Identity In Scotland Research Articles

Self Actualization of MOSMA Participants in Maintaining Cultural Identity in Scotland, United Kingdom

The importance of preserving and maintaining cultural identity has become a major highlight amidst ever-growing globalizations. In the context of student exchange, an interesting initiative has emerged in the Mora Overseas Student Mobility Award (MOSMA) program. This research aims to abstract the contributions and experiences of MOSMA participants in efforts to maintain Indonesian cultural identity in Scotland, United Kingdom. This research uses qualitative research methods with participant observation. Data collection was carried out by conducting in-depth interviews with MOSMA participants from various backgrounds. The research results show that MOSMA is not only a program for learning in the academic field but also a place to gain in-depth cultural experiences. MOSMA participants are actively involved in various activities, such as regular international student meetings, cultural discussions, introductions to traditional music and songs, all of which play an important role in maintaining and introducing Indonesia's cultural identity abroad. Apart from that, MOSMA also provides a platform to develop social skills, independence and a sense of belonging to the nation's cultural heritage. Through MOSMA, participants can feel a sense of pride in Indonesia's cultural identity, thereby strengthening their commitment to passing it on to future generations. In conclusion, MOSMA has proven itself as an effective program initiative in maintaining and strengthening Indonesia's cultural identity amidst globalizations. By continuing to provide adequate support and attention, MOSMA has the potential to become an inspiring model in maintaining cultural diversity throughout the world.

Fundamental British Values & the Prevent Duty in Scotland

ABSTRACT In July 2015, a legal duty came into force as part of the United Kingdom’s Counter Terrorism and Security Act that included a requirement (referred to as the Prevent Duty) for schools and other education providers to “prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. Parallel to this initiative, schools in England were also required to include teaching on “Fundamental British Values” as part of the curriculum, to “build pupil’s resilience to radicalisation”. Yet this latter element is not required in schools in Scotland. This paper argues that the absence of a requirement for teachers in Scotland to include teaching on Fundamental British Values simultaneously politicises and depoliticises the delivery of the Prevent Duty, and British identity in this context. In doing so, the paper contributes to existing debates on the relationship between the Prevent Duty and the Fundamental British Values, reflects on the political nature of these parallel initiatives and examines the security policy implications of the contentious nature of British identity in Scotland.

Mengzi Pang. Family, Identity and Mixedness: Exploring ‘Mixed-Race’ Identities in Scotland

Provides insight into the experiences of the Scottish mixed-race population.The author’s study is timely as the majority of British mixed-race scholarship has tended to emanate from England. This also further aligns with the transnational focus of the field of critical mixed race studies, which seeks to incorporate notions of diaspora and to promote understandings of mixed-race experiences across different national contexts.

Coltman, Viccy. Art and Identity in Scotland: A Cultural History from the Jacobite Rising of 1745 to Walter Scott.

Coltman, Viccy. <i>Art and Identity in Scotland: A Cultural History from the Jacobite Rising of 1745 to Walter Scott</i>.

British colonialism, Ireland and the ‘old firm’: postcolonial identities and contemporary Scottish football and society

ABSTRACT This article considers the world-famous rivalry between two Scottish based football clubs, Rangers and Celtic. It reflects on dominant representations of the origins, evolution and meaningfulness of this clash. A critical reading of these representations demonstrates they largely ignore or simplify the significance of history for this contest. This study contends that recognising the importance of aspects of Scottish/British imperialism especially contributes to a more informed understanding of these totemic clubs’ foundations, heritages and supporter enmities and throws light on contemporary postcolonial socio-cultural and political identities in Scotland generally. Scrutinising both football commentary and contemporary artistic representations of past imperialist endeavours – in particular, the Great Tapestry of Scotland and Black Watch – contributes to a better understanding not only of this sporting rivalry but also to how Scotland’s role as junior partner with England in the British Empire project, particularly in relation to Ireland, is remembered, contested, overlooked or celebrated in contemporary Scottish society.

Recognising and ReconstitutingGàidheilEthnicity

This article analyses some claims made about the Gàidheal identity in Scotland, with particular reflection on a distinct ‘sociolinguistic turn’ within Gàidhlig studies and related research over the last two decades. Through critical analysis of a major sociological survey on the structuring of various markers in framing Gàidheal identity, a normative basis is provided to then assess other identity classifications made by some academics whose work is focussed on the single identity-marker of the Gàidhlig language. It is argued that identity claims predicated on the specific nature of the Gàidhlig sociolinguistic turn fail to capture the complex reality and living histories of actual Gàidheal identities (and claims on those identities), in particular, the socio-cultural importance of place-based practices and understandings. Recent proposals for a Gàidheal ethnolinguistic assembly may enable modes of articulation and recognition to develop which better capture those realities, as well as supporting societal and linguistic regeneration among the indigenous group.

