WORKING THE FABRIC: Resourcefulness, Belonging and Island Life in Scotland’s Harris Tweed Industry

Textile manufacturing, and within it Harris Tweed production, is as deeply ensconced into Scottish heritage as champagne is to French culture. Today, there are three Mills in Scotland that produce Harris Tweed (twill) fabric, which is then marketed worldwide for production of luxury clothing. The Harris Tweed industry, initially based exclusively on hand-made processes (dyeing, spinning, and weaving) was transformed in the mid-19th century into a more standardized process, still hand-crafted, and as impeccable as machine-made production methods. This led to the booming of demand for Harris Tweed, which essentially made that industry the base of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland’s economy through the 1970s. The decline of European textile industries that followed (Harris Tweed included) and the economic depression that ensued only proves how inextricably linked the local Scottish economy is to this unique type of craftsmanship. The Carloway Mill, one of the three remaining Mills, is under new leadership since 2005. The last ten years have proven critical for the Mill. Harris Tweed survived primarily because of its distinct traits and quality but also “because it is protected by an Act of Parliament limiting the use of the Orb trademark to hand woven tweeds made in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.” In addition to governmental intervention, the new leadership took a bold approach to solving the issue of declining demand for the luxurious fabric by catalyzing an internal product development process. In other words, an industry that has relied on the same type of fabric for the last two hundred years has been revitalized from within and with the launch of the new lighter version of Harris Tweed invented exclusively at Carloway Mill. It is at that Mill that the art of weaving Harris Tweed, the culture of the local craftsmen, and the innovation that comes with a 21st century perspective on textile functionality will all contribute to the legacy of the evolving local craftsmanship. The impact of this innovative product on the local community and its economy is of tremendous significance as it also marks a transformative period in which sustainability is what drives the locals’ survival: they either introduce more positive changes into a legacy process of textile production or they suffer the financial and social repercussions that stagnation entails.

For more than a century, Harris Tweed® has been recognised as one of the world’s most durable—as well as fashionable—fabrics, made using traditional skills and always from 100 per cent pure wool in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Harris Tweed Hebrides manufactures each metre of handwoven fabric in accordance with the Harris Tweed Act, maintaining the integrity and distinctive character of the fabric which is recognised globally as Harris Tweed, a sustainable brand 100 per cent.

The present paper examines the post modernist critiques on ethnographic research. The anthropological description of the way of people by means of field work is known as ethnography. Ethnographic field work is fundamental aspect of anthropology. Post modernist anthropology is challenging the unsound assumption and traditional anthropological methodologies used in ethnographic field research. Post modernist questioned the scientific nature of ethnographic research in which modernists (scientific ethnography) are more interested in searching for generalisation. According to Post modernists, the approach used in ethnographic field research is more close to humanistic than scientific. An attempt hereby will be made to understand the scientific and humanistic nature of ethnographic field research through the study of human culture. It also aims to examine the perspective, assumptions and methodologies used in ethnographic field research.

Ecological relations in historical times - an introduction, N. Roberts and R.A. Butlin. Part 1 Scotland: the Machair vegetation of South Uist and Barra in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland - its interacting ecological, geomorphic and historical dimensions, D.D. Gilbertson et al a lake-sediment record of changing land use intensity on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, J.A. Entwistle et al a Scottish broad - historical, stratigraphic and numerical studies associated with polleniferous deposits at Kilconquhar Loch, G. Whittington and K.J. Edwards a rising cloud of midges in the Scottish Highlands?, A. Roberts. Part 2 England and Wales: Medieval land use, agriculture and environmental change on Holy Island, Northumbria, K. Walsh et al a rough and cold country - farming and landscape changes in Northern Snowdonia since c.1600, M. Brayshay and A. Williams social, economic and environmental change in the fen and fen-edge region of East Cambridgeshire in the 19th century, R.A. Butlin woodland history and plant indicator species in North-East Yorkshire, England, R. Gulliver. Part 3 The North Atlantic region: Ancient Saami in Finnish Lapland and their impact on the forest vegetation, C. Carpelan and S. Hicks introductions, extinction or continuity? faunal change in the North Atlantic islands, J.P. Sadler and P. Skidmore by-pasing Ellis Island - insect immigration to North America, P. Buckland et al a question of Landnam - pollen, charcoal and insect studies on Papey, Eastern Iceland, P. Buckland et al. Part 4 North America and the Caribbean: ecological responses to ecosystem shock in the island Caribbean - the aftermath of Columbus, 1492-1992, D. Watts human impact on the wetlands of Belize, Central America, P. Furley et al invasion and transformation of California's valley grassland, a Mediterranean analogue system, M. Blumler. (Part contents)

