The Regrettable Necessity of Contingent Valuation

Ordinary markets allow parties, not the state, to value property and projects. But they do not account for subjective value in such traditional contexts as condemnation. An awareness of these nonmarket values helps overcome any categorical opposition to the use of the contingent valuation method (CVM) to value cultural and environmental resources. But accurate CVM should measure all values, positive or negative, tononowners; it should apply generally to any substitute projects; and it should seek to account for diminishing marginal value of additional resource units. CVM should be used only to aggregate nonmarket preferences, not to skew the political debate to cultural or environmental objectives.     

Publishing about philanthropy

The number of books and journals published about philanthropy is growing. This article examines that growth, looks at which book and journal publishers are most active in the field, and explores the publishing environment. Philanthropy's interdisciplinary nature raises questions about audience and markets, as well as authors and publishers.     

Peer Observation of Teaching & Staff Development

Peer Observation of Teaching (POT) is a little used way of stimulating reflection on and improvement of teaching. It is an unusual form of staff development [SD] that emphasises continuous processes and peer feedback rather than course attendance. This paper describes the principles and practice of POT, including potential benefits and drawbacks and discusses the conditions necessary for it to flourish in departments and institutions. It argues that POT overcomes the problem of staff ownership'of SD by connecting with peer culture but may be promoted, implemented and supported by SD functions linked to personnel departments. Thus SD functions may play a more substantial role in their organisations'development than hitherto.     

Book reviews

^cAbd al‐Malik b. Habib. Kitāb al‐Ta'rij (La historia). Edición y estudio por Jorge Aguadé. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas & Instituto de Cooperación con el Mundo Arabe, 1991 (Fuentes Arabico‐Hispanas, 1). 163 + 224 pp. [Arabic title: Kltāb al‐Ta'tikh]

Kedar, Benjamin Z., ed. The Horns of Hattin. Jerusalem and London: Yad Izhak Ben‐Zvi, Israel Exploration Society and Variorum 1992. 368 pp., 12 plates; $74.75 (cloth).

Köprülü, Mehmed Fuad. The Seljuks of Anatolia: Their History and Culture According to Local Muslim Sources. Translated and edited by Gary Leiser. Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1992. xi +101 pp., $22.00 (cloth).

Cameron, Averil and Conrad, Lawrence I., eds. The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East: Problems in the Literary Source Material (Papers in the First Workshop on Late Antiquity and Early Islam). Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1992. xiv + 428pp., 12 plates; $29.25 (cloth).

Vereno, Ingolf. Studien zum ältesten alchemistischen Schrifttum. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1992 (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, 155). 414pp.

Tolan, John. Petrus Alfonsi and his Medieval Readers. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1993. xv + 288pp., $34.95 (cloth), $16.95 (paper).

Lassner, Jacob. Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries of Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1994. 281 pp., $19.95 (paper), $49.95 (cloth).

Menocal, María Rosa. Shards of Love: Exile and the Origins of the Lyric. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1994. xv + 295pp., $34.95 (cloth), $14.95 (paper).

Massignon, Louis. The Passion of al‐Hallāj, Mystic and Martyr of Islam. Translated and edited by Herbert Mason. Abridged edition, Bollingen Series XCVIII. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. xxxi + 293pp.

Viguera Molins, Maria Jesús. El Islam en Aragón. Saragossa: Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada, 1995 (Colección “Mariano de Pano y Ruata”, 9), 174 pp., 182 ills. in colour, maps, diagrams, charts etc No price stated.