Is the luminosity distribution of field galaxies really flat ?

Recent observations of the galaxy population within rich clusters have found a characteristic luminosity distribution described by a flat (alpha = -1.0) Schechter function which exhibits an upturn at faint absolute magnitudes (B Mag = -18). Here we discuss whether such a form for the field luminosity distribution is ruled out by local and/or faint magnitude limited redshift surveys (MLRS). Our conclusions are that existing redshift surveys provide little constraints on the volume-density distribution of field galaxies faintwards of B Mag = -18. The local MLRS suffer from poor statistics over inhomogeneous volumes, while the faint MLRS are ambiguous because of the unknown nature of the faint blue excess'' and the normalization’’ problem. Adopting a functional form similar to that seen in rich clusters we find that the maximum allowable faint end slope, based on the Mt Stromlo-APM redshift survey, is $\alpha \approx -1.8$ faintwards of B Mag = -18.0 (Ho = 50 km/s/Mpc^{3}).