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Book reviews 429

peripheral regions in the Balkans and theBaltic). That is why they ask for a reassessmentof the EU structural and cohesion policies,which can effectively bring about regionalconvergence and cohesion.

A similar argument is also put forward by

Schn and Pelster, in their attempt to mapthe socio-economic disparities and poten-tials of integration in SEE. They argue thatthe EU integration process has reinforceddisparities between and within (Central and)Southeast European countries. The gap isnot only represented by a core-periphery pat-tern at the European scale, but also at lowerscales: between new and non-EU membercountries and between capital city regionsand the rest of a country. Their conclusion

is therefore not particularly encouraging forthe SEE, as growing disparities and weakinternal integration run the risk to further frag-ment this region.

Among the structural problems whichpenalize the SEE, the weak institutional frame-work and the lack of an adequate transportinfrastructure attract the attention of twospecific chapters. Pln Kovcs analyses therelationship between public administrationand regional development in Eastern Europeand concludes that despite an initial decentral-ization trend, we witness a dangerous recen-tralization process in local and regionaladministrative capacities today, which canendanger the stimulus for further regionalintegration in the area. Pitsiavas study isboth an overview of the present transportinfrastructure in the SEE and a discussionof the strategic priorities for future develop-ment, based on the assumption that transportinfrastructure and regional development aremutually constituted.

The relative underdevelopment of SEEhas also been explained in relation to the lack ofForeign Direct Investment (FDI). Kalogeressisand Labrianidis, however, question the idea,largely shared among policy-makers, that FDIcan be a sort of panacea, as sustained growthcannot rely solely on external factors, but alsorequires endogenous human, technologicaland institutional resources.

Among the last three remaining chapters,two focus on specific case studies (Serbia-Montenegro and Central Macedonia) andone on the typology of settlements in theSEE. Written before the independence ofMontenegro, the chapter by Vujoevic high-

lights the difficulties that Serbia-Montenegrohas encountered during the last 15 years toadopt measures of a sustainable spatial devel-opment and lists some practical stepswhich can be taken to reverse this process.Quite a different picture emerges from thestudy of Foutakis and Thoidou on CentralMacedonia, one of the richest regions of theSEE. Relying on the Delphi method (a sort ofbrainstorming among selected experts) andthe SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunities and Threats), the authors offera methodologically interesting medium-termforecasting of the regions economic devel-opment. Finally, methodological issues are alsocentral in the chapter by Zavodnik Lamovekon the typology of settlements patterns inEurope. The author makes the case for a quali-tative study of settlement systems whichtakes into consideration the distribution ofbuilt structures, activities, infrastructure andother spatial factors. The study shows the ex-istence of common characteristics and prob-lems in the SEE area, regardless of nationalborders and socio-economic differencesacross countries.

Dense in information, the book can cer-tainly prove a useful resource for scholarsinterested in policy-making issues in SEE and,more broadly, Central and Eastern Europe.

Marco AntonsichUniversity of Birmingham

Gough, J., Eizenschitz, A.and McCulloch,A. 2005:Spaces of social exclusion.London:Routledge. 288 pp. 95/US$190 cloth,26.99/US$59.95 paper. ISBN: 978 0 41528088 4 cloth, 978 0 415 28089 1 paper.

In the context of the economic downturngripping the world economy, a book on socialexclusion would seem depressingly timely.

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Book reviews 431

picket lines, this book is a little like a veryextended copy of the Socialist Worker aparticularly shouty leftist tabloid that was aubiquitous feature of such events. Overall,therefore, while there is much to commendabout this book, I fear that its overblown

politicking will serve to limit its readershipto those already in full agreement with theauthors position.

Angus Cameron

University of Leicester

Hewamanne, S. 2007:Stitching identitiesin a free trade zone: gender and politics in

Sri Lanka. Philadelphia: University ofPennsylvania Press. 296 pp. US$59.95/39

cloth. ISBN: 978 0 8122 4045 0.

In South Asia, Sri Lanka was a forerunner inimplementing neoliberal economic policies in1977, which led to the setting up a free tradezone (FTZ) as early as 1978. Yet in com-parison to Bangladesh, for example (Kabeer,2000), there has been limited research onthe politics of Sri Lankan garment factoryworkers. Hewamanne seeks to fill the gapby looking at the ways in which migrant FTZ

garment workers create everyday politicalresponses to the economic opportunitiesand surrounding cultural discourses broughtabout by the setting up of FTZs. The focusis on young, unmarried women workers fromthe S inhala-Buddhist community. Theyare the main beneficiary group targeted by(Sinhala) politicians to find FTZ jobs in returnfor winning elections.

Hewamanne points to us the ways in whichthe quest for Sri Lankas development and

modernity is expressed through moral andcultural tropes of Sinhala-Buddhism. Many of

her respondents, which involved factory man-agers, parents, factory nurses, governmentofficials, NGO activists and women workers,hoped for a development and modernity withmoral reins intact (p. 13). She pays attentionto these cultural discourses because they notonly affect the shaping of womens sense of

self but also point to the space within whichtheir agency and negotiation of alternativeidentities in their everyday lives pan out.

The shop floor, boarding houses, formalparties, informal social outings, and villagehomes are the spaces for Hewamannes

critical interventions. Because she was par-ticularly fortunate to access and work withan established factory within the FTZ for aseven-month period during 2000 and to livein a boarding house, the book is ethnographic-ally rich with many illuminative illustrationsshowing how women workers creatively twistand subvert their (sometimes) exploitative,sexually fraught and socially stigmatized jobsand living environments. For example, withintheir work environments women workers

strain of class consciousness intertwined withreligion, caste, and gender consciousness.This made it possible for them to occasionallyshow maternal concern towards male super-visors who usually pushed them beyondlimits. Even if there was an oppositional classawareness and many moments of passive re-sistance, the women workers also saw theirability to be kind towards their supervisors asa way of earning goodkarma(spiritual merit).Similarly at other times, the women workers

would indulge in flirtatious behaviour withjunior officers on the shop floor because itwas a way of manipulating and cultivatinggeneral goodwill among workers and staff. Inthis sense she points to how women workershad rather different readings of middle-classnotions of sexual harassment. This differ-entiated understanding is also apparent in theways in which women workers said that theyenjoyed the catcalls they received from menwhen walking on the streets because they

were seen as a means of initiating group com-munication with the opposite sex so as to

figure out their potential (romantic) interest.In these respects the FTZ potentially offered

a liberating space where women workerswould develop oppositional consciousness,become desiring subjects and perform dis-respectability through the clothes theywore. Yet there is also attention paid to

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