Search

Public libraries support a range of health and wellbeing activities, however little research has been done into the provision of library adult walking groups. This paper reports on a unique study exploring how widely adult walking groups are provided through Scottish public libraries, as well as library staff perceptions of the benefits, challenges and opportunities of these services. A rich qualitative research approach was used, involving Freedom of Information requests to the 32 Scottish local authority regions, an online questionnaire with 106 complete responses, and 8 follow-up interviews with Scottish public library staff, with and without walking group experience. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes from collected data. Results show that adult walking groups are not widely provided through Scottish public libraries. However, respondents identified benefits for user groups, including but not limited to: improvements to participants' health and social wellbeing; and increased engagement with library services. A range of opportunities for public libraries were highlighted, including staff interest, partnership working and a current focus on health and wellbeing. Challenges encompass resource restrictions, variations in partnership working and lack of effective networking. This original study provides valuable insights into the provision of public library walking groups in Scotland. It suggests that many factors can potentially influence the success of this library health and wellbeing service, with a range of different possible approaches. Results indicate that successful provision of a public library walking group may require close partnership working; adequate networking and information-sharing between public library staff; as well as sufficient resources; and staff interest. This exploratory study provides transferable insights and a basis for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses and critically discusses the role of regions in implementing renewable energy (RE) policies, examining the relationship between state policy and RE deployment. Using evidence from four case study regions, Apulia and Tuscany in Italy and Wales and Scotland in the UK, the paper teases out some differences in terms of regional competencies to implement RE policies across the two countries. The national governments in both Italy and the UK have constructed regulatory and governance relationships to orchestrate and reorder economic, social and ecological challenges and devolve responsibilities at the sub-national level. This has offered an opportunity for the peculiarities of regional setups to be taken into account and regions have contributed towards the promotion of green and sustainable path development via the route of promoting RE deployment. The paper argues that the downscaling and distribution of responsibility in the cases investigated reflect the capacity and willingness of nation states to respond to and mediate the strategic goals and outcomes formulated at national and international levels. Nevertheless, while the regions investigated display differences in their incentives, capacities and capabilities to increase RE deployment, their ability to act is very much influenced by nation states, stressing the important role of the state in mediating the form and direction of RE deployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against a background of recent structural reforms to police organisations in northern and western Europe, this paper examines the experiences of Scotland and the Netherlands where national police forces were established in 2013. Taking a comparative perspective, an analysis of the police reform proposals is followed by a review of the arguments for reform, the challenges of implementation and the findings emerging from the evaluations of the police reforms in each country. The paper concludes by drawing out the contrast between the 'great expectations' of the two police reforms articulated by the governments and the realities of bringing about rapid and large-scale organisational change, arguing that institutionalist perspectives on police reform have much to offer in making sense of the challenges of the police reform process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of a wider investigation which explores what happened to probation services in France and in Scotland during the national lockdown put in place as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Qualitative interviews with 29 French and 27 Scottish probation staff took place, the authors wishing to capture the lived experience of practicing probation at this unprecedented time. Whilst the study captures the initial disorientation of probation staff and a general lack of institutional and individual readiness for lockdown, it also documents adaptability, creativity and an optimism for what technology could offer state probation practitioners that is less visible in studies that were carried out following the easing of lockdown restrictions. It shows that the ways in which institutions and practitioners responded to the crisis was determined by institutional and cultural heritage, professional values and management practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I explore how the culture of land-use planning in Scotland has been targeted as an object of modernising reform, exploring how ‘culture change’ initiatives played a prominent role in stabilising a new settlement around ‘open for business’ planning between 2006 and 2012, containing potential tensions between diverse goals to make planning more efficient, inclusive and integrative. This highlights the potentially significant role of governance cultures in containing tensions and securing consent to processes of state restructuring. I therefore argue that greater empirical attentiveness to the cultural micro-politics of state restructuring can improve understanding of complex, contemporary dynamics of change, and the contested role of the neoliberal hegemonic project in reshaping urban governance. I conclude by arguing that the continued power of neoliberal critiques of the inefficiency of land-use planning indicate a need to acknowledge and engage contemporary cultural battles over the purposes of planning and urban governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In May 2007 the Scottish National Party emerged as the largest single party in the Scottish Parliament and with contingent support from the Greens it now forms a minority Scottish government. This paper considers the ways in which social policy making is being approached by the SNP and the extent to which this represents divergence from the policies of the previous New Labour-Liberal Democrat administration. The paper argues that while the SNP has no tradition of policy making in the field of social welfare there are already some signs emerging of the direction it is likely to follow. Tensions between economic development and social justice agendas are highlighted with a concern that social justice could take even more of a second place than it has in the recent past. Finally it is argued that a neo-liberal