Description
Book SynopsisScotland’s islands are diverse, resourceful and singularly iconic in national and global imaginations of places «apart» yet readily reached. This collection of essays offers a fascinating commentary on Scotland’s island communities that celebrates their histories, cultures and economies in general terms. Recognising a complex geography of distinct regions and island spaces, the collection speaks to broader themes of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, narratives of place and people, the ideas and policies of island and regional distinctiveness, as well as particular examinations of literature, language, migration, land reform, and industry. With a view to placing ideas and expressions of islandness within a lived reality of island life and scholarship, the collection provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the value of continued and expanding research commentaries on Scotland’s islands for both a Scottish and an international readership.
This book should instantly appeal to scholars of Island Studies, Scottish Studies, and Regional Studies of northern and peripheral Europe. Readers with particular interests in the sociology and history of Scottish rural and northern Atlantic communities, the cultural histories and economies of remote and island places, and the pressing socioeconomic agenda of small island sustainability, community building and resilience should also find the collection offers current commentaries on these broad themes illustrated with local island examples and contingencies.
Trade Review«This remarkable volume focuses on Scotland’s inhabited islands. Experienced editors and contributors explore very timely issues for small island communities, such as the role of cultural capital or strategies for future sustainability. As well as the interrelationship between the islands and the mainland, the volume is outward-looking, taking account of Nordic and Atlantic neighbours. The framing of islandness that occurs in this volume is highly significant as there is strong emphasis on new ways of seeing and imagining islands and island communities. This fascinating interdisciplinary volume is highly relevant for government bodies, academics, island communities, policymakers and practitioners.» (Prof. Máiréad Nic Craith MRIA, Chair of Cultural Heritage and Anthropological Studies Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh)
Table of ContentsContents: Kathryn A. Burnett, Ray Burnett/Mike Danson: Scotland and Islandness: Explorations in Community, Economy and Culture – Ray Burnett: Little Islands on the Edge of the Ocean – Hugh Cheape: Cha ghabhadh na b’ fheàrr fhaighinn («It couldn’t be better»). Gaelic Perspectives on Island Cultural Heritage in Scotland’s Hebrides – Andrew Jennings: «Da Norn is lang gien, but hit’s left a waageng»: The Distinctiveness of Shetland Cultural Identity – Kathryn A. Burnett/Lynda Harling Stalker: Scotland’s Islands and Cultural Work: The «Specialness» of Place – Mike Danson: Regional and Island Economies of Peripheries and Margins: «Nordic and Celtic» Comparisons – Rosie Alexander: Young People, Out-migration and Scottish Islands: Surveying the Landscape – Calum MacLeod: Community Land Ownership and Sustaining Scotland’s Islands: Lessons from the Western Isles – Mike Danson/Kathryn A. Burnett: Margins of Resilience, Sustainability and Success: Island Enterprise and Entrepreneurship – Francesco Sindico/Nicola Crook: The Islands (Scotland) Act: Island Proofing through Legislation – James Oliver: Islandness: Articulating and Emplacing Relationality.
