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Lola Romanucci-Ross: Conflict, Violence and Morality in a Mexican Village (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986, £9.25). Pp. ix + 222.

Lombard is right in saying that the strength of the book lies in the richness of the field work and it is clear that Savage was a sensitive and perceptive researcher, but one wonders at the wisdom of publishing the work so long after it was carried out. As will be obvious after what has already been said in this review, there is an underlying assumption of modernisation theory, which after two decades of dependency, modes of production, world systems etc. is difficult to digest. The traditional anthropological approach of isolating a small group, which produced valuable insights into interpersonal relations in the 1950s and 1960s, is weakened by the subsequent emphasis on wider social structure, social formations and political environment. In the end one is left asking what real value does this research have for understanding industrial relations or development in Colombia today? Savage's own conclusions have become part of accepted wisdom by sociologists and social anthropologists, though not apparently by management schools, and therefore do not raise undue excitement today. Lombard's attempt to generalise by introducing broad factors of change are too general to be of any great help. The work group's readiness for change, for instance, is such a vacuous 'factor'. Surely what is important is what stimulates that readiness, if indeed such a state can be clearly identified for a group. The book's main value would seem to lie in its educational use in management schools where it originated. Lombard says that although Savage's ideas have been around in these schools for some time, they have never really received much support. If this is the case and the automaton-type theories of workers as described by Savage and Lombard are still dominant then a book like Sons of the Machine could well make an enlightening contribution to management courses.