In this study, I pursued to gain an in-depth understanding on vocational education and training (VET) of injecting drug users residing in rehabilitation in Kathmandu valley. Two rehabilitation centers that accommodate institutionalized injecting drug users were purposively selected for the study in which six participants voluntarily participated. An ethnographic narrative enquiry, which is the qualitative research methodology, was employed to gain insight into their lived experiences and perception towards VET. The themes that emerged from the findings were interspersed by focusing on a range of sociological theories. This study brings to the fore that injecting drug user has affirmative impression towards VET and understands the importance of VET but is not willing to study anymore. Participants’ perception understood earning money is more important than getting VET and they understood that it is too late to study and they are not able to study any more due to the use and abuse of drugs and their study habits have been destroyed by the drugs.

This chapter reviews the convergence between ethnographic and social network methods, as well as the benefits and challenges of ethnographic mixed methods social network analysis (MMSNA) research designs. After briefly discussing the shared history and principles of ethnographic and social network research, I argue that ethnographic MMSNA designs are especially potent for understanding how people experience the networks they are embedded in. I then discuss some challenges that are likely to arise whenever social network studies incorporate ethnographic fieldwork. These include tensions in researcher roles and ethical issues linked to the sensitivity of social network data. I show how these challenges can be overcome by referring to best practice in ethnographic research. I also provide unique, tentative evidence suggesting that long-term relationships established during fieldwork may not induce systematic biases in participants’ network responses, at least in terms of network size and composition. I demonstrate my various points by discussing an MMSNA case study of a primary school, and conclude with some guidelines for researchers wishing to employ ethnographic MMSNA research designs.

Of the 52 Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, 12 are separated from the main islands at high tide. Within these 12 sites, only one of which (St Kilda) has any human inhabitants, there are a further eight islands or groups of islands more than 2 km apart, so that within the Outer Hebrides, there are - for practical purposes - 20 separate offshore designated sites requiring survey, monitoring and management input. This presents challenges of resource allocation and logistics for the small team of conservation staff based within the two Outer Hebrides offices of Scottish Natural Heritage, Scotland’s statutory nature conservation agency. There are also challenges for the other agencies and managers involved in these sites, which in some cases allow the pooling of resources, but in others, lead to new sets of problems with conservation implications. These problems are discussed and reviewed with regard to future management and the obligations placed on Scottish Natural Heritage.

Vulnerability to climate change is a function of both exposure and sensitivity to the impacts of climate change and coping capacity, whether physical or human, to deal with those impacts. The coast is a dynamic environment where physical change is constant. Severe flooding and damage to land, property and coastal infrastructure in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland during January 2005 was caused by a highly destructive storm coupled with tidal surge and the cumulative impact of relative rising sea level. The impacts of the storm highlighted the vulnerability of coastal communities living on low-lying soft coasts and the need for an adaptive response in taking measures to protect them from the harmful effects of future storms. The purpose of this paper is to report on the changing approaches to coastal protection practices in the Outer Hebrides that have resulted from climate change adaptation research. The focus of the paper is on an area of intertidal sands between the islands of Benbecula and South Uist and the consequences of replacing an open span bridge with a rockfill causeway and the sea breaching a barrier island with the result of extensive coastal flooding experienced during the storm. CoastAdapt was a transnational project which aimed to develop adaptation strategies and tools to help people and authorities adopt measures in response to climate and environmental change. Using a participatory approach, a stepwise methodological approach to building local adaptive capacity was developed. In making recommendations for action in reducing the risk from flooding key measures arranged in terms of efficacy and affordability are listed in a hazard management matrix. These measures range from replacing a significant section of causeway with a bridge to inexpensive options such as dune management and improved flood warning. The process is transferable to a variety of coastal localities and situations and especially so given the need to balance the safeguarding of local coastal communities with agreement on cost effective and appropriate measures which address the growing impacts of climate change.

