‘They shut them out the road’: Migration,mental health and the Scottish highlands

There is a small literature tackling migration and mental health, but less is said about the migration of people with mental health problems (incipient or diagnosed). The present paper considers what might be claimed about such migration, particularly when entailing movement into rural and remote areas where lack of anonymity, high social visibility and certain differences in how ‘locals’ and ‘incomers’ are treated may have serious consequences for those displaying psychological and behavioural differences. Drawing upon qualitative evidence from in‐depth interviewing of in‐migrants with mental health problems living in the Scottish Highlands, light is thrown on the connections between their problems and the decision to relocate to this predominantly rural region. Attention also focuses on dissonances between expectations regarding their new situation and their actual experiences of it in terms of both natural landscapes and, more importantly here, social milieux. There are further implications for changing regional attitudes towards mental health, suggesting certain impacts that arise not just from the in‐migration of people themselves who have mental health problems, but also from the ideas and practices that they often carry with them.     

THE ECONOMIC LAW OF MARKET AREAS: A FURTHER DISCUSSION*

ABSTRACT. The Economic Law of Market Areas, so named by Fetter, is concerned with the division of a territory between two competing centers. It is argued that this Law can be conveniently examined in terms of six cases, each of which is specified by a combination of differentials in freight rates and prices at the two centers. The locational significance of each case is considered, along with the form and dimensions of the market-area boundary between the two centers. Three of the cases are each shown to subsume a special case. It is further shown that for any case except one, a reversal of the differentials between the two centers, while resulting in a symmetrically-equivalent outcome, requires a different (and usually substantial) respecification of the case.     

Rural mental health and social geographies of caring

This paper contributes to an emerging geographical literature on the social geographies of caring. Drawing on recently undertaken empirical work in the Scottish Highlands, personal accounts about the provision of both formal and informal care for people with mental health problems are evaluated. The notion of ‘community care’ is critiqued, as too are claims about how rural and remote rural locations engender particular configurations of caring roles, practices and relations. It is shown that geographical distance, social proximity, stoic cultures and rural gossip networks all have a part to play in how caring occurs in such places. The paper concludes by suggesting areas of future research.     

Book reviews

Frontiers

The Predicament of Englishness

The English: a portrait of a people. Jeremy Paxman. Pp. ix + 309. London: Penguin, 1999. Price £7.99 (pbk), ISBN 0 14 026723 9.

New Works in Geography

Introducing Human Geographies. Edited by Paul Cloke, Philip Crang & Mark Goodwin. Pp. 16 + 368. London: Arnold, 1999. Price £19.99 (pbk), ISBN 0 340 69193 X; £50.00 (hbk), ISBN 0 340 69192 1.

Cities of Difference. Edited by Ruth Fincher & Jane. M. Jacob. Pp. 322. New York: Guildford Press, 1988. Price £16.95 (pbk), ISBN 1 57230 310 7.

Urban Geography. Tim Hall, Pp. 180. London: Routledge, 1998. Price £35.00 (hbk), ISBN 0 415 14084.

Focus on Scotland

Industrial Nation: Work, Culture and Society in Scotland, 1800‐present. William W. Knox. Pp. 368. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999. £14.99 (pbk), ISBN 0 7486 1085 5; £45.00 (hbk), ISBN 0 7486 1084 7.     

The pens of the defeated: John Hewitt,Sam Thompson and the Northern Ireland Labour Party

Telescoping the political lives and work of Sam Thompson and John Hewitt, this article demonstrates the importance of the Labour movement on both Belfast-born Protestant writers and how this inculcated a socialist conviction quite separate and antagonistic to Ulster unionism. Referencing Thompson's unpublished, largely unknown plays as well as newspapers and his trio of performed works, the article illuminates his public impact as well as the significance of the play Over the Bridge (1960). Hewitt's early political activities and regionalist outlook are explored, as is the controversy surrounding his 1957 move to Coventry. The underestimated importance of a class perspective within Northern Protestantism is addressed, the article arguing that questions of national identity are secondary to the writers' class and internationalist politics. With continuing resonance, literature and writing itself are shown as intrinsic to the Northern Ireland Labour Party, with which both were associated, fuelling resistance to both unionism and Irish nationalism.     

INCOMES,TRADE, AND THE BALANCE OF PAYMENTS WITHIN AN URBAN SYSTEM*

ABSTRACT Attention is initially focused on the principal characteristics of a hierarchical urban system. The structure of trade flows among the various levels of the hierarchy is outlined, and consideration is then given to nontrade flows, these comprising government transfers and capital movements, as well as the associated property-payment flows. An equilibrium model is presented which is concerned with income at each level of the hierarchy. The balance-of-payments implications of the model are explored, and there is a discussion of the manner in which a trade imbalance at a particular level can be sustained in equilibrium.