Coltman, Art and Identity in Scotland. A Cultural History from the Jacobite Rising of 1745 to Walter Scott

Coltman, <i>Art and Identity in Scotland. A Cultural History from the Jacobite Rising of 1745 to Walter Scott</i>

Art and Identity in Scotland: A Cultural History from the Jacobite Rising of 1745 to Walter Scott by Viccy Coltman

Art and Identity in Scotland: A Cultural History from the Jacobite Rising of 1745 to Walter Scott by Viccy Coltman

Scottish Wilderness Rejuvenated: The Regional Identity of Scotland as a Tourist Destination in The Scots Magazine 2017–2018

Scottish Wilderness Rejuvenated: The Regional Identity of Scotland as a Tourist Destination in The Scots Magazine 2017–2018

What makes a European in Scotland?

Why, if few people in Scotland give priority to being ‘European’, vis-à-vis being ‘Scottish’ or being ‘British’, did a significant majority vote Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum? Much depends on how questions on territorial identities are asked in surveys. Employing a 7-point scale ranging from ‘weakly European’ to ‘strongly European’ we find that as many as 45% put themselves at the strongly European end of the scale in Scotland. Furthermore, and contrary to expectations, being European correlates more strongly with being British than with being Scottish north of the border. Using linear regression analysis, four variables contribute significantly to being strongly European: having liberal (‘libertarian’) values, high levels of education, supporting the SNP and Independence, and feeling ‘British’. Being ‘Scottish’ has lesser effect because it is ubiquitous across the social spectrum, and, in any case, national identity in Scotland, in contrast with England, did not account significantly for the 2016 Brexit vote in Scotland. There is evidence, however, that, post-Brexit, being ‘European’ has taken on more political-constitutional meanings, even though the binary divide between Remain and Leave does not properly reflect the range of policy preferences people adopt concerning the European Union.

Scottish parliamentary record scholarship in the devolution era

ABSTRACT In 1707 Scotland’s parliament ceased to exist. Yet it has since been the subject of two monumental acts of record scholarship; the Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland (1814-1875) in the nineteenth century and the Records of the Parliaments of Scotland (2007) in the twenty-first. Using the first of these as a touchstone, this article examines the ways in which the records of the pre-1707 parliament are presented, positioned and interpreted in the second. Unlike the nineteenth-century edition, which was produced in an era when adherence to the 1707 Act of Union with England went all but unquestioned, the twenty-first-century version was created during a period of constitutional devolution amidst a national debate over the question of independence from the United Kingdom. Approaching this new edition of parliamentary records as a cultural product, shaped and informed by the context in which it was created, therefore enables us to learn much about how the relationship between history and national identity in Scotland has changed since its predecessor was published. From there, the article questions the assumption that present-day understandings of Scottish identity are primarily civic and forward-looking, and argues that they are in fact partly based on claims which, whether secessionist or devolutionist, are fundamentally historical.

Introduction: 1707, 2014 and the Constitutional Imperative in Scotland's National Press and Civil Society

This essay provides an historical, cultural and institutional juxtaposition of the Scottish national press' relationship to constitutional change, using the Union of 1707 and the 2014 independence referendum as key markers of this relationship. It reviews the parallels between both historical events in the context of structural changes to Scottish civil society, and the role played by the media in amplifying and facilitating these changes. Finally, the essay maps the work of a number of historical and literary scholars, media experts, civil society actors, and journalists who have contributed to the Scottish Affairs special issue, 1707 and 2014: The National Press, Civil Society and Constitutional Identity in Scotland.

From the Gorbals to the Lower East Side: the Cosmopolitanism of the Glasgow Jewish Institute Players

In this essay Paul Maloney and Adrienne Scullion investigate the ambitious agenda of theatre internationalism in the context of non-professional theatre making in Glasgow in the mid-twentieth century. For members of the Glasgow Jewish Institute Players, internationalism was represented through a diverse repertoire of classic European texts and contemporary American plays, presented alongside new original plays and sketches drawing on Yiddish and Scottish popular theatre tropes, and experienced through its members’ range of international diasporic networks, specifically with Jewish theatre makers in New York. It is argued that the internationalizing experience of the company and, specifically, its sustained exploration of immigration and of immigrants, achieves an important, even defining, role in the formation of a modern theatre industry and identity in Scotland. Historically interesting in and of itself, this article is also timely given a wider social and cultural ‘fear’ of contemporary migrants. The research encompasses a range of previously unexplored primary material including scripts, reviews, photographs, and company papers, including correspondence with New York-based playwright Sylvia Regan and new interviews with surviving company members. Paul Maloney and Adrienne Scullion work at Queen's University Belfast.

