{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.029716981132075472, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0009433962264150943, 'mean_word_length': 5.256637168141593, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Book Review: The changing geography of the United Kingdom; A United Kingdom? Economic, social and political geographies

chapters on the ‘newly emerging democracies’ of the Czech Republic and Russia (Mateju et al., Evans and Whitefield) show that, far from fading away, an identifiable class politics is emerging in these new polities. The major exception to this counter-orthodox case is Nieuwbeerta and De Graaf’s 20-nation comparative chapter, which both presents the case for the orthodoxy and also employs a traditional two-class, two-party bloc (left and right) division. Ironically, however, given the weight of Evans’ critique in the introductory chapter, this analytical strategy seems highly questionable! Despite the generally impressive quality of the contributions, there are some weaknesses. Not least among them is the book’s ‘macrogeography’: it is overwhelmingly North American/north European. In addition, social and political geographers will look in vain here for discussions of the social (and place-based) construction of class (relegated to a footnote). And (as the contributors would freely admit) the emphasis is very much on demonstrating rather than explaining the continued importance of class. And yet, given the prevalence of the dealignment orthodoxy, that demonstration alone is a useful enterprise: explanation is the next step. But the overall standard is extremely high. There is an impressive degree of consistency and coherence across the chapters. This is an extremely valuable contribution to the debate. No elections specialist should be without a copy, and it provides an important benchmark (both substantive and methodological) for future analyses. It is also of value for a wider readership interested in questions of class and class politics. Though the level of methodological sophistication can be intimidating for the noninitiated, the overall message is important and it is worth persevering to get there. Several of the chapters will be appearing on my student reading lists next year! This is an important book: Geoff Evans and his contributors are to be congratulated.