This article is based on ethnographic research with the East Timcrese community in Sydney, Austraiia, undertaken between 1998 and 2002. It considers the transnational dimensions to their practices of iong-distanoe nationaiism. Moving beyond a simpie homeland to refugee trajectory, the author takes the position that transnational oonnections and infiuenoes must be seen to be both located (that is, consumed and experienoed in place) and interconnected beyond the bounds of the group and its homeland. The article aims to map out some of the imaginative resouroes within the diasporio public sphere • which have contributed to the coilective imagination within the East Timorese community, in addition to mapping out the cultural products and symbolic production of the East Timorese public sphere, the article explores both the intercommunai and transnationai iinks entailed therein, and the impiications of these on the shape of East Timorese identity. This article explores the complex transnational dimensions and trajectories of East Timorese long-distance nationalism (Anderson 1998, p. 73)' and reflects on the implications of interconnections with outside groups and discourses. Based on four years of research with the East Timorese exile community in Sydney between 1998 and 2002 I begin by mapping some ofthe imaginative resources of long-distance nationalism which have contributed to the collective imagination of the East Timorese community in the diaspora to describe some of the primary content of what Appadurai (1996, pp. 21-22) and Werbner (1998) have called the diasporic public sphere.^ In addition to mapping the cultural products and symbolic production ofthe East Timorese

Ethnographic research has become a method of choice for many practitioner researchers and has attained increased status in response to a series of initiatives which have targeted it as a vehicle to enhance professional practice (the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge: CWDC, 2010; the Early Years Foundation Stage: DCSF, 2008a). Ethnographic researchers have been strident in their reflective accounts of the benefits of using both ethnographic instruments and critical reflection as a means to capture rich educational experience (Clark and Moss, 2001; Tricoglus, 2001). Few accounts of practitioner experiences of designing and conducting research have surfaced. Who better to describe the coal-face experience of doing ethnographic practitioner research than the practitioners themselves? This chapter attempts to address this issue and utilises the recent student experience of a family support worker, Carole, who completed a small-scale ethnographic study as part of her Foundation Degree in Early Years, to illustrate the key features of this approach.

Local Electronic Cultural Repositories: Who are the Users and What is the Impact?

Question: Is there a critical depth of burial by sand beyond which species and communities fail to recover, and does repeated incremental burial have a greater impact than a single large deposition? Location: The machair on the calcareous sand dunes on South Uist, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, UK. Methods: Eight turves were collected from each of four machair sub-community types. After acclimatization in an unheated polythene tunnel, they were buried with sterilized machair shell sand, either by one single burial to 5 cm or by five applications of 1 cm of sand at approximately seven-week intervals. Species response was recorded on five occasions. Results: Within machair sub-communities, burial by sand reduced the abundance (local rooted frequency) of plants more than it reduced species richness. Intermittent burial was more damaging than a single burial event. Those species with the highest pre-burial frequencies tended to dominate recovery in the sub-community as a whole. Species occurring ...

