Higher Education 21: 267-271, 1991.

Book reviews

Kees P. Epskamp (1989). Theatre in Search of Social Change: The Relative Significance of Different Theatrical Approaches. CESO Paperback No. 7. The Hague: Centre for the Study of Education in Developing Countries. 209 pp. NP.

Over the last twenty years or so theatre has been used in various third-world contexts as an adjunct to development programmes and non-formal education. Performances have ranged from unsophisticated propaganda plays and skits designed to persuade target audiences of the benefits of modernization to more subtly conceived theatre in which participants - often members of the community involved - role-play and play-make as a way of understanding and articulating their basic needs and aspirations as well as the obstacles to their fulfilment. Epskamp's book is the most comprehensive treatment that I know of this kind of theatre, now often labelled 'theatre for development'.

His aim is to contribute both a wide-ranging survey of theatre as a tool for development on several continents and a sense of the thinking about development and theatre which has informed these experiments. In his early chapters, therefore, Epskamp concentrates on establishing the theoretical contexts for his later, more descriptive chapters. He considers some of the changes that have occurred in development strategies over the last four decades, concentrating on the move towards small-scale, locally-based projects, with its associated tendency to value educational approaches such as the functional literacy methods of Paulo Freire. He mentions some of the problems of national and popular culture in countries often arbitrarily created by the colonizing powers and open to the game-shows and soap operas of the foreign mass media. And when he turns his attention more specifically to the theatre he summarizes the theories of radical socialist dramaturgy associated with Brecht and, more recently, the Latin American popular theatre activist, Augusto Boal, and offers a thumbnail sketch of the various twentieth-century 'popular theatre' movements.

Subsequent chapters describe a variety of experiments, from attempts to use a modified form of traditional wayang theatre in Java to teatro campesino in Mexico to university-based theatre in Botswana, Zambia and Nigeria. As Epskamp makes clear, the auspices and objectives of these and other theatre projects associated with development vary considerably, as do the theatrical form and quality of per- formance. Some, such as the Javanese example, are governmentally-based and nationalist in spirit, while much of the Latin American work has been inspired by 'Liberation theology' and a radical political analysis. Inevitably, different con- ceptions of what constitutes development lead to differing notions of what 'popular' theatre can and should be and do. Epskamp has evidently travelled widely and read extensively in researching his topic, which seems to have begun life as an academic thesis, and by the end of the book the reader will feel that there can be little if any

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third-world popular theatre linked to development or educational objectives which has not at least been touched on.

Unfortunately, the book is less stimulating than it could have been, given its intrinsically interesting subject. Its academic origin is apparent in the laboured 'thesisy' quality of its prose (the English translation of which has numerous stylistic infelicities), and in its compulsion to try to say everything blandly rather than a few things excitingly. Epskamp pays far too much attention to documents full of Unesco-speak, and makes the mistake - at least for a book as opposed to thesis writer - of endlessly quoting what other people have written, even when it hasn't been especially memorable. Also, like many a thesis before it, it promises considerably more than is actually delivered, its concluding thoughts on the effectiveness and potential of theatre as an element of the development process being brief and lame. It is not always factually accurate, though this is understand- able in a work which tries to cover so much material, a good deal of it inevitably at second hand. Nevertheless, it is a useful work of reference for anyone interested in the use of theatre in educational and developmental contexts in the third world, not least because of its exhaustive bibliography.

Brian Crow Department of Drama and Theatre Arts, The University of Birmingham

Association of Commonwealth Universities (1990). Commonwealth Universities Yearbook. London: ACU (John Foster House, 36 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPF). 4 vols (single volumes not sold separately), cased. 3168 pp. s 102.00 Flexocover.

At a time when universities have of necessity to examine every expenditure from the point of view of'value for money', let it be said at once that expensive though it may appear to be, this 4 volume compendium of over 3,000 pages of authoritatively up-dated information represents an excellent investment. The editor, Miss E.A. Archer, is to be congratulated for maintaining the high standards associated with this remarkable production.

It deals with the university institutions of the countries of the British Common- wealth of Nations but by the time one has passed from Australia to Zimbabwe via Brunei Darussalam, Guyana, Mauritius and Papua New Guinea, not forgetting the large systems of Britain, Canada, India, Nigeria and Pakistan, it is realised that the ACU covers a significant part of the university world. It is all the more valuable in that because of the untiring work of Registrars the world over it is updated annually. The librarian seeking full world university coverage would also have to purchase American Universities and Colleges (13th Edn., 1987) (Walter de Gruyter in collaboration with the American Council on Education, Washington DC) and International Handbook of Universities and Other Institutions of Higher Education

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(1 lth Edn., 1989) which covers countries not in the British Commonwealth nor in the USA (Stockton Press, New York and London for the International Association of Universities). The American publication and that of the IAU include non- university teaching and research in Commonwealth countries there is clearly a need for a parallel publication. Meanwhile the world of scholarship is grateful to the ACU, the world's oldest world scholarship throughout this remarkable annual publication.

A typical country entry in the Commonwealth Universities Yearbook provides a map with the universities marked, a general account of the particular system, its history, governance, structure and finance followed by a directory of the subjects offered in that system. Then there is a detailed entry for each university with all staff listed by departments together with general information about admissions, degree programmes, research centres and overall statistics. Academic travellers seeking to get maximum benefit from their visits to universities in the British Commonwealth are advised that a session with the Yearbook is as essential as ensuring that visas and passports are in order.

