Many geographers work on matters of great relevance for the issues facing society, but geography is rarely invoked in public debates over matters of contemporary concern. As a result, geographical perspectives are often missing from public discourse, and outmoded conceptions of geography are reinforced. This forum considers the importance and challenge of addressing this state of affairs. Four distinguished geographers who have been involved in different ways with the effort to raise geography's profile consider the possibilities and limitations of enhancing geography's public profile. Consideration is given to the prospects for raising the discipline's visibility in high-profile public venues, the role of geography in organized international research endeavors, the challenge of linking what geographers do to social activism, and the importance of questioning the unproblematized geographical ideas and discursive norms that already circulate in the public arena.

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Clark University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic Geography. Bhutan: A Physical and Cultural Geography, by PRADYUMNA P. KARAN. 103 pp.; photos., maps, diagrs., ills., bibliography, appendix, index, 1:253:440 map in pocket. University of Kentucky Press, Lexington, 1967. $17.50. 14 x 101 inches.Professor Karan has produced the first regional geography devoted to the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, until 1960 ''the most closed country in the world." The approach is that of a general survey. In the first 85 pages are found chapters on exploration, evolution of the kingdom, the contemporary political scene, the physiographic setting, climate, vegetation and soils, economic patterns, cultural patterns, transport, trade and economic development, and prospects and problems. The appendix contains a list of proper names, the texts of principal treaties and documents relating to Bhutan, and a glossary.From beginning to end the volume is a visual treat. The handsomely bound cover bears a striking color plate of the Thinmbu Valley. Interspersed throughout the text are somie 90 photographs, 21 in color, which do justice to the beauty of the Himalayan landscapes. Also accompanying the text are 23 maps, most of them page sized; enclosed in a pocket is a four-color relief map at the scale of approximately 1:250,000. Further adding to the richness of illustration are a number of decorative sketches.Professor Karan has but partly succeeded in his wish "to analyze and interpret the principal physical and cultural elements of Bhutan's geography with emphasis on the changing political and economic patterns. ' He deserves credit for producing an unusually well-illustrated and readable introduction to Bhutan which assembles mnost of the available, if still limited, geographic knowledge. The text, which in general must be classified as interpretative description rather than analysis, together with the abundant maps and illustrations, succeeds in conveying to the reader a vivid impression of Bhutan.As a compendium, however, the work suffers somewhat from a lack of synthesis and balance. Individual sections are to a large degree independent of one another; unifying themes other than that of social and economic change are few and geographic relationships are not always well developed. The themes of social and economic change and development problems might have been better elaborated had the author chosen to make more extensive comparisons with Nepal, a Himalayan kingdom on which Dr. Karan has previously published extensively and which would appear to offer interesting similarities and contrasts.Topics emphasized in the book are understandably those for which there...

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Geographical Review. the conclusion by him. A substantial portion of this book is allocated to studies of Welsh, Irish, and Scottish cases; the essay by Williams and Ambrose quickly becomes a case study of Brittany. As a result, readers who anticipate a broad context will be disappointed, despite Carter's suggestion that there is "a series of different approaches for the reader of this book." Bostock's textbook-like discussion of "La Francophonie" is well written and interesting, and Cartwright's analysis of Canada's dilemma is original and rewarding, but they do not sufficiently diversify the overall content of the collection.This appraisal does not mean that the essays on the Celtic languages fail in their own right. They are detailed, penetrating, and informative. Also problems of data acquisition and analysis can be illustrated through such work. But Mackey's wide-ranging overview generates expectations not fulfilled by this volume. His attempt to establish the basics in cultural-geographical context also suffers from broad-stroke excesses. Still, Mackey's overview touches on many relevant topics not adequately developed in the subsequent essays. Perhaps this book should have carried a subtitle alerting readers to its case-study format.Nevertheless, "Language in Geographic Context" contains useful and pertinent material on a field that, though not as untilled as the editor suggests, has great potential for cultivation. Many of these possibilities are not mentioned, and in aggregate the bibliographies reveal some astounding omissions. The text could have benefited from some careful copyediting, and a more comprehensive editorial introduction to each contribution would have enhanced its usefulness. After reading the individual essays, many of which would have been accepted by the most rigorous research journals, I was disappointed by the conclusion. In fewer than four pages Williams resummarizes the plight of the minority languages that form the focus of the volume, and he closes with a restatement of the utility of geographical principles in analysis of language-related problems. As a reminder of this use, the book succeeds, though perhaps not in the manner the editor intended.-HARM J. DE BLIJ SOUTHEAST ASIA IN THE AGE OF COMMERCE, 1450-1680. Volume One: THE LANDS BELOW THE WINDS. By ANTHONY REID. xvi and 235 pp.; maps, diagrs., ills., bibliog., index. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. $25.00. ISBN 0-300-03921-2.Southeast Asia is often perceived as lacking the cultural coherence that characterizes other macroregions. Fractured by religious, linguistic, and political diver...