Abstract:Question: Is there a critical depth of burial by sand beyond which species and communities fail to recover, and does repeated incremental burial have a greater impact than a single large deposition?Location: The machair on the calcareous sand dunes on South Uist, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, UK.Methods: Eight turves were collected from each of four machair sub‐community types. After acclimatization in an unheated polythene tunnel, they were buried with sterilized machair shell sand, either by one single burial to 5 cm or by five applications of 1 cm of sand at approximately seven‐week intervals. Species response was recorded on five occasions.Results: Within machair sub‐communities, burial by sand reduced the abundance (local rooted frequency) of plants more than it reduced species richness. Intermittent burial was more damaging than a single burial event. Those species with the highest pre‐burial frequencies tended to dominate recovery in the sub‐community as a whole. Species occurring across all four sub‐community types exhibited varying responses to community burial between the differing types. Samples from slack sub‐communities had distinctly different response characteristics from those of foredunes and unploughed and three‐year fallow dune grassland.Conclusions: The perennial life‐form of many machair species has been evolutionarily selected for and dominates throughout the machair habitat. Account needs to be taken of competitive interaction between species in relation to burial response. The results of the investigation show that the hypotheses of Gilbertson et al. and Kent et al. on ‘machair stratification’ require refinement in that frequency of shallow burial can be as important as overall burial depth.