vision of Scotland informs current as well as past policy making and explains why the promotion of social justice is more than likely to take second place to the pursuit of economic growth, reflected in the SNP's goal of transforming Scotland as a 'Celtic Lion' economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the internet expected to account for the vast majority of all holiday purchases by 2015 and with other technologies such as 3G and a digital society changing purchasing behaviour, we have seen as much change in technologies in the last 10 years as we have in the previous 150 years. All of this exponential change impacts upon information and Scottish tourism, but does this mean a cashless society/a paperless office/big brother or androids? The scenarios have been constructed called The Free Information Society and The Real Information Society in order to discuss how information and consumer trends folds out in the future. These scenario are not an answer to the future, but a means to discuss the future implications of an information society. The free information Society highlights that information is freely available and that we do not buy information any more, whereas the Real Information Society is about how technology supports personal information rather than replacing it. The paper identifies 16 trends that will shape the future of an information society including citizen brands, gaming cultures and technology convergence. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for Scotland's tourism industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1266, Norway and Scotland entered into an agreement aimed at pacifying a long tradition of competition over control of the islands and waterways along Scotland’s seaboards. This paper examines how the two kingdoms developed diplomatic strategies aimed at regulating social, economic and political developments along their common maritime frontier, and seeks to show how effective diplomacy was in ensuring long-term peace and stability in the region throughout the Late Middle Ages. It focuses on three issues which were addressed more explicitly in Norwegian–Scottish accords: first, the question of dominion over the islands around Scotland’s seaboards; second, the question of mobility to and from those islands; and third, the question of how to protect and limit the threat of piracy in and around those islands. Although largely unprecedented in a Northern European context, this case reveals emerging concepts and strategies of maritime sovereignty in the Late Middle Ages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines national identity in England and Scotland, arguing that it is necessary to understand how people construe it instead of simply assuming that it is constructed from above by the state. It adds to qualitative data on this issue by discussing recent survey data, from the British and Scottish Social Attitudes surveys 2006, in which for the first time people are asked about their reasons for making a specific choice of national identity. In so doing it fleshes out the responses given to a well known survey question (the so-called 'Moreno' question) providing a greater understanding of what a large sample of people are saying when they make these territorial identity choices. The English and the Scots handle 'national' and 'state' identities differently, but the paper shows there is considerable similarity as regards reasons for choosing national identity. Both English and Scottish 'nationals', those placing greater weight on their 'national' as opposed to their 'state' identities, choose to do so mainly for cultural and institutional reasons. They are not making a 'political' statement about the break-up of Britain. At the British end of the scale, there are patterns in the English data which throw into doubt easy assertions about 'being British'. Simply assuming, as some politicians and commentators do, that 'British' has singular meanings is unfounded. The future of the United Kingdom as presently constituted may lie in the hands of those who describe themselves as equally national (English or Scottish) and British. Devolution influences which national identity people choose in all three sets of national identity categories but these effects are sociologically most interesting in this group. Devolution seems to have encouraged them to stress the equality of the two nations in the British state, recognising that they are equal partners, that one can be equally proud of a national and a British identity, and that it is not necessary to choose one over the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scottish tourism is forecasted to grow by 50 per cent over the next 10 years but one of the factors that may hinder or facilitate that growth is climatic change. Indeed, many people are now starting to question the impact of such significant growth on the planet. Therefore, this paper assesses the impact of climate change on Scottish tourism in order that policy makers can separate the facts from the myths. The dimensions of climate change such as CO2 emissions, temperature, rainfall, storms, and wind speed are discussed and the implications for Scottish tourism are mapped. Those implications may include the introduction of CO2 allowances for all travellers, more wind farms in rural locations impacting on film tourism or the grouse species disappearing from Scotland. The paper concludes with a number of adaptation strategies that Scottish tourism agencies and business could adopt to mitigate climate change. The importance of this paper lies in understanding how climate change could impact upon a specific destination, in this case Scotland, and in providing a micro analysis of that impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Class has become the social condition that dare not it speak its name in the devolved Scotland. This is despite the persistence of marked class divisions and structured inequalities within contemporary Scottish society. We critically examine the most empirically sophisticated and coherent analysis of social class in Scotland - that provided by 'the Edinburgh school' of social scientists, particularly their claim that Scotland is now a prosperous, 'professional society' where only a small but significant minority are trapped in poverty. This paper further considers the extent to which 'devolution', and the dominant representations to which it has given rise, serve to generate a series of other myths in which class is both devalued but simultaneously mobilized in the negative portrayal of some of the most disadvantaged sections of the working class. Against an emerging, home-grown view of 'New Scotland' as a prosperous 'Smart, Successful Scotland', poverty and wealth inequalities continue to be a necessary feature of the division of labour. In Scotland, as elsewhere, class remains the pivot-point around which much of social policy is encoded and enacted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes and analyses the experience of applying the IFLA Checklist, Access to libraries for persons with disabilities to an academic library: the Fife Campus Library