Wu Jun-Jie, Paul Barkley, and Bruce A. Weber (eds.). 2008. Frontiers in Resource and Rural Economics: Human-Nature, Rural-Urban Interdependencies. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 266 pp., $85.00 (cloth), $41.95 (paperback).

Abstract

Jun-Jie Wu, Paul Barkley, and Bruce A. Weber (eds.). 2008. Frontiers in Resource and Economics: Human-Nature, Rural-Urban Interdependencies. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 266 pp., $85.00 (cloth), $41.95 (paperback). anthology Frontiers in Resource and Economics grew out of a symposium in honor of Emery N. Castle, Professor Emeritus at Oregon State University and Senior Fellow Emeritus at Resources for the Future. Professor Castle is the editor of, among other works, Changing American Countryside-one of the classics in the rural economics literature-and Economics and Public Water Policy in the West (co-edited with Stephen Smith). Additional contributors to Frontiers in Resource and Economics include environmental and resource economist V. Kerry Smith, economic geographer Maureen Kilkenny, and development sociologist David L. Brown, to name a few. book is highly recommended for the practitioner in either resource economics or rural economics. Although not every chapter will likely be of interest to all readers, there is enough variation to satisfy both the specialist and the generalist, the theorist and the practitioner. Castle's research encompasses natural resource, environmental, and community economics, and thus it is appropriate that both this anthology and the symposium it followed focus on the overlap among these three fields of study. editors tout the volume as exploring the between natural resource management and rural development as well as between rural and urban communities, and as such the book is divided into four parts: The Past 50 Years, Human-Nature and Rural-Urban Interdependence, Policies and Programs for People and Places, and The Next 25 Years. A difficulty in reviewing any anthology is to avoid the temptation to review each work in isolation, and instead to focus on the editors' difficult work in integrating each separate piece into a coherent whole. editors of Frontiers have an additional challenge-that of integrating threads of two overlapping yet distinct disciplines in rural economics/rural studies, and natural resource economics. editors succeed admirably in including works that explore the interdependencies of rural and urban areas and of natural resources and economic development, with Emery Castle and David Ervin providing a helpful synthesis at the beginning of the book. Each piece is interesting and thought-provoking in its own right, yet it is not recommended that the reader attempt to read the collection straight through from start to finish, as the chapters do not always follow each other seamlessly. This, of course, is a criticism that can be made of many other anthologies-it is not unique to this work. first section of the book, entitled The Past 50 Years, serves as an example of the challenges inherent in assimilating elements from these two sub-disciplines. It comprises two essays, one considering resource and environmental economic literature from 1950-2000, the second considering the literature and movement of rural economics from the early nineteenth century to the present. While different in scope and tone, both chapters end on a very similar note. Daniel Bromley, in The Emergence and Evolution of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, accuses environmental and resource economists of becoming too hidebound-that is, that resource economists have become too wrapped up in their models and methods to continue to be relevant to the public. He questions whether they can bring new insights to the field, or anticipate economynature conflicts before they arise, given these economists' dependence on axioms. In short, he suggests that the field is becoming stagnant. Paul Barkley, in Rural Economics: People, Land, and Capital, also strikes a cautionary tone. He warns that Economists must be very careful in applying the interests and skills of their discipline to the problems of rural areas and rural communities? …