Nationalism,party political discourse and Scottish independence: comparing discursive visions of Scotland's constitutional status

This article critically examines the predominant narratives which emanated from party political discourse in relation to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Utilising a methodological approach centring on political discourse analysis (Fairclough and Fairclough 2012), this paper analyses party manifestos and constitutional policy documents produced by the three largest political parties represented in the Scottish Parliament, namely, the pro‐independence Scottish National Party, and two pro‐union parties, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. The emergent discourse of each party is interrogated by drawing upon pertinent theoretical concepts from previous academic analyses of Scottish nationalism, with particular attention given to those which have deployed modernist and ethnosymbolist theoretical approaches when analysing the Scottish context. This facilitates a critical reflection on the contrasting and nuanced narratives of the Scottish nation's past and future espoused by each political party vis‐à‐vis modernist and ethnosymbolist theory, illustrating the ways in which contrasting theorisations of nationalism are empirically tangible within political discourse and are thus not simply theoretical abstractions.     

Making Sense of the Scottish Community Energy Sector – An Organising Typology

The community energy sector is widely understood to be a pluralistic sector, encompassing a broad range of aims, motivations, and practices. This heterogeneity is, however, still not very well understood. Dominant analytical frameworks in the study of energy geographies offer little in the way of exploring the diversity of motivations, visions, and social relations that are present within the community energy sector, nor their causes or consequences. Drawing on the notion of ‘critical pluralism’, this paper aims to highlight the diverse range of sociotechnical configurations that make up this sector in Scotland, and begins to discuss some potential causes and consequences. To do so, it presents a novel community energy typology, based on an analysis of technical and social dimensions of 367 projects in Scotland. This shows that whilst the Scottish community energy sector contains a broad range of motivations, technologies, and social practices, the sector has become dominated by groups for whom energy generation is a means to achieve local socio-economic development. The paper discusses the community-level and policy drivers that may have contributed to this. It also discusses how we can begin to understand a diverse sector’s ability to affect the wider structures in which it operates.     

Cultural participation in Europe: shared problem or shared problematisation?

Europe has a ‘problem’; it is becoming a ‘less cultural continent’ as fewer Europeans are ‘engaging in cultural activities’. This conclusion has been reached due to the findings of the latest cross national cultural participation survey. This paper questions the existence of this ‘problem’ and instead suggests that there is a shared problematisation across Europe sustained by common discursive archaeology that employs various discursive strands in relation to a dominant institutional discourse. The argument is that the ‘problem’ of ‘non-participation’ legitimates a ‘solution’ that predates its emergence: the state subsidy of arts organisations. The paper recaps the comparable problematisations that the researchers have previously identified in the policy texts of their respective countries. It progresses to consider three distinct but interwoven discursive strands upon which the problem representation in both countries, and potentially across Europe, appears to rely.     

Sorcery and Warfare in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea

Sorcery and warfare are closely interrelated in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. In contrast to other areas of the Highlands, sorcery in large parts of the Eastern Highlands is considered to be an exclusively male domain, and violent retribution for deaths attributed to sorcery is primarily directed against other communities. Thus, sorcery accusations have the tendency to escalate to large‐scale inter‐group warfare, often causing additional casualties. Sorcery beliefs have undergone changes during the colonial and postcolonial era, with new forms of sorcery proliferating, and the zones of safety from sorcery shrinking, due to demographic and economic changes. Sorcery accusations were triggers for the resumption of warfare during the late 1970s and 1980s, and they remain pertinent to outbreaks of hostilities today. In fact, the majority of armed conflicts between 1975 and 2006 among a sample of Fore, Auyana, and Tairora communities in the Okapa and Obura‐Wonenara districts of the Eastern Highlands Province are connected to sorcery beliefs and sorcery accusations. These sorcery accusations are the result of uneven economic development and failure to deliver basic social services. When violence is threatened, local leaders try to mediate the hostility, but the state seems unable to offer alternatives for the peaceful settlement of conflicts.     

Introduction

Summary

The Introduction sets the contributions to this special issue in the context of existing scholarship on Dugald Stewart. The main points are the great advance in our understanding of Stewart's intellectual development, his complicated relationship to his predecessors and contemporaries in Scottish philosophy, and his important role in the European republic of letters.     

New challenges for old commons: The role of historical common land in contemporary rural spaces

In Scotland, as elsewhere in Western Europe, many examples of historical common land have endured to the present day, but are under major pressure from the economic restructuring, socio-cultural recomposition and changing policy context that characterise contemporary rural change. For the crofting common grazings of Scotland, two particular challenges have arisen in the form of: (1) the growing difficulty of gaining sufficient livelihood contributions from traditional agriculturally-based activities; and (2) the increasing heterogeneity of rights-holders. This paper elaborates the findings of a recent survey, which sought to identify the main implications of these challenges for common grazings use and governance. An overall decline in levels of use of common grazings was identified, as well as decreasing involvement and investment in associated local institutions. This informs a discussion of the factors shaping the role of historical common land in contemporary rural spaces, an area neglected in the common property literature.     

William speirs bruce,the ben nevis observatory,and antarctic meteorology

Following his participation in an expedition to the Weddell Sea (1892–1893), William Speirs Bruce determined to undertake further polar research and sought training and experience in such techniques and methodologies as might prove useful to him in securing opportunities to participate in future expeditions. During 1895–1896 he worked at the Ben Nevis Observatory gaining experience of meteorological research. The experience he gained in the design and operation of an observatory in a harsh environment he was later to apply when he established an observatory on Laurie Island, South Orkneys. This paper draws on a recently discovered archival source (Swinney (2001) to re‐examine Brace's involvement with the Ben Nevis Observatory.     