at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Dundee, Scotland. An introduction to disability legislation in the United Kingdom provides the legal framework for this paper. In the United Kingdom, this legislation has been recognized as an important incentive for libraries to improve their services to disabled people. This paper considers a number of physical and attitudinal barriers to good practice and the value of using the IFLA Checklist in overcoming some of these barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forecasting UK domestic tourists to Scotland is never an exact science, but in order to see into the future it is important to understand the correlation between economic performance and tourism revenues. In order to do this, VisitScotland, the national tourism agency for Scotland, uses econometrics (the Moffat model). VisitScotland is projecting a robust performance for UK tourism in Scotland up to 2008, based upon a stable housing market, a tight labour market and low interest rates. Therefore Scottish tourism domestic revenues should rise from £4.1bn in 2005 to £4.4bn in 2008 in terms of real expenditure (excluding inflation). This paper sets out to explain this forecast. The forecasts are based upon economic conditions and represent the opportunity for tourism; they do not account for shocks such as 9/11 or extreme weather conditions. Such projections are used as a guide to the future, rather than the exact future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During March and April 2004 5,000 local authority employed nursery nurses in Scotland were involved in a national all-out strike. A two and a half year dispute over pay was transformed into a struggle to maintain national bargaining in the face of employer attempts to impose local pay deals. Drawing on interviews with striking nursery nurses, this paper seeks to explore the factors that led to the largest all-out strike in Scotland since the Miners' Strike in the mid 1980s. It is argued that the experiences of these nursery nurses highlight particular ways in which New Labour's welfare reforms, and its approach to pay and conditions in the public sector, are impacting on some of the most poorly paid groups of public sector workers, and in doing so suggest that this dispute has a much wider resonance beyond Scotland and beyond the nursery nurses' fight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visit Scotland has set out a vision for the Scottish tourism industry in which tourism will be the `first and everlasting industry' of Scotland. This vision is driven by an ambition to increase tourism revenue by 50 per cent within the next ten years. In order to achieve that objective, a strategy map is used to provide direction that sets out the size and shape of the industry. A constructivist interpretation paradigm and a cognitive mapping methodology are used to bring structure to the phenomenon of tourism futures by using a software package called Decision Explorer. This paper describes tourism being shaped by changes in demographics and in monetary policy. The consumer will be price-sensitive and/or sophisticated. Scotland will be recognised as a leisure destination rather than a tourism destination, with revenue growth much more likely to be derived from retail and leisure activities rather than the traditional sectors of accommodation and transport. But as tourism develops in Scotland, faster growth will be seen from European and short-haul markets compared to traditional long-haul markets. Shifts in demand as a result of demographic changes will result in visitors staying more with friends rather than with relatives, particularly in urban locations. A decreasing labour supply will result in more dependency on labour substitutes and the newer technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to understand the potential for tourism in Scotland, it is important to look beyond the near future. Four scenarios have been created that paint contrasting pictures of Scottish tourism in 2015. The 'Dynamic' scenario creates a ...l0bn tourism economy with tourism being the number-one industry in Scotland. The 'Weekend Getaway' sees tourism based upon consumerism and play. The value of tourism in this scenario is ...7.6bn. 'Yesterday's Destination' means tourism is based upon the past, and the industry is found to be too complacent. An uncompetitve industry means that growth is only 1 per cent per annum and valued at ...5.1bn. Finally, 'Exclusive Scotland' means that the Scottish economy has failed as deflation has taken the soul out of the country but favourable exchange rates mean that international high-spending tourists flock to exclusive resorts. Tourism in this scenario is a ...2.6bn industry. These four scenarios follow different paths and are driven by different circumstances. But within all of the scenarios, tourism exists. The opportunity for Scotland is to maximise its potential in order that tourism is Scotland's first and everlasting industry. The paper begins with a commentary by Peter Lederer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that sediment depth-age anomalies, and the lithological and palaeoecological properties of a peat core from Borve mire on the Outer Hebridean island of Barra, reflect the episodic impacts of rapid mass-movement of superficial peats and mineral soils from the adjacent hillslopes in the period 3000 to 1750 14 C years BP. Alternative explanations such as mismeasurement of radiocarbon or contamination by floods, are thought less likely. The research implies that there is a general need for caution in the interpretation of mire deposits from sites which are adjacent to steep peat-covered hillslopes and which have not been investigated with the support of substantial radiocarbon and lithological studies programmes. The environmental and vegetational history of this exposed and isolated Atlantic island is shown to have not been one of treeless homogeneity. A variety of deciduous and coniferous tree species colonized early in the Holocene, with distinctive birch-hazel woodland developing at one point in time. The landscape became increasingly treeless in the Bronze Age, with most but not all trees having been lost by the Medieval period. Valley side peats provide palynological evidence of pastoral and arable farming on poor soils in the Dark Age-Early Medieval period, at sites beyond the present limits of cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the framing of referendum campaigns in the press and its relationship to the framing of elections. Drawing from an empirical analysis of the newspaper coverage of the 2014 Scottish referendum and from previous research on campaigns in different contexts, it finds that frames associated with elections, like the strategic game and policy frames, were also dominant in the framing of the referendum. It argues that by framing the independence debate in similar terms to other electoral contests, the press promoted an understanding of this event as being about pragmatic decision-making on policy and political competition, rather than purely a decision about constitutional matters of self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effects of Brexit on the internal boundaries and territorial future of the United Kingdom (UK). Divergent Brexit preferences, coupled with the process of negotiating and preparing for Brexit, have raised new questions about the ability of the UK to remain united. Focusing upon Scotland and Northern Ireland, where territorial challenges are most acute, the article draws upon and adapts Hirschman's voice, exit and loyalty framework to examine the strategic choices and options faced by institutional actors in each case when determining constitutional and political options in response to Brexit. The article contends that, while credible exit threats were used to bolster voice in the Brexit negotiations, the Brexit vote and subsequent process have exposed the limitations of territorial voice, and unleashed new exit dynamics. We enhance the framework by exploring the concept of re-entry, exploring the contrasting paths these territories would face to re-enter the European Union (EU). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional historiography has perceived the early-modern northern Highlands as a region that lacked dynamism and had little contact with the outside world. I propose to establish a mercantile framework between the region and the Baltic in a period of European conflicts, but also of commercial opportunities. I investigate the trading relations between an outlying society and Scandinavia, and explore the presence of northern Highlanders to add to the successful network of Scots and Gaels from other Highland areas operating across the Baltic commercial world. These trading exchanges demonstrate the integral location of the northern Highlands within international trade routes. It further illustrates the diversity of a Nordic trade with its multiple points of entry across Scotland, despite the limited scale of these exchanges. The role of the region in international trade remained marginal, but was not altogether non-existent, as assumed in traditional historiography. These commercial relationships can be primarily described as resource-led. The limited identifiable commercial diaspora of Scottish far northerners suggests that they invested the mercantile and burghal ranks of Baltic towns rather than consigned themselves to peddling activities. These northern Highlanders could be found in both itinerant and settled communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mountain biking is a relatively recent forest recreational activity and this paper estimates the use value associated with purpose-built centres in southern Scotland. An on-site survey is used to generate visitor frequency that can be related to travel costs and participants' socio-economic characteristics. Count data regressions provide maxi- mum likelihood estimates of model coefficients used to estimate expected per-trip economic surplus. The estimated consumer surplus for the Glentress biking range is £80 per visit. An aggregate value of £9.6 million is obtained, with an estimated 120,000 visits annually. While appreciable relative to the site investment outlay, data limitations lead the authors to caution against extrapolating this value over a range of substitute sites planned by the UK's Forestry Commission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of a stalagmite sample from Sutherland, Scotland, have identified a period of enhanced growth that lasted for four years and has been dated to 1135 6 130 BC (Baker et al., 1995). This episode is unique within this sample and has not been observed elsewhere. The authors cor-relate it with the Icelandic volcanic eruption at 1021 1 130/2100 bc that produced the Hekla-3 (H-3) tephra. There is, however, no direct evidence for a causal relationship between volcanic activity in general, or the H-3 eruption in particular, and the growth patterns of the stalagmite. As an alternative to the volcanic explanation of enhanced growth, we suggest that the speleothem could reflect environmental changes associated with woodland decline and the spread of blanket peat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When and where one can urinate is increasingly politicised around the globe. As an example of bio-political power, the provision, regulation and access to public toilets reflects larger structures in any given society. However, there is another side to micturition, that is the use of urine as a manifestation of bodily power over another/others. This article analyses the politics of the urinal through a close reading of the men's toilet in The Lismore pub in Partick, Scotland, thus bringing together these two threads via the concept of everyday effigial resistance. In our interrogation of a politicised urinal that asks users to 'piss' on historical figures associated with the Highland Clearances, we aim to push International Relations to follow Enloe's call for the study of 'mundane practices... and the most intimate spaces' by considering the most banal aspects of the human condition as part of its remit. Our case study serves as an explicit political intervention, one which through its geographic and geopolitical scales makes an argument for engaging with the mundane, vernacular and vulgar in everyday IR. Pisser sur le passé : les dédouanements des hautes terres, la résistance à l'effigie et la politique quotidienne de l'urinoir [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UK policy has increasingly promoted early intervention and permanence planning for children who experience, or are at risk of experiencing, abuse or neglect, raising the question of whether these practices have actually increased ‘on the ground.’ There is already evidence of growing early intervention in the form of out of home care, in England as well as Australia and Canada. However, we do not yet know whether this trend also exists in Scotland. Furthermore, there is no research investigating whether rates of permanence planning have changed anywhere in the UK or globally. The current study addressed these gaps through a comparison of two samples of children in Scotland: 110 children born in 2003 and 117 born in 2013, all of whom were placed under compulsory measures of supervision prior to three years of age. The 2013 cohort was significantly more likely than the 2003 cohort to be removed from their parents at birth, to reside away from parents throughout the first three years of life and to live apart from parents at three years of age. Significantly more of the 2013 cohort than the 2003 cohort had a plan for permanence by three years. These findings are consistent with the view that policy changes in the UK are affecting practice (although practice changes may have resulted from other sources as well/instead). The fall in parental care was largely compensated by an increase in the use of foster care, which has resource implications. Children removed from their parents at birth were usually not returned in the first three years of life, not raised by extended family members, and were separated from one or more siblings. This typically reduced instability for young children, but also entailed substantial birth family fragmentation. The