The historical novels of Sir Walter Scott – the substantial factor in the formation of Scottish national identity at the turn of XVIII–XIX centuries

The paper discusses the influence of Walter Scotts historical novels on the formation of national identity of Scotland at the turn of the eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries. In the current geopolitical situation, considering the growing wave of separatism, the relevance of the study of national identity formation process cannot be overemphasized. In the paper the author analyzes the historical preconditions of Scots national consciousness formation. The author also considers characteristics of historical and cultural development of the region. According to the author, James MacPherson and Bishop Percys works were equally important for national disunity overcoming in Scotland and Britain as a whole. Particular attention is drawn to the role of Sir Walter Scott in the process of national revival in Scotland. Such novels as Waverley, Puritans, and Rob Roy introduced the general public with the mental basis of the Scottish people. Having opened national character features and religious foundations of the Scottish worldview for a wide range of readers, the author awakened the interest of the British society to the heritage of Scotland, thereby laying the basis for a successful integration of the two peoples into a single nation. Sir Walter Scott managed to revive national prestige of Scotland that had fallen victim after the signing of Union in 1707.

Breaking away: identity and society in Scotland's Neolithics

Characterising the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland has always been a lively pursuit. Following the referendums on Scottish independence and Brexit, and the consequent shifts in modern cultural and political identities, research into the first farming communities of these islands and their tangled traditions assumes particular resonance. The two volumes under review explore Neolithic identities in Scotland: the first, a festschrift for Gordon Barclay, focused around the theme of mainland Scotland; the second, a monograph pulling together more than two decades of fieldwork led by Colin Richards and colleagues around the Bay of Firth in Orkney.

National Identities and the 2014 Independence Referendum in Scotland

This paper discusses the 2014 independence referendum in relation to national identities in Scotland. This is done firstly through reflecting on the referendum franchise and then by examining how people's subjective national identities aligned with key political attitudes relevant to the constitutional question. Using survey data, this analysis compares longer term trends with data from the period immediately preceding the referendum vote, and suggests that the campaign may have given rise to a much closer ‘alignment’ between national identities and political attitudes. The concluding discussion suggests that national identities in Scotland may be understood as a series of only partially overlapping and shifting constituencies, based on subjective national belonging, residence, political enfranchisement, political-constitutional attitudes, and people's understanding of and sense of affinity with a (British) social union, and that this concept of ‘social union’ would benefit from further sociological investigation.

Nations of Peace: Nuclear Disarmament and the Making of National Identity in Scotland and Wales

This article uses the Scottish and Welsh Councils for Nuclear Disarmament as windows into the relationship between peace and nationalism in Scotland and Wales in the late 1950s and early 1960s. From one perspective, it challenges histories of peace movements in Britain, which have laboured under approaches and assumptions centred on London. From another, it demonstrates the role of movements for nuclear disarmament in the emergence of a 'left of centre' nationalism in Scotland and Wales. Although these movements were constituents of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, their nationalism evolved as the threat from nuclear weapons to Scotland and Wales came to be seen as distinctive and was interpreted through lenses of local culture and tradition. The movements contributed to 'the making of national identity' by providing a channel through which activists could 'nationalize' and galvanize Scottish and Welsh Christianity, folk and socialism in particular. It was through the movements that activists articulated and promoted Scotland and Wales as sovereign nations of peace, with an international outlook separate from that of Britain. © The Author [2015]. Published by Oxford University Press.

Re-charting the Black Atlantic: Jackie Kay’s Cartographies of the Self

The aim of this article is to assess Jackie Kay’s poetry in its local and internationalist dimension, focusing on her contribution to incorporating Scotland into the transnational contemporary literary corpus that addresses and interrogates the Black Atlantic (Gilroy, 1993) from various angles: political, cultural, and emotional. It analyses Kay’s development as a poet from her early publications in the 1980s to her recent pieces. Firstly, it contextualises Kay’s early career in the framework of 1980s Black British feminism and examines her depiction of hyphenated identities in Scotland. Secondly, it studies her multi-layered—biological, multicultural—interrogation and redefinition of genealogy in the collection The Adoption Papers (1991), as the starting point for the development of a more complex articulation of identity in subsequent pieces, like Other Lovers (1993) and Off Colour (1998). These two books are regarded as crucial in Kay’s progressive incorporation of her Scottishness into the personalised Black Atlantic she charts in her writing, where the appropriation of biographical elements from transcultural female icons serves as a strategy to emphasise the fluidity of relational selves. Finally, special attention is paid to The Lamplighter (2008) and its interrogation of Gilroy’s model through the parameters of gender and Scottishness.

Annmarie Hughes. Gender and Political Identities in Scotland, 1919–1939. Scottish Historical Review Monograph no. 17. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010. Pp. 235. £45.00 (cloth).

Annmarie Hughes. Gender and Political Identities in Scotland, 1919–1939. Scottish Historical Review Monograph no. 17. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010. Pp. 235. £45.00 (cloth). - Volume 51 Issue 2

Entrenchment of unionist nationalism: devolution and the discourse of national identity in Scotland

Over 10 years have passed since the current phase of devolution in the United Kingdom started and the article investigates its effects on Scottish political discourse on national identity focusing on the unionist version. Based on an analysis of recent political utterances in Scotland, the article argues that the current devolution settlement has revived and entrenched unionist nationalism in the Scottish political discourse. It also shows that one of the effects of devolution on the debate on national identity is a clearer sign of increasing contestation of Britishness, and suggests that devolution is a double-edge sword in management of multiple national identities.