108 Book Reviews
resent the transfer of funds to boost schools in peasant or working class areas.
It is interesting to note that in a country like Zimbabwe the most expensive and
exclusive schools are in wealthy suburbs or wealthy commercial farming areas.
Keith also makes an important observation with regard to making students pay an
economic fee for both tuition and boarding. Many students resent paying more for
university education, and governments are wary of giving large loans to students as
this would inevitably commit them to giving the students employment once they
graduate. He maintains that most of the public sector has very few vacancies for
humanities students, but has plenty of vacancies for the technically qualified
graduates. He mentions the case of Sudan and Somalia where there is a severe brain
drain in terms of science graduates who are emigrating to the Gulf States where jobs
are well paid.
Finally, the author makes some suggestions on how to cut costs. These suggestions
include, cutting down the number of non-teaching staff in universities, getting
universities engaged in viable commercial activities like consulting services, or
producing goods like furniture, vegetables, poultry, and beef. They should also
abolish free tickets for sabbaticals — and made more resources available for research
and teaching.
Feeding and accommodation subsidies should also be reduced, though this is
recognised as a political hot potato. Very few governments would survive without
resorting to brute force, including closing the universities, should such a decision be
taken.
What is missing from both books is a reference to the weaknesses of the African
economies. Particularly their inability to develop viable industries for processing the
raw materials which are in great abundance on die continent. It is only by adding
value to raw materials diat more jobs can be created, and so absorb the deluge of
graduates from all levels of the educational system.
The North-South relationship has a lot to do with the present crisis in education,
diough it is true to say that even the capitalist countries of the West are also
experiencing the unemployment crisis. Keith tries to relate education to the labour
market, but does not relate the labour market to the nature and structure of African
economies.
The two books have been produced at an opportune moment, especially for
Zimbabwe which has recendy established a Commission of Inquiry into the
possibility of establishing a Second University Campus. Those involved in the
exercise and university administration would benefit from reading the two books.
Some of the problems and issues outlined apply equally to Zimbabwe. The two case
studies of Nigerian and Ghananian universities contain a wealth of information
which is relevant to Zimbabwean and orfier African universities. Strategies need to
be developed to deal with the problem of maintaining present standards while also
coping with increasing enrollments.
Reviewed by Taka Mudariki, Harare.
Social Structures: A Network Approach, Barry Wellman and S D Berkowitz (eds),
Cambridge University Press, 1988 (513pp, £15,00)
This edited book seems to distinguish and put forward a 'new' structural approach, 'a
Book Reviews 109
network approach', from a variety of structural approaches common in conventional
social anthropology and sociology. It disposes of methodological individualism, at
one time central to social anthropology, and die reductionism inherent in social
psychological analyses. In the process, the editors and fellow contributors to the book
provide the reader with an invaluable contribution in respect of a review of the
literature.
The book is divided into five parts. Part I, 'Thinking Structurally', outlines the
main tenets and concepts of this new structural network approach. It seeks to
demonstrate the case for a new brand of structural analysis by giving "examples
showing how classical problems in social inquiry can be rethought — and new
insights developed — once the phenomena involved are seen as the systematic result
of structural forces" (p7). More revealing of what lies behind the 'new' structural
network approach, however, is die section by Barry Wellman that attempts to
demonstrate how network analysis, sociometry and political economy "are
coalescing into a common structural analytic approach" (p7).
The other parts on 'Communities', 'Markets', 'Social Change' and 'Social
Mobility' have all one object: to re-interpret existing studies/literature using die 'new'
structural network analysis and related concepts. These parts seek to refute, in
particular, normative approaches in social anthropology and sociology. For
example, in Part IV, 'Social Change', the editors note diat there has been a longstanding
debate with modernisation theorists "who contend that changes in an
individual's norms and values provide the motive force for change" (p327). They
suggest, instead, that such individualistic normative explanations ignore the ways
the structuralists in this book associate social change with fundamental alterations in
patterns of relationships between individuals, groups and organisations. The
underlying assumption of their analyses is that norms and values are by-products of
structural changes, and not their source (plO).
To come to grips with this 'structural network approach', and hence the book
itself, it is necessary diat we examine closely how legitimate and useful it is to have this
amalgam composed of, as the editors say, political economy, sociometry and
network analysis (p7).
One thing is clear, the authors are making an attempt to bridge the gap between,
and deal with die weaknesses in, the macro and micro approaches in die social
sciences by capturing the best of both worlds. Wholistic approaches often lack detail
or are not able to effectively capture small-scale processes, while micro approaches
are generally weak in grasping structural issues. Political economy, for instance,
bears the merits of macro approaches — of not atomising social reality (see Frank
1967, Wallerstein 1974,1979). On the odier hand, network studies (see for example
Bott) and sociometry give detailed and rich empirical data on particular cases.
This is an ambitious and yet worthwhile publication. What is most uncertain
about it is whether this synthesis, however desirable, can be achieved through the
authors' conceptualisation of 'structural network approach', or viewing social
structure as "ordered arrangements of relations that are contingent upon exchange
amongmembers of social systems"(p3). The nature or basis of these relations are not
explicated. Supposedly, these are interactive relations. Thus the concept of social
relations is the key operative concept which is used interchangeably with social ties.
It is not clear what underpins these ties or relations which, in any social situation, of
110 Book Reviews
necessity, tend to benefit some more than others. To limit oneself to social relations
per se, as the authors do in this book, serves to accentuate a particular world-view,
that of the market or exchange. That is, relations between groups or nations are
basically seen in market terms. Such an approach risks the very weaknesses for which
Frank's brand of political economy has been criticised. That is, viewing relationships
among nations in terms of exchange. Exchange relations, which are themselves
unequal, are a consequence of other underlying relations — relations of production.
Any approach that emphasises exchange relations clearly puts the cart before the
horse.
Within die bounds of conventional (British and American) sociology and social
andiropology, which have tended to emphasise normatively structured behaviour,
the book offers an invaluable critique. Further, in die way the authors re-conceptualise
structural analysis, the book affords a refinement of the varieties of structuralism,
ranging from Durkheim to Levi-Strauss. However, when compared with conceptual
advances which have been made in 'political economy', the structural network
approach presented in the book is inadequate in as far as it operates at the level of
social relations whose underlying premises are as yet unclear. Further, the emphasis
lies more on the consequences for individual behaviour in the 'network of social
relations'. Litde attention has been given to the underlying causes or to what gives
rise to such relations. Mention is made of scarce resources or die unequal distribution
of resources. In particular, the issue of power, in all its manifestations —
economic, political, social, etc — has not received attention; yet it is an issue which is
central to political economy. For this reason, at least, the 'new structural network
approach' is still very much in its infancy.
Reviewed by Fanual M Nangati, School of Social Work, Harare.
References
Frank A G (1967) Underdevelopment in Latin America, Monthly Review
Press
Wallerstein I (1979) The Capitalist World Economy, Cambridge University
Press.
Wallerstein I (1974) The Modern World System, New York Academic Press.