiment. Shebuilds an argument for a post-sentimentalethics in order to resist the ‘conservative appro-priations of the familial’, and of seeing familyphotographs in newspapers as ‘emotionallycoded into the “good guys” versus the “badguys” ’ (p. 7). It is a complex argument, but anengaging one, which has certainly changed theway I think about family photography, and howI now view family photographs reproduced asnewspaper images.

The first chapters present an analysis offamily photography as a social practice. Basedon empirical work with two groups of middle-class mothers, Rose argues the practices of

family photography (the circulating of andeveryday engagement with photographs) haveattracted little academic or critical attention.Rather than focus on the ‘banal images’ thatcharacterise family photography, Rose identi-fies family photography as a gendered practice– the things women (and in her empirical work,mothers) do that build particular types of fami-lies, temporally and spatially. Through herempirical work, Rose identifies the various con-sequences emanating from the practices of‘doing’: the practical ‘building’ of family net-works through the circulation of images; thepractical ‘building’ of domestic spaces throughthe display of family photographs; and theeveryday negotiation of maternal ambivalencethrough the viewing of photographs and there-storying of relational bonds.

Rose’s empirical work spans nearly a decade.In the early 2000s, when Rose talked with asmall group of mothers about what they didwith their family photographs, one participanthad a digital camera. By the time of her secondempirical investigation (five or so years later),all her interviewees had digital cameras. Inter-estingly, Rose argues that although the techno-logical processes have changed, the circulatory(and indeed representational) practices aremarked by considerable continuity.

What has definitely changed though, accord-ing to Rose, is the ‘travel’ of family photographsfrom ‘domestic circulations’ into ‘more publicarenas’. Rose is specifically interested in the useof family photographs by British newspapers,something which was much less common in theUK than in other parts of Europe and theAmericas until the ‘London bombings’ in July2005. Thus, in the second half of the book,Rose’s analytical focus shifts from ‘social prac-tices’ in domestic spaces to ‘representation’ andthe co-option of the familiar through the poli-tics of sentiment in the public domain.Although Rose does attend to what gets donewith family photographs as they enter publicarena, her argument here is more about signi-fication, which stories get told and when, andthe various ‘publics’ that are constitutedthrough particular forms of telling.

In the introduction to this review, I notedRose’s arguments have changed the way I viewfamily photographs that ‘travel’ into newspa-pers.While reading this book, I started to notice

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images reproduced in local papers, and thatRose’s arguments have considerable purchasein the New Zealand context. However, I remainless convinced that the social practices offamily photography described by Rose havesimilar ‘travel’. The book did leave me wonder-ing how these practices might be situated bydifferent histories, and in New Zealand, if andhow the history of colonial settlement has(inevitably) shaped what people do (as well asthe images they make). Secondly, I wonderedabout generational change: while the shift fromfilm to digital technologies had little impact onthe practices of Rose’s participants, I didwonder what young parents now do with andthrough photography (and if this is mediatedby class as well as gender). Nevertheless, I rec-ommend this book as a fascinating criticalanalysis of the things we do and see everyday(as we make, exchange and view family photo-graphs in domestic as well as public spaces) andperhaps more importantly, our ‘ethical respon-sibilities’ in this regard.

Lesley PattersonSociology Programme

School of People, Environment and PlanningMassey University (Wellington Campus)

Envisioning media power: On capital and

geographies of television

Brett Christophers (ed.). Lexington Books, Ply-mouth, 2009. 467 pp. ISBN 978-0-7391-2345-4.

Envisioning Media Power effectively confrontscomplacent assumptions about space and place– or ‘anaemic geographies’ – within the mediaof political economy. It reads recent histories oftelevision in the UK and New Zealand frommultiple angles. Readers expecting a compara-tive work will find it moves between the UKand New Zealand for varying purposes – com-parison plays only an intermittent (thoughvaluable) role. Chapters are both self-sufficientand complementary, together embedding theindustry and its major institutions within thediscourses and ‘knowledges’ framing geogra-phies of television. This reveals interesting andsometimes counter-intuitive matrices of power.Christophers combines data from interviews

and policy documents with a range of theoreti-cal insights taken from Marx, David Harvey,Timothy Mitchell and Edward Said amongothers. Clearly written, the book combinescareful coverage of key theoretical perspectiveswith challenging arguments. It is of valueto senior undergraduates, postgraduates andscholars interested in the contemporarymediascape.