impact on children and families of early removal into foster care must therefore be carefully assessed in light of the increasing prevalence of this practice in Scotland and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the significance of changes to the law in Scotland dealing with stalking by outlining the previous legal position and examining the new legal rules and their impact. Stalking has been proven to be extremely harmful to the victims of the behaviour and their families, and proper legislative rules to deal with it in Scotland have been long overdue. The legislative protection required for stalking victims was introduced in 2010 and it now seems an opportune time to review the legal rules and their impact in protecting victims against stalkers in Scotland. In the process, consideration of statistical data concerning stalking prosecutions is also considered. The article also includes analysis of the legal position of stalking victims in England and Wales where new offences have recently been introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The merits of corroborated evidence in criminal trials have been hotly debated in many jurisdictions, with most having now abandoned this requirement. The Scottish government intends to do likewise--at a time when some other jurisdictions are considering its reintroduction. This article considers whether there is merit in retaining a corroboration requirement for two types of evidence, namely for visual identifications and extra-judicial confessions. It explores whether the introduction of a weighted jury majority, as the government proposes, can compensate for the problematic nature of such evidence. In respect of visual identification evidence, it is argued that any safeguard which corroboration might have provided has been weakened by the way in which the courts have developed the law. Alternative mechanisms for improving the quality of such evidence are assessed. In relation to confessions, the article argues that increasing the jury majority is a poor substitute for corroboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Censorship challenges to books in UK public libraries have received renewed attention recently. This study sought to establish the incidence of censorship challenges to books in Scottish public libraries in the years 2005–2009 and the actions taken in response to these challenges. It was found that eight local authorities in Scotland had received formal censorship challenges to books, with a total of 15 challenges throughout the country. The most common action taken in response to these challenges was for the book to be kept in stock in its original position with the rationale for this explained to the complainer, with the second most common action being taken to move the title to another section of the library. Two books were removed from the library in response to a censorship challenge. The largest numbers of challenges were made against books on the basis of sexual material. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Scottish National Party’s election win in 2011 produced the first overall majority for any party since the Scottish Parliament’s inception in 1999, despite the proportional representation system that was supposed to prevent single party governments. This historic election has been followed by much discussion of how much further the powers of the Scottish Parliament could be extended and whether devolution would allow Scotland to have a superior welfare settlement. In this context policy divergence has been the major focus of the developing devolution debate but discussions about greater powers or even independence for the Parliament have increased significantly. They are often presented as a means to achieve a ‘better’ or more ‘fair’ society. This article argues that shortcomings in the steps towards fairness achieved under the current arrangements of devolution highlight the need for a far-reaching and innovative approach to social justice to be carried out alongside any further discussions of independence. Such an approach cannot be taken for granted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent major surveys of the Scottish electorate and of Scottish National Party (SNP) members have revealed a distinct gender gap in support for the party. Men are markedly more likely than women to vote for the SNP and they comprise more than two-thirds of its membership. In this article, we use data from those surveys to test various possible explanations for the disproportionately male support for the SNP. While popular accounts have focused on the gendered appeal of recent leaders and on the party’s fluctuating efforts at achieving gender equality in its parliamentary representation, we find much stronger support for a different explanation. Women are less inclined to support and to join the SNP because they are markedly less supportive of its central objective of independence for Scotland. Since men and women barely differ in their reported national identities, the origins of this gender gap in support for independence presents a puzzle for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Policies of inclusion in schools now transcend national boundaries; but much less is known about how teachers interact best with each other in order to establish a successful inclusion environment. School psychologists cannot work in isolation and require being fully conversant with this perennially polemic topic. This article reports on a study in which 43 teachers in three secondary schools across one local authority in Scotland were interviewed on a range of topics related to inclusion. One of the important themes to emerge was the importance of peer-support within staff groups. It was found that teachers could still hold positive attitudes towards inclusion, even if the management team and heads of department within the same school were not regarded as being particularly supportive. Peer support was highlighted as a valuable component enabling teachers to feel that they were able successfully to include children with special needs. Moreover, the importance of peer support was perceived as superseding other support across the three high schools. Some implications for a possible role for school psychologists in helping to establish peer support networks for teachers are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite promising research in the 1980s showing the potential of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) for the reconstruction of past summer temperatures in the Scottish Highlands, little dendroclimatic work has been attempted in this region since. This reflects, in part, the limited number of sparsely distributed remnant natural/semi-natural pine woodlands in the Scottish Highlands and the lack of old growth forest therein. On average, most of the pine trees dated in this region are around 225 years in age. Here, we present the first results of an ongoing interdisciplinary initiative to develop a long Scottish chronology through the acquisition of modern, historical and subfossil pine material from the native pinewoods, historic structures and lakes of