Volume 1 covers Australia to Brunei Darussalam, Volume 2 runs from Canada to Hong Kong and Volume 3 India to Zimbabwe. Volume 4 has appendices on the ACU itself, on scholarships and fellowships and a range of related matters, together with a general index covering institutions, topics and subjects of study as well as a comprehensive index of the thousands of names of academic and administrative staff appearing in the first three volumes.

No reputable academic library within or without the British Commonwealth should fail to purchase this essential reference tool.

Alec Ross Lancaster University

Leon Hurwitz (1990). The Free Circulation of Physicians Within The European Community. Aldernhot: Grower. 132 pp. s 29.50 Hardback.

The UK government initiated a major reform of staffing within National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in 1987 under the title of 'Achieving a Balance'. The equilibrium in question was that between the consultant posts available and the number of junior hospital doctors in training. Since the inception of the NHS there has always been an excess of trainees for consultant posts. In earlier days many who failed to make the grade in the popular specialties of internal medicine and surgery sought alternative careers in less popular specialties and General Practice. The last decade has, however, seen considerable tightening up of training requirements in all walks of medical life, nowhere more so than in General Practice which rightly regards itself as an equal partner and not a haven for those who have apparently failed in hospital life. The number of hospital shortfall may legitimately be made up

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by the employment of Visiting Registrars. The difference between visitors and the NHS destined Career Registrar is purely one of the right to permanent residence in the UK. Therefore, the UK graduate intent on a career in hospital practice faces competition for a dwindling number of Career Registrars from his British peers and from any foreign graduate with a recognised degree and the right to settle permanently in this country including those who qualified within the European Community (EC).

Dr. Leon Hurwitz has produced a detailed and scholarly account of the development of free circulation of doctors within the EC, an organisation perceived originally as an economic community but increasingly as an integrated society. The barriers to free movement of doctors were considerable, some institutional, related to training and accreditation, but others mundane like language difficulties. It is worth reflecting on the strong tradition of training and practice in Europe by British doctors in the 16th and 17th Centuries when a common language, Latin, overcame the communication difficulties of more recent times. Many of the institutional barriers have been overcome by the mutual recognition of both undergraduate and postgraduate training. Unfortunately this liberal attitude appears to have resulted in some lax verification procedures for the migrant doctor which could invite deception. Movement of doctors between countries in Europe is still relatively small in volume but is likely to grow. It is seen most frequently among young doctors in the training grades and those in specialties rather than General Practice. The motivation is more frequently financial than communal and herein lies the possible problem for the medical profession in this country.

Britain has traditionally adjusted the production of medical graduates to match the perceived need for doctors, and now intends to plan manpower supply for individual branches of the profession. In some European countries, however, there is virtually no limit on the number of students who may enrol for a university course in medicine. There is, as a result, a substantial over-supply of doctors by universities within the EC. The problem is to be seen even at specialist level where Belgium is reported to produce 2.5 surgeons for every potential vacancy. At an anecdotal level one migrant doctor suggested that half the General Practitioners in Belgium saw only fourteen patients each week, a practice too small to sustain professional skills to say nothing of providing a viable income. It is not surprising, therefore, that many of the 140 migrant doctors in Hurwitz's study encountered resentment from indigenous members of their profession. The severe financial difficulties that have driven many of these doctors to travel will certainly cause them to look again at the NHS with some interest. If this migration is to be achieved harmoniously within the EC then considerable effort must be made in order to prevent an overproduction of doctors in the EC member states.

B. L. Pentecost Dean of Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education, The University of Birmingham

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Christian Calude, Dumitru Chitoran and Mircea Malitza (eds.) (1989). New Information Technologies in Higher Education. Bucharest: European Centre for Higher Education. 339 pp. NP.

This UNESCO publication is made up of over 25 articles from a variety of international contributors. The majority of the articles are from contributors in Western Europe with the second largest group coming from Eastern Europe. Surprisingly there are three contributors from North America even though the sub-title of the book refers to the introduction of new information technologies in the 'Europe Region'.

The articles are presented under five broad chapter headings dealing respectively with: the educational process (learning theories, artificial intelligence, cognitive science); strategies (including some useful descriptive accounts); teaching and research (including specific case studies in medicine, science, engineering and statistics); problems with technology; management.

The articles vary enormously in style and content. Patrick Suffer presents an excellent account of computers at Standford University which deals with the ethernet installations and the variety of uses made of computers by the different schools of the University. In particular he considers how courses on computing skills are delivered and is also able to contrast the uptake of students on a computer based logic course and a conventional logic course. The computer course is more than five times as popular as the lecture course! However, the article, like many others in the book, is somewhat superficial and descriptive of hardware, software systems and areas of applications.

In contrast to these descriptive accounts there are review articles on artificial intelligence and theories of knowledge. While they are interesting in themselves they seem to relate in only a peripheral way to the title of the book.

The chapter dealing with teaching and research is perhaps the most interesting collection of articles. Here we encounter a realistic assessment by Ingrain of how useful the computer currently is in medical education (as opposed to how useful it might be if its true potential were to be realised.) H.A. Verback, from Holland, presents a lucid article on computer aided similarities of patients. The article is particularly interesting in that Verback has taken the trouble to identify parallel applications outside of medicine and this article will probably be of interest to the majority of readers.

The problem with the articles in this book are that they are variable in depth of study and length. The shorter, more superficial accounts are not particularly informative for the kind of person likely to use this publication. However, the extended accounts of specific applications are interesting and useful.

G. D. Moss School of Education, University of Wales, College of Cardiff