Scotland and Islandness

Scotland’s islands are diverse, resourceful and singularly iconic in national and global imaginations of places «apart» yet readily reached. This collection of essays offers a fascinating commentary on Scotland’s island communities that celebrates their histories, cultures and economies in general terms. Recognising a complex geography of distinct regions and island spaces, the collection speaks to broader themes of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, narratives of place and people, the ideas and policies of island and regional distinctiveness, as well as particular examinations of literature, language, migration, land reform, and industry. With a view to placing ideas and expressions of islandness within a lived reality of island life and scholarship, the collection provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the value of continued and expanding research commentaries on Scotland’s islands for both a Scottish and an international readership.

This book should instantly appeal to scholars of Island Studies, Scottish Studies, and Regional Studies of northern and peripheral Europe. Readers with particular interests in the sociology and history of Scottish rural and northern Atlantic communities, the cultural histories and economies of remote and island places, and the pressing socioeconomic agenda of small island sustainability, community building and resilience should also find the collection offers current commentaries on these broad themes illustrated with local island examples and contingencies.

Kathryn A. Burnett is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Cultural Studies, University of the West of Scotland. Ray Burnett is a writer/researcher living and working in the Outer Hebrides. Michael Danson is Professor Emeritus of Enterprise Policy, Heriot-Watt University.

The editorial team are co-founders of the Scottish Centre for Island Studies and have worked nationally and internationally with community partners and research and policy experts across a range of island-related projects including cultural heritage curation, small island remote enterprise, and island community assets.