Planning the new industrial nation: Scotland 1931 to 1979

Despite the continuing strength of Unionist politics in Scotland, from the inter-war economic crisis onwards, there slowly emerged distinctive understanding of a Scottish industrial economy. Aided by administrative devolution, and from the 1940s by a UK-wide turn towards economic planning, a project aimed at a planned modernisation of Scottish industry gained increasing traction. This article focuses on the activities of the technocratic elements of the Scottish elite, the civil servants and academic economists who played a key role in conceptualising and quantifying the Scottish economy, and making and applying policy to develop the Scottish industrial nation between the 1930s and 1970s.     

Spatial Modelling in Decision Support for Land‐Use Planning: a Demonstration from the Lal Lal Catchment,Victoria, Australia

The outcomes of selected, contested development permit appraisals in a Victorian water catchment show that implications regarding the development status of other land parcels were not examined during negotiation and/or appeal. Given access to an adequate spatial data base, Geographical Information System (GIS) technology can be used to model such implications rapidly enough to be useful in decision support, thereby significantly widening the common ground that can be sought while seeking resolution to land‐use planning conflicts.     

Evaluating European Regional Innovation Strategies

In this paper we analyse the degree of achievement of the Regional Innovation Strategy goals. This is an European Union Commission policy oriented toward the promotion of regional Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy design through the involvement of regional stakeholders. We analyse two categories of objectives: those dealing with process participation and those dealing with behavioural change. Our results show that the overall achievement of the goals is meaningful: the former have been achieved in a larger extent than the latter ones. However, other aspects such as multidisciplinary, and the establishment of a monitoring and evaluation system have not been so fruitful.     

A Spectacular Eco‐Tour around the Historic Bloc: Theorising the Convergence of Biodiversity Conservation and Capitalist Expansion

Abstract: The simultaneous proliferation of protected areas for biodiversity conservation and neoliberal market expansion has sparked a growing body of work, which suggests that these are mutually reinforcing processes that reflect alliances between conservationist and capitalist agendas. Because this alliance is so counter intuitive to the ways in which biodiversity conservation is popularly understood, theoretical perspectives concerning these relationships have been slow in emerging. Drawing from Gramsci's ideas of hegemony and historic bloc, we propose a theoretical framework systematically to inform understandings and investigations of these transformations. We suggest that they are driven by the convergence of networks of interests, which work to resolve the apparent contradictions between demands for continued economic growth and growing concerns about what it portends for the future of our planet. These in turn rely on spectacular presentations of conservation interventions, conservation success stories, and their putative linkages to ecosystems and the global economy.     

Sixteenth‐Century English Geographers: Earth Scientists as an ‘Organic Intelligentsia’

Charting an Empire: Geography at the English Universities, 1580–1620. By Lesley B. Cormack (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997) xvi+281 pp. $68.00/£54.50 cloth, $23.95/£19.25 paper.