Introduction Capitalism is a production system established on the widening of commodity production. This means that it tries to transform everything possible into commodity forms and capital has an everlasting effort to succeed and render sustainable this transformation. Nowadays, what is happening in cultural production sphere indicates that capital has been expanded in this domain as well. Consequently, there is a widespread industry that mediates culture and posits it as a commodity. In order to understand this industry, it is necessary to comprehend the commodity production processes in it. This brings on an inevitable discussion on whether these cultural products and practices are commodities or not. In this study, it is discussed whether the cultural products and practices we consume on daily basis, such as music we listen; news, articles and books we read; television dramas and movies we watch, are commodities or not. The relationship between culture and commodity, shaped by the logic of capitalist production, is explored in the studies focusing on Marx's theoretical and conceptual set. The initial works related to cultural production were produced in the early 20th century by members of the Frankfurt School such as Walter Benjamin ([1936] 2010), Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer ([1947] 2002). In addition to these works, between the 1970s and 1990s, the issue was also discussed by British communication theorists such as Nicholas Garnham (1977; 1990), Graham Murdock and Peter Golding (1973), as well as by French scholar Bernard Miège (1979; 1989), from the perspective of political economy of communication. Nowadays, the subject is discussed in the recent studies of these theorists (Miège, 2011, Murdock, 2006; 2011, Garnham, 2000; 2011; Wayne, 2003) and in some other works (Louw, 2001; Mosco, 2009; Hesmondhalgh, 2011; Bolin, 2011). In this discussion, Dallas Smythe's thesis is important from several perspectives. Smythe (1977), a Canadian communication theorist who had a background of economist, broke the ground in the field with his influential thesis of "audience commodity". The thesis has become the main discussion axis related to the subject since its appearance in the late 1970s. It sparked a vivid and important debate between Smythe (1978), Murdock (1978), Bill Livant (1979; 1982), Sut Jhally (1982) and Eileen R. Meehan (1984). Smythe's audience commodity thesis continues to be the case today. Contemporary studies on the commodification processes in communication regularly make reference to Smythe's work, as is the case in the works of Christian Fuchs (2012; 2013; 2015), Fernando Bermejo (2009), William H. J. Hebblewhite (2012), Brice Nixon (2014), Brett Caraway (2011), Micky Lee (2011), Philip M Napoli (2003), Robert Prey (2012), Earn Fisher (2012), Jernej A. Prodnik (2012). It must be stressed that new technologies of communication have played an important role in the revival of the commodification discussion in the field given that activities of users in the Internet or in social networks are subjected to commodification. Together with this, new concepts are emerging such as prosumption or prosumer. In this study, the commodification processes in communication will be investigated from a different perspective in order to contribute to the literature. Commodity in Marx's Theory There is a valid reason to have this discussion in commodity framework. Above all, commodity is the mean of production of the "surplus value", which is the anchor of the capitalist production system. Briefly, it can be said that accumulation in capitalist societies occurs with the transfer of a piece of this surplus value, which is acquired by means of commodity production and exchange, into production once again. Thus, it is extremely important for capitalism the commodity form of anything. In this framework, it is also essential whether cultural products and practices are commodities. Given the importance of commodity, Marx (1992: 125) starts his analysis in the Capital with commodity. Just after mentioning the importance of commodity, Marx stresses the qualities of a commodity. Accordingly, a commodity has simultaneously a use value and a value in exchange. This quality is mentioned as the necessary feature of any single commodity without giving further details. So, it is difficult to understand why commodity has to have these values. However, in subsequent chapters, rendering various concepts comprehensible, Marx offers a comprehensive analysis of capitalist production process. Thus, it becomes clear why and how a commodity has this quality. It must be noticed that Marx takes firstly a result of the capitalist production in the beginning of his analysis. In other words, commodity is the starting point in Marx's analysis but is not more than a result in the general framework. Behind this stress on commodity, whole capitalist production system is standing. It can be said that Marx starts first and foremost from a result, which is commodity, and analysis comprehensively the mode of production which creates it. This is the reason why commodity can only be understood in the framework of capitalist mode of production and by considering the wholeness of this production. In communication field, while discussing the commodity form of cultural products and practices, there is a general tendency that ignores this matter. In the literature, the wholeness of capitalist production, or the process that shapes "capitalist commodity", is usually ignored. Rather, qualities acquired by things after their commodification is brought into the forefront, and the commodity character of cultural products and practices is analyzed from this perspective. In this kind of analysis, the problem is not addressing these qualities. As a matter of fact, these are necessary qualities of any single commodity has to have. The main problem is paying no attention to the fact why and how a commodity has gained these qualities in the capitalist production process. As a result of this, cultural products and practices, at the first glance, seems to be commodities to researchers but why and how they are transformed into commodities stay in obscurity. Therefore, it can lead us to wrong conclusions. Given that commodity has more dimensions than it seems to have at the first glance, these kinds of conceptualizations must be addressed carefully. Hence, Marx (1992: 163) states that though commodity appears something that is easily comprehensible, a detailed analysis shows that it is more complex than it appears. In the light of Marx's analysis, we know that not all but some things can gain commodity form in capitalist societies. Why it is so? Marx (1992: 273) indicates certain necessary conditions to produce a product as a commodity. It is obvious that things can gain commodity form and have aforementioned qualities when some factors get together in the historical-social process of capitalist production. To determine these factors, we must first look at the whole capitalist production. Let's take Capital of Marx as an example of cultural product. While Marx was writing or producing Capital, any capitalist appropriated the value produced by him. As a matter of fact, Marx did not even produce a surplus value. He did not encounter a direct exploitation. His labor was qualitatively different; he was exerting an intellectual labor. Moreover, this intellectual labor was not commodified because it was not bought by a capitalist as a labor-power. At the same time, Capital was not the bearer of a surplus value, contrary to any commodity. From