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Reviews the book 'Marchés, Capital et Incertitude,' edited by M. Boiteux, Th. de Montbrial, and B. Munier.

Reviews the book 'Natural Resource Economics: Selected Papers,' by S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup and edited by Richard C. Bishop and Stephen O. Andersen.

This article comments on several articles about the phenomena of war and peace in relation to sociology. Several authors recognize the threat posed to Marxism by the phenomenon of war. Weaker sociologists will take refuge in useful phrases, such as relative autonomy, uneven development and determination in the last instance. One of the legacies of Marxism is the division between base and superstructure, and its idea that political decisions are the effects, but not the causes of economic change. Class analysis comes to the fore only in two papers, one by John Mattausch, the other by Graham Day. Mattauch's unconcealed nostalgia for mass working class support sits unhappily with the fact that the majority of activists are state class radicals. Other papers are more interested in peace movements than in peace. They make no reference to the actual effect of such movements, for example, in contributing to the pre-war strategy of Adolph Hitler. Only one paper offers a definition of war. This occurs as a prelude to David Riches' discussion of the peaceful Eskimos. War, according to Riches, is the authorized employment of physical force against other persons, as means by which groups competing for control of public resources and benefits attempt to influence the outcome of the competition in their favor.

This paper argues that Piketty's book should not simply be seen as that of an economist, but that it contains significant resources for sociologists to draw upon. These are firstly, this approach to social science and his use of visualizations which chime closely with recent claims about the power of description. Secondly I consider his conceptualization of time and history - which in rebutting epochal arguments about the speed of contemporary change allows for a much better appreciation of the 'long durée'; and finally his conceptualization of social classes and privilege through his elaboration of a sociology of accumulation and inheritance. In all these ways, Piketty's work assists in developing an account of elites and wealth which should be highly productive for future sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Schumpeter on the Economics of Innovation and the Development of Capitalism," by Arnold Heertje.

Reviews the book "Principles of Transport Economics," by E. Quinet and R. Vickerman.

Reviews the book "The Decline of the South African Economy," edited by Stuart Jones.

The focus of this book is the nature and proper constitution of the economic order in the United States. The subject is approached in ten essays divided among three perspectives, all focusing on the nature and relationship of Christianity and capitalism. Two historical essays, by John Pawlikowski and David Krueger, offer valuable grounding in (respectively) Catholic and Protestant approaches to ethical analysis of economic issues. Contemporary Christian Ethics is represented in essays by Franklin Gamwell, Robert Benne, Cornel West, Douglas Sturm, and Widick Schroeder, while perspectives from economics, social theory, and anthropology are provided in essays by Daniel Finn, Bruce Grelle, and Kay Warren. In many ways the key piece in this anthology is Gamwell's paper, which poses the broad question of the interrelation between liberal political thought, religious ethics, and the economic order and argues that an ongoing dispute within liberalism itself is a major obstacle to consensus on the proper shape of the economic sphere. With the reawakened interest in application of religious ethical analysis to defining social justice in the economy, however, all the component essays of this volume are useful, and varied, sources of thoughtful reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Beyond Territory: Dynamic Geographies of Knowledge Creation, Diffusion and Innovation," edited by Harald Bathelt, Maryann P. Feldman and Dieter F. Kogler.

The article reviews the book "Spatial Dynamics, Networks and Modelling," edited by Aura Reggiani and Peter Nijkamp.