the Scottish Highlands. Radiocarbon dating of 25 subfossil pine timbers recovered from lake sediments identified the presence of preserved material covering the last 8000 years with initial clusters focused on the last two millennia and early–mid Holocene. Although developing a well-replicated 8000 year pine chronology will take many years, this preliminary study indicates that a millennial length pine chronology from the northwest Cairngorm region is a feasible and realistic objective in the near future. The importance of such a record in this climatically important sector of northwest Europe cannot be underestimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the notion of rural crime has an idyllic aura to it, crime occurs in a changing social landscape and is affected by demographic changes, changing crime trends and by the introduction of new policing practices. Similarly, exactly what constitutes rural crime is also open to debate and changes over time. Likewise, we only have a fuzzy notion of the stereotypical rural criminal and find it difficult to acknowledge the existence of a rural criminal underclass. As a result, crime in a rural context is more difficult to police than crime in an urban landscape because it requires a different set of skills and practices from policing the urban landscape. The closure of rural police stations and the reallocation of scarce policing resources to urban hotspots have inevitably led to a deskilling of the archetypal ‘country bobby’. Consequently, this quasi-longitudinal case study examines changes in policing practices in a (fictionalised) subdivision in rural Scotland over a 40-year period. This enables consideration of the changing rural landscape of crime and from this mapping process implications and conclusions in relation to good practice on rural policing can emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tree-ring analysis of subfossil Pinus sylvestris L., from nine new peatland sites located beyond the species' current northern limit in Scotland, established a regional chronology called WRATH-9. The chronology has been provisionally dated against Irish pine chronologies and provides the first annual resolution picture of Scots pine expansion from c. 3200 bc and subsequent demise from c. 3000 BC. Pine germination and growth is suggested to be associated with a widespread fall in bog water-tables that indicates a regional climatic control. Bog pines progressively declined in number, rather than died out in a single event, reflecting their growth in a marginal habitat, close to a critical ecological threshold. The use of tree-ring sequences from in situ bog pine macrofossils provides a higher resolution insight into past conditions than possible with existing radiocarbon and pollen-based chronologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the system of unpaid work as a penal sanction in Scotland. It is reported that, the system has evolved from being an alternative to imprisonment for fine default to an alternative to prosecution for minor offences over the last 30 years since its introduction in the country. It is reported that, in the country the system of unpaid work has not only been used as option for offenders to carry out work as an alternative to immediate imprisonment, the system has also been introduced as an option to deal with several types of offences including, fine default, for minor offences with an antisocial element and as an alternative to prosecution for those accused for whom it is not considered necessary to pursue prosecution in court.

Jane Aldgate describes findings from a Scottish research study on kinship care. Her article is drawn from a commissioned study which informed a government review of children looked after by local authorities in Scotland in 2006. The article presents the perspectives of the 30 children in the study on living in kinship care. It explores children's understanding of the reasons for their placements and their views on the future, as well as on the roles and tasks of social workers. Children speak of both the negative and positive challenges of living in kinship care, including maintaining contact with parents and siblings. Children's everyday lives, including experiences of school, peers and activities are recounted. The article ends by describing the Scottish Government's new policy for improving services for children in kinship care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twelve gully-wall sections excavated in the upper rectilinear slope of three talus accumulations in NW Scotland reveal a common stratigraphy, similar to that previously described elsewhere in upland Britain: a lower unit of in situ rockfall debris and an upper unit of debris-flow and/or slopewash deposits, often overlying or intercalated with buried organic soils. The upper unit indicates downslope reworking of sediments derived from the top of the talus. Radiocarbon dating of buried organic soils implies that the onset of talus reworking was asynchronous, and occurred before 6.6-7.0 cal. kyr BP at one site (roughly 5.0 kyr after deglaciation) but after c. 2.7 cal. kyr BP at another. A general model for talus evolution in upland Britain is proposed, based on the geomorphological, stratigraphic and dating evidence of this and earlier studies. This comprises: (1) initial accumulation of rockfall debris within a few millennia following deglaciation; (2) near-cessation of rockfall accumulation and development of gullies near the talus crest, with concomitant redistribution of eroded talus sediments on the upper slope by debris flows and slopewash; (3) downslope extension of gullies with associated erosion of both talus and overlying debris-flow and slopewash deposits, and redistribution of these sediments as slope-foot debris cones. This sequence can be explained as an intrinsic response to diminution of paraglacial rockfall inputs, and does not necessarily imply any change in climate, frequency of extreme rainstorm events or other extrinsic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a theoretical and empirical contribution to the study of the Europeanization of political parties. On the theoretical side, it draws on the concepts of heresthetics and two-level games to conceptualize a Europeanization mechanism that has so far been overlooked in the literature. It shows that Europeanization can be a heresthetic tool in party competition, notably in terms of opening up a new dimension that may result in a realignment of alliances able to turn losers into winners. It then applies this conceptualization to party competition over the issue of self-government for Scotland from 1974 to 1997 and shows how it can to a large extent account for a dramatic reversal of fortunes for the anti- and pro-devolution camps between 1979 and 1997. It concludes by relating these theoretical and empirical findings back to the debate on the Europeanization of political parties and identifies avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lake sediment and geomorphic evidence from the Loch of the Lowes/St Mary's Loch basin in the central Southern Uplands of Scotland provide a multiproxy reconstruction