Though a work of political economy, earlychapters owe more to Foucault than Marx,concentrating on constitutions of knowledgeand their effects within media economies.Christophers considers the ‘creative industries’discourse of post-1997 Britain and the devel-opment of super-regulator Ofcom (ostensiblydesigned to deal with media convergence) anddiscerns the language of ‘mapping’ and puta-tively disinterested ‘measurement’. Attemptsto order and ‘discipline’ the mediascape worknot merely through tangible top-down regula-tion but also through the instantiation of newforms of dispersed expert knowledge. Christo-phers rightly looks beyond regulation versusderegulation in capturing these dynamics.Another chapter examines the geographicalimagination in New Zealand’s debates on therole of public service broadcasting (PSB).Christophers’ primary aim is to challengecomplacent mythologies of underpopulationused ad nauseum by public service naysayers(i.e. ‘New Zealand is too small for a viablepublic service broadcasting system’). This cri-tique of ‘lazy rhetoric’ is convincing (Whatabout other ‘small’ countries that supportpublic broadcasting? What exactly are theseoverburdening costs inherent in PSB? Whatare the political motives behind this claim?).Less convincing is the suggestion that popula-tion size is not a significant factor here in theproblematic history of PSB. How would Chris-tophers account for supporters of PSB alsousing the underpopulation thesis, the claimbeing that smallness exacerbates ‘marketfailure’ rendering PSB all the more vital? Afurther chapter considers how knowledgetravels – both domestically and transnationally– and how this enriches our understanding oftelevision in the UK and New Zealand. Thereare interesting substantive arguments (e.g.Ofcom does not import and imprint theUSA’s Federal Communication Commission

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model; New Zealand’s Television NewZealand charter developed in relative isola-tion from international models) and challeng-ing conceptual claims, particularly that failureto interrogate both the specificities of placeand the micropolitics of political and corpo-rate contestation results in impoverishedunderstanding.

Part two includes a chapter on ‘spatial fixing’(whereby media industries seek control overthe scarcity and circulation of their products ina digital and globalised market) and exploresthe contradictions captured by one quotedmedia executive: ‘The marketing guys loveYouTube . . . the legal guys hate it’ (p. 160).Again, beyond the findings lie important con-ceptual reflections – in this case, on the natureof media commodities. This is picked up in sub-sequent chapters on shifting power relationsbetween television producers and broadcastersand on international trade in television contentand formats. Again, I am persuaded more bythe call for analytical nuance than by the impli-cation that the ‘cultural dumping’ thesis (i.e.content from dominant nations’ undercuts andtherefore erodes indigenous production inweaker economies) can be dispensed with.(Christophers’ own introduction (p. 7) showshow political economy can avoid the trap oftreating such deleterious consequences as partof a coordinated capitalist strategy (the instru-mentalist fallacy). Moreover, the culturaldumping thesis does not necessarily beget asimplistic cultural imperialism thesis as heimplies.) An excellent chapter on ‘Circuits ofCapital’ explores the dynamics of media glo-balisation in terms of financing (including inter-national co-production), revenues (includingadvertising and subscription television) andmarket strategies. Another returns again to a

more Foucauldian theme, namely the discursiveconstitution of the audience (particularlythrough ratings) and the effects this has uponinternational media markets.

The third part deals with place and its imagi-nary framings. Christophers provides an inci-sive, critical reading of the BBC’s partialrelocation from London to Manchester underthe conveniently meshing guises of challengingLondon’s media hegemony, urban regenerationand hip cultural entrepreneurialism.A very dif-ferent concern in the following chapterscratches beneath surface representations ofplace as ‘nature’ in natural history productionsto reveal a materialist political economy boundup with histories of empire.A final chapter looksat the ways in which specificities of place can bemobilised or erased for international markets –examples explored include the abortive ‘CoolBritannia’ cultural policies of the early Blairyears and the vexed issue of local accents in NewZealand television. Christophers concludes byadvancing a thesis on the programme format asa mobile, unfinished commodity exemplifying a‘logic of repetition’ within the global capitalism.

It would be a shame if the New Zealand andUK focus of this excellent book limited inter-national readership. It offers rich insights intoboth countries but also the wider globalcontext. Moreover, the various substantiveclaims about UK and New Zealand televisionare rivalled, if not outweighed, in significanceby the book’s theoretical contributions towardsalleviating that geographical anaemia in mediapolitical economy.

Luke GoodeDepartment of Film, Television

and Media StudiesThe University of Auckland

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