this perspective, instead of conceptualizing arbitrarily cultural products and practices in order to put them in commodity form, just like stretching them in "Procrustes bed", it is wiser to analyze them in the context of the peculiarity of their producers and their own "uniqueness". In this study, following this way, we will explore firstly why and how things acquire commodity forms by paying attention to whole capitalist production. Then, based on this first analysis, we will try to determine whether cultural products and practices gain commodity forms according to their production processes in different production relations. If it is so, we will also try to explain why and how they gain this form. Basically, it is argued that the idea of cultural products and practices as a commodity must be addressed cautiously. This is not a denial of the fact that they are commodities indeed. This is to say that not all but only some parts of this products and practices transform into commodities in some certain conditions. The reason of this is the production of these products and practices in very different relations of production and the fact that they are not general but special products and practices (Wayne, 2003: 21). Given that it is the main assumption of the study, this matter must be explained in detail. Commodification of Cultural Products and Practices Nowadays, cultural products and practices are mostly produced within cultural industry. First of all, we must consider these cultural products and practices produced in this industry through "content" and "medium" as a way of materialization and mediation for the content. In other words, the products and practices require certain type of medium for their production, distribution and consumption. For example, a piece of music can be listened with a radio or mp3 player; a television drama or movie can be watch with television or in a movie theater; news can be read on papers or internet; theatrical works are performed on stage that can be considered as a medium in that point. Content and medium cannot be separated easily from each other in "essence" and in "form". Content, which can exist in the absence of medium, can only transform into a general consumption object solely when it becomes "objectified" through medium. Similarly, medium can also exist in the absence of content but its transformation into a general consumption object requires content. Briefly, each one transforms the other into a consumption object by means of its existence; content provides internal object whereas medium constitutes external object of the consumption related to cultural products and practices. The medium that offers a milieu for cultural products and practices is commodity. Diversification and variation that come with the commodification mostly result from the content. It can be said that cultural products and practices have two different dimensions; on the one hand there is content and on the other hand there is the combination of the content with the medium. When we focus on content, commodity character of the majority of cultural products and practices is questionable. However, despite their differences they all become commodities peculiarly when they are combined with a medium, or a technology, that offers them a milieu. For instance, a piece of music turns into a commodity when it is finished by its composer and recorded afterwards on a CD or DVD. Likewise, a book becomes a commodity when it is send from the writer to the publisher to be published. Here, we can indicate a "two step production". In the study, this situation will be conceptualized as "dual production". The first step is the materialization of the content. In this step, mainly intellectual or "creative" labor is performed. In the second step, there is the combination of the first step product with a technological medium, causing mainly a commodity production. My argument is that cultural products and practices gain their commodity form in the second step, and turn into cultural commodities. I also argue that, in cultural production, the integration of the ideological (content) and the economical (medium) is materialized in this second step. If we take again the aforementioned example, the writing Capital corresponds to the first step. In this phase, the production process contains such a great diversity, to the point that we must have a Procrustean bed to qualify the end product as a commodity. However, the editorial process and the publication of Capital correspond to the second step. After this phase, there is no reason not to qualify the book as commodity. Notably, there is the production of use values in the first step and the production of exchange values in the second step. Conclusion This character of cultural products and practices underscores the reason why we must cautiously approach to the idea of cultural commodity. But it is important not to have a generalization on the issue. What is at stake here is just a general tendency. On the other hand, we must not consider the two steps of production as wholly separated and independent domains. In other words, it cannot be said that use values are always generated in the first step and their transformation into exchange values always happens in the second step. There can be other kind of transformations. It is important to emphasize here that capital tries to commodify these products and practices despite of all differences they have. References Benjamin, W. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, London: Penguin Books, [1936] 2010. Bermejo, F. "Audience manufacture in historical perspective: from broadcasting to Google", New Media & Society, 2009, V. 11, No. 1-2, pp. 133-154. Bolin, G. Value and the Media: Cultural Production and Consumption in Digital Markets, London: Ashgate Publishing, 2011. Caraway, B. "Audience Labor in the New Media Environment: A Marxian Revisiting of the Audience Commodity", Media, Culture & Society, 2011, V. 33, No. 5, pp. 693-708. Fisher, E. "How Less Alienation Creates More Exploitation? Audience Labour on Social Network Sites", tripleC-Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 2012, V. 10, No. 2, pp. 171-183. Fuchs, C. "Dallas Smythe Today - The Audience Commodity, the Digital Labour Debate, Marxist Political Economy and Critical Theory. Prolegomena to a Digital Labour Theory of Value", tripleC-Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 2012, V. 10, No. 2, pp. 692-740. Fuchs, C. Digital Labour and Karl Marx, New York: Routledge, 2013. Fuchs, C. 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It has been argued that cultural products (e.g., novels or movies) can be used to develop foresight or prototypes. The rationale is that cultural products not only reflect changes in the business environment but also contribute to these changes by diffusion. Therefore, cultural products are arguably valuable. However, compared to other design thinking tools such as ethnographic research, interviews or focus groups, cultural products are less prevalent. This article, which is based on an empirical study of 302 design thinkers from 2018, explores the extent to which cultural products are used in design thinking projects. Despite a lower prevalence than other design thinking tools, we find support that cultural products are positively related to the success of design thinking projects. We conclude that although cultural products are used less than other approaches, they have a significant impact. We therefore emphasize the future potential of using cultural products in design thinking.