of changing sediment availability and transmission through the catchment. Interrogation of magnetic, geochemical and grain size parameters for lake and catchment materials suggests it is possible to identify independent proxies that reflect both supply (availability) and discharge (capacity) controls on the sediment signal. Chronological control for the lake sediment record is proposed by linking a 210Pb/137Cs chronology for the last c. 120 yr to an age/depth profile based on proposed temporal correlations between cyclic HIRM/χLF variability and the North Atlantic Oscillation. Geochronological studies on debris cones and alluvial fans yield evidence for episodic hillslope gullying ∼2000-0 BC with more extensive region-wide slope instability AD 700-900, 1100-1300 and after AD 1450-1550 and gully stabilization over the last 150 years. The latter two episodes coincide with the lake sediment evidence for increased sediment supply from ∼AD 1600 declining after ∼AD 1870. The capacity-related lake proxies appear to identify phases of increased flooding ∼AD 1625-1650, 1680-1700, 1730-1760, 1800-1815, 1850-1880, 1910-1930, 1960-1970 and possibly the 1990s. Close correspondence between the sediment 'flood' archive and historical records of flooding in Scotland suggests that lake-catchment systems of this type have the potential to yield valuable information on past hydrological response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of sand has been used to identify periods of enhanced aeolian activity at two coastal archaeological sites in Orkney that coincide with periods of Holocene climatic deterioration recorded elsewhere in both Scotland and W Europe. Areas of Tofts Ness, Sanday were settled from the Neolithic, abandoned in the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age, reoccupied and permanently abandoned in the Iron Age. Sand layers above the Neolithic soils have been OSL dated to about 4000 BP, correlating well with a period of increased aeolian activity elsewhere in W Europe. OSL dating of aeolian sands above midden deposits and a Bronze Age burial at Lopness on Sanday suggest dune development by 3000 BP, although both sites also contain sand that was deposited during the ‘Little Ice Age’. Several possible mechanisms may have contributed to an increase in aeolian activity during the Holocene that led to the abandonment of these sites. Although volcanic eruptions in Iceland cannot be discounted as a contributory factor, a more likely driver of change in sand dune systems is the enhanced N Atlantic storminess suggested by ice core records from Greenland. During periods of climatic deterioration the declining productivity of other agricultural land places enhanced demands on agriculturally marginal sand dunes, leading to further destabilization and the potential for enhanced sand transport events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of IFLA Journal is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Learning with Care report (HMI and SWSI, 2001) made seven criticisms in relation to the provision of education for looked after children in Scotland. The most recent report, Looked After Children and Young People: We can and must do better (Scottish Executive, 2007), contains 19 actions for improvement. Graham Connelly and Mono Chakrabarti examine whether the distinctiveness of the Scottish political landscape has the potential to lead to improvements in tackling the deficits in the educational experience and attainment of looked after children and young people clearly acknowledged by the authors of both reports. Their article considers the recent history of political concern and asks whether things are getting better, concluding that while there is only limited improvement, the climate is more supportive and more emphatic in its expectations of the young people and the professionals who support them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article's origins lie in a short study trip to Cape Breton and western Newfoundland in November 2002, funded by a travel award from the Association of Directors of Social Work (Scotland), and a return visit to Scotland made by one of the Canadian workers visited (Nancy McKeigan, outreach social worker, Victoria County). The object was to compare how practice in the writer's own work setting and similar areas visited in Canada might be influenced by specifically rural models. Conclusions have been drawn that might be of interest in both countries where models of social work delivery and much of the underlying legislation are similar in philosophy and content (Scottish Executive, 2002). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it features regularly in anthropological literature, the concept of voice is rarely elaborated by way of definition or substantive application. In this article I develop a critical anthropological theorization of voice with reference to the ideas of Hymes, Bernstein, Bourdieu, Foucault and Bakhtin. I extend these conceptual claims substantively, by focusing on the relationship of cultural politics, phatic common and globalization processes to voices that are shaped by class, regional and national identities. To illuminate a critical anthropological theorization of voice, I examine the politics of Scottish popular culture. In particular, I focus on the cultural politics of Scottish football and on the deterritorialized voices of expatriate Scottish football supporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the First World War to the Iraq War in 2003, academics have analysed the performance of the media, especially the press, in fulfilling a watchdog role by offering an independent critique of government and military actions. The overrepresentation of government or military voices and the underrepresentation of other affected groups has been repeatedly asserted. National broad sheet newspapers represent a critical element in a nation's public sphere, ideally fulfilling a `watchdog' function on behalf of the citizenry, and so attract higher expectations of quality than tabloids or, arguably, television. This study, using a content analysis of Scotland's two national broad sheets, The Herald and The Scotsman, reveals an over-whelming emphasis on reporting military achievements or movements. By contrast, the massive damage to infrastructure, to public health and the environment and to civil order, resulting from massive high ordnance bombing and from the destruction of institutions of law and order, received very little attention. Furthermore, out of 2775 reports, only a very small number, given the scale of the fatalities and injuries, covered the daily toll of civilians and only a tiny handful featured the voices of Iraqis or other Arab/Islamic groups. Following theoretical pieces on Hermann and Chomsky's Propaganda Model by Klaehn and by Corner, this article offers an empirically based context within which to consider the debate. In addition, the extent to which these results offer evidence of the accuracy or otherwise of Livingston and Eachus's Indexing Hypothesis and Edward Said's Orientalism is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mid-Holocene