Educational

EUROPE

Flight into Portugal. By R. Bodley. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. xi+224. London : Jarrolds Ltd., 1941. Price 16s.

Heart of Spain. By G. G. King. Illustrated. 10×7. Pp. 179. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1941. Price $3.00.

Snowdonia through the Lens. By W. A. Poucher. Illustrated. Fcap. fol. Pp. 124. London : Chapman &; Hall Ltd., 1941. Price 18s.

The Land of Britain. Edited by L. D. Stamp. London : Geographical Publications, 1941. Price 1s. 6d each.

At Slieve Gullion's Foot. By W. J. Murphy. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp.115. 1940. Price 3s. 6d.

On Our Hill. By Annette Barlee. Illustrated. Small 4to. Pp. 100. Price 3s. 6d. Dundalgan Press, Dundalk.

English Woodland. By John Rodgers. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. xii+132. London : Batsford, 1942. Price 10s. 6d.

The Nazi New Order in Poland. By Jon Evans. Demy 8vo. Pp.184. London : Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1941. Price 6s.

Russia in Flux. By Sir John Maynard. Demy 8vo. Pp. 301. London : Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1941. Price 7s. 6d.

AMERICA

Ports of Piscataqua. By W. S. Saltonstall. Illustrated. 11×7#fr1/2>. Pp. viii+244. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1941. Price 20s.

Cape Horn. By F. Riesenberg. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 487. London : Robert Hale Ltd., 1941. Price 18s.

ASIA

Dawn Watch in China. By Joy Homer. Demy 8vo. Pp. 288. London : Collins Ltd., 1941. Price 12s. 6d.

Soviet Asia : Progress and Problems. By E. S. Bates. Map. Demy 8vo. Pp.191. London : Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1942. Price 8s. 6d.

GENERAL

After C.T. Studd. By N. Grubb. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp.185. London : R.T.S., 1941. Price 3s. 6d.

Economic Geography. By C. F. Jones. Illustrated. Crown fcap. Pp. xxii+626. New York : The Macmillan Company Ltd., 1941. Price $4.25.

Geography and World Power. By J. Fairgrieve. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 376. London : Univ. of London Press, 1941. Price 7s. 6d.

The Earth and its Resources. By Finch, Trewartha, and Shearer. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 634. New York and London: M'Graw‐Hill Book Co. Price 17s.

Wanderings with a Shotgun. By Sir Edward Durand. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 184. London : Jarrolds Ltd., 1942. Price 16s.

British Mountaineers. By F. S. Smythe. Illustrated. 9×6#fr1/2>. Pp.48. London : Collins Ltd. Price 4s. 6d.     

Metamorphic and basin fluids in quartz–carbonate–sulphide veins in the SW Scottish Highlands: a stable isotope and fluid inclusion study

Metalliferous (Fe–Cu–Pb–Zn) quartz–carbonate–sulphide veins cut greenschist to epidote–amphibolite facies metamorphic rocks of the Dalradian, SW Scottish Highlands, with NE–SW to NW–SE trends, approximately parallel or perpendicular to regional structures. Early quartz was followed by pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena, barite, late dolomite–ankerite and clays. Both quartz–sulphide and carbonate vein mineralisation is associated with brecciation, indicating rapid release of fluid overpressure and hydraulic fracturing. Two distinct mineralising fluids were identified from fluid inclusion and stable isotope studies. High temperature (>350°C) quartz‐precipitating fluids were moderately saline (4.0–12.7 wt.% NaCl equivalent) with low (approximately 0.05). Quartz δ¹⁸O (+11.7 to +16.5‰) and sulphide δ³⁴S (?13.6 to ?1.1‰) indicate isotopic equilibrium with host metasediments (rock buffering) and a local metasedimentary source of sulphur. Later, low‐temperature (T_H = 120–200°C) fluids, probably associated with secondary carbonate, barite and clay formation, were also moderately saline (3.8–9.1 wt.% NaCl equivalent), but were strongly enriched in ¹⁸O relative to host Dalradian lithologies, as indicated by secondary dolomite–ankerite (δ¹⁸O = +17.0 to +29.0‰, δ¹³C = ?1.0 to ?3.0‰). Compositions of carbonate–forming fluids were externally buffered. The veins record the fluid–rock interaction history of metamorphic host rocks during cooling, uplift and later extension. Early vein quartz precipitated under retrograde greenschist facies conditions from fluids probably derived by syn‐metamorphic dehydration of deeper, higher‐grade rocks during uplift and cooling of the Caledonian metamorphic complex. Veins are similar to those of mesothermal veins in younger Phanerozoic metamorphic belts, but are rare in the Scottish Dalradian. Early quartz veins were reactivated by deep penetration of low‐temperature basin fluids that precipitated carbonate and clays in veins and adjacent Dalradian metasediments throughout the SW Highlands, probably in the Permo‐Carboniferous. This event is consistent with paragenetically ambiguous barite with δ³⁴S characteristic of late Palaeozoic basinal brines.     

Scotland,Atlantic slavery and the Scottish National Party: From colonised to coloniser in the political imagination

Over the last three decades, a major shift has taken place in Scottish nationalist understandings of Scotland's colonial past. During the second half of the twentieth century, independence supporters viewed Scotland's relationship with England in colonial terms. Since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999, nationalists have increasingly recognised Scots' role in Atlantic slavery. This paper explores this change within the Scottish National Party (SNP) using archival sources, published material and Scottish Parliamentary records. It demonstrates that a maturing historiography has drawn attention to Scotland's slavery past. History has become politically relevant in transatlantic deliberations over racial injustice, which have grown in intensity since the international Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. SNP ministers and parliamentarians have responded to this context by incorporating addressing Scotland's role in Atlantic slavery within a case for independence that is styled as progressive and contrasts with the more recalcitrant attitudes, which predominate at UK level.