tephra layers have been located and geochemically analysed from seven ombrotrophic bogs in Scotland. The tephras found in these Scottish peats occur as stratigraphically discrete horizons, not visible to the naked eye, and originate from volcanic activity in Iceland. Identifying and geochemically typing the tephra layers can enable precise correlations between sites on regional scales, depending on the spatial extent of the airfall events. Dispersal of both the Glen Garry and Hekla-4 tephras is excellent over Scotland, enabling snapshot views of the past at the time of these tephra depositions. Palaeoecological analyses have also been undertaken on these bogs, providing detailed reconstructions of past changes in bog vegetation and surface wetness, a proxy for past climates. Correlations between the ombrotrophic bogs at the time of the Glen Garry tephra revealed significant differences between the proxy climate records in the north and the south of Scotland, suggesting asynchronous changes between northern Scotland and the rest of Great Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how internet cafés, understood as technosocial spaces, are configured in the intersection of human and non-human actants. Based on empirical studies in Scotland and Norway; the article shows how internet cafés are not just adapting a universal concept in the process of configuration, but that some shared images are played with in different ways. The nerdy, trendy and healthy are translocal images that are played with in the configuration process, creating locally specific and embedded spaces. The article further looks at the various ways the internet is used in the cafés, identifying two forms of extenders, as well as players, who in different ways create new social spaces based on the internet café. The article conclude that the internet café is neither a footloose space nor entirely locally embedded, but that spaces are configured in the intersection of translocal images and local circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sections exposed within a colluvial debris cone in Glen Docherty, Scotland, reveal in-situ palaeosols intercalated with debrisflow diamictons and horizons of slopewash deposits. Radiocarbon dating of the palaeosols suggests that drift reworking at this site involved brief, intermittent episodes of debrisflow and slopewash activity since c. 6.5 cal. ka BP. At least four such phases can be recognized: c. 6.5–6.2, 5.6–5.3, 4.9–4.6 cal. ka BP and after c. 450 cal. BP. The palaeosols examined show no evidence of local burning of vegetation. A calibrated radiocarbon age for the onset of the most recent phase of reworking may be interpreted as reflecting woodland clearance and/or the influence of extreme rainfall events during the ‘Little Ice Age’ period of regional climatic deterioration. The combined chronostratigraphic and palaeoecological evidence points to discrete, local rainstorms that are seemingly unrelated to long-term climatic change as the most likely cause of enhanced slope reworking, at least prior to c. 450 cal. BP. If this interpretation is valid, it implies that the formation of Holocene debris cones elsewhere in upland Britain may have been due primarily to a small number of localized, extreme rainstorm events. Consequently, caution is necessary in using debrisflow chronostratigraphy alone as a means of reconstructing long-term climate patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preliminary results of a lengthy and detailed investigation into middle- and late-Holocene raised shorelines in mainland Scotland indicate that three shorelines are sufficiently widely distributed to permit an examination of their extent and of the patterns of uplift which they indicate. The shorelines are the Storegga Tsunami Shoreline, reached at c. 7100 14 C years BP, at the time of a tsunami believed to have been caused by the Second Storegga submarine slide; the Main Postglacial Shoreline, reached at c. 5800–6850 14 C years BP, at the culmination of the Main Postglacial Transgression; and the Blairdrummond Shoreline, reached after the Main Postglacial Shoreline, at c. 2000–4200 14 C years BP. The Main Postglacial Shoreline, previously believed to be the highest Holocene raised shoreline in Scotland, is now believed to be overlapped around the periphery of the uplifted area by the later Blairdrummond Shoreline. Isobase models, based upon quadratic trend surface analysis of available comparable height data consisting of altitudes on former estuarine surfaces and related to the local High Water Mark of Ordinary Spring Tides, depict the pattern of uplift for each shoreline. These models are probably more accurate than previous models of land uplift for the period studied, and indicate a consistent and unchanging uplift pattern during the middle and late Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major postglacial rock slope failures are a common feature of the Scottish Highlands and other mountainous areas that were deglaciated at the end of the Pleistocene, but evaluation of the causes and triggers of failure has been hindered by a lack of reliable dating evidence. We report the result of a pilot study designed to establish the absolute age of a large postglacial rotational rockslide at The Storr on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, using 36 Cl surface exposure dating. Exposure ages of 6.3 ± 0.7 cal. ka BP and 6.6 ± 0.8 cal. ka BP were obtained for rock samples from two separate landslide blocks, giving an overall age estimate of 6.5 ± 0.5 cal. ka BP for rock slope failure at this site. This date is consistent with AMS radiocarbon dating of windblown sand derived from the failure scarp, and with previous inferences (based on relative dating evidence) concerning an early-Holocene age for most rock slope failures in the Scottish Highlands. The long time lag (. 7 ka) between deglaciation and failure suggests that progressive joint extension and shearing of rock bridges and asperities were of critical importance in conditioning failure, though a seismic trigger cannot be ruled out. The methodology of surface exposure dating in this context is described and its future potential assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Litho- and biostratigraphic analyses undertaken in the Gruinart estuary, central Islay, reveal a detailed sedimentary record of Holocene relative sea-level changes and high-energy flood events during the last 10000 years. During the Lateglacial-Holocene transition relative sea level had fallen to below c. 0.5 m OD and remained at this depth until c. 8830 14C years BP. Thus, the early-Holocene minimum sea level is here, relatively well constrained altitudinally. A sustained and largely uninterrupted rise in relative sea level took place after c. 8500 14C years BP, reaching a maximum altitude of c. 4.5 m OD, and remained at an elevation of c. 4 m OD until c. 2000 14C years BP. Both the recorded maximum altitude of the Main Holocene transgression and the late age of the relative marine regression are incompatible with published shoreline uplift isobase models for this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]