This study argues that a new women's cooperative constellation has been established in Scotland around the issue of the Scottish Government's proposed reforms of the Gender Recognition Act. This constellation includes women politicians, researchers, journalists, writers, and activists from all sides of mainstream political opinion in Scotland. The constellation works together to support its politician members, share information and form a supportive community. The constellation acts together to show support for those in the public eye, such as politicians or members being publicly attacked, to make them aware they have ‘an army of women behind them’. The role social media plays has been an important one for the formation and continuance of the constellation, particularly during the pandemic. It has been game-changing in allowing women to identify each other, communicate, arrange to work together and show public support for others. It has also been important in raising awareness of the issues, both with politicians and the general public because, unlike previously identified constellations, this network has needed to generate broad public awareness and support because they have not been working as Government insiders. However, all interviewees were aware that it was not enough to engage in online activism and that they needed to be ‘in the room’ with politicians in order to make any impact.
{"title":"‘They've got an absolute army of women behind them’: The Formation of a Women's Cooperative Constellation in Contemporary Scotland","authors":"Sarah Pedersen","doi":"10.3366/scot.2022.0394","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2022.0394","url":null,"abstract":"This study argues that a new women's cooperative constellation has been established in Scotland around the issue of the Scottish Government's proposed reforms of the Gender Recognition Act. This constellation includes women politicians, researchers, journalists, writers, and activists from all sides of mainstream political opinion in Scotland. The constellation works together to support its politician members, share information and form a supportive community. The constellation acts together to show support for those in the public eye, such as politicians or members being publicly attacked, to make them aware they have ‘an army of women behind them’. The role social media plays has been an important one for the formation and continuance of the constellation, particularly during the pandemic. It has been game-changing in allowing women to identify each other, communicate, arrange to work together and show public support for others. It has also been important in raising awareness of the issues, both with politicians and the general public because, unlike previously identified constellations, this network has needed to generate broad public awareness and support because they have not been working as Government insiders. However, all interviewees were aware that it was not enough to engage in online activism and that they needed to be ‘in the room’ with politicians in order to make any impact.","PeriodicalId":43295,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Affairs","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47688456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In their response to my Scottish Affairs article ‘Recovering and Reconstituting Gàidheal Ethnicity’, Armstrong et al. present misleading and misinformed beliefs about my views on identity and indigeneity. In doing so they distort and divert from my article’s focus. Armstrong et al.’s own views on identity and indigeneity not only contain problematic claims relating to ancestry and race, but also disclose superficial essentialist thinking. Indigeneity is not decided by abstract theorising or legal fiat, as Armstrong et al. propose. Instead, the contemporary emergence of indigeneity in the Gàidhealtachd is happening in community settings among many self-identifying and community recognised or affirmed Gàidheil, and with support from those working in allyship. It is developing, and apparently intensifying, in relation to real-world experiences, concerns and aspirations. This development has global resonance and offers the best hope for the resurgence of Gàidheil as a historically, culturally and place-grounded people, including language revitalisation.
{"title":"On Decolonising and Indigenising Scottish Gàidhlig Studies: A Rejoinder to Armstrong et al.","authors":"Iain Mackinnon","doi":"10.3366/scot.2022.0401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2022.0401","url":null,"abstract":"In their response to my Scottish Affairs article ‘Recovering and Reconstituting Gàidheal Ethnicity’, Armstrong et al. present misleading and misinformed beliefs about my views on identity and indigeneity. In doing so they distort and divert from my article’s focus. Armstrong et al.’s own views on identity and indigeneity not only contain problematic claims relating to ancestry and race, but also disclose superficial essentialist thinking. Indigeneity is not decided by abstract theorising or legal fiat, as Armstrong et al. propose. Instead, the contemporary emergence of indigeneity in the Gàidhealtachd is happening in community settings among many self-identifying and community recognised or affirmed Gàidheil, and with support from those working in allyship. It is developing, and apparently intensifying, in relation to real-world experiences, concerns and aspirations. This development has global resonance and offers the best hope for the resurgence of Gàidheil as a historically, culturally and place-grounded people, including language revitalisation.","PeriodicalId":43295,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Affairs","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44227283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Timothy C. Armstrong, Wilson McLeod, R. Dunbar, Stuart S. Dunmore, Bernadette O’Rourke, Michelle Macleod
This article responds to the recent special issue of Scottish Affairs on ‘Gàidhealtachd Futures’ and in particular the article by Iain MacKinnon proposing that ancestry, ethnicity and indigeneity should become the principal elements in contemporary Gaelic identity. The editors of the special issue do not give an analytically meaningful presentation of the term Gàidhealtachd and MacKinnon fails to give a complete or balanced account of previous research on the question of Gaelic identity. There is considerable uncertainty about how the term Gael is understood today; many Gaelic speakers are reluctant to accept this label for themselves. MacKinnon's arguments concerning the role of ancestry in defining Gaelic identity are highly problematic in both analytical and political terms. His proposals concerning ethnicity and indigeneity are unsustainable, particularly in light of relevant legal standards, and amount to a strategic, ethical and legal dead end for the Gaelic revitalisation movement.
{"title":"Gaelic and Identity: A Response to Iain MacKinnon","authors":"Timothy C. Armstrong, Wilson McLeod, R. Dunbar, Stuart S. Dunmore, Bernadette O’Rourke, Michelle Macleod","doi":"10.3366/scot.2022.0398","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2022.0398","url":null,"abstract":"This article responds to the recent special issue of Scottish Affairs on ‘Gàidhealtachd Futures’ and in particular the article by Iain MacKinnon proposing that ancestry, ethnicity and indigeneity should become the principal elements in contemporary Gaelic identity. The editors of the special issue do not give an analytically meaningful presentation of the term Gàidhealtachd and MacKinnon fails to give a complete or balanced account of previous research on the question of Gaelic identity. There is considerable uncertainty about how the term Gael is understood today; many Gaelic speakers are reluctant to accept this label for themselves. MacKinnon's arguments concerning the role of ancestry in defining Gaelic identity are highly problematic in both analytical and political terms. His proposals concerning ethnicity and indigeneity are unsustainable, particularly in light of relevant legal standards, and amount to a strategic, ethical and legal dead end for the Gaelic revitalisation movement.","PeriodicalId":43295,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Affairs","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44643508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Conchúr Ó Giollagáin, Iain Caimbeul, Brian Ó Curnáin, Gòrdan Camshron, Pàdruig Moireach
This article serves as a rebuttal to McLeod et al’s criticism of Ó Giollagáin and Caimbeul’s ‘Moving Beyond Asocial Minority Language Policy’ article in this journal, while also offering an analysis of McLeod et al’s disapproving viewpoint of the conclusions and recommendations in Ó Giollagáin et al’s The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community (2020). This rebuttal argues for the inclusion of the threatened first-language Gaelic vernacular community in Gaelic policy, as well as the integration of the protection of Gaelic communities in official Gaelic promotion – minority language promotion with language community protection. McLeod et al’s contribution to the debate on the Gaelic vernacular crisis is essentially a collective effort to reinforce the relegation of the Gaelic crisis within official language promotion in Scotland and to promote a reinvigorated status quo.
{"title":"Including the Threatened First-language Gaelic Vernacular Community in Gaelic Promotion and Protection: A Rebuttal to McLeod et al.","authors":"Conchúr Ó Giollagáin, Iain Caimbeul, Brian Ó Curnáin, Gòrdan Camshron, Pàdruig Moireach","doi":"10.3366/scot.2022.0402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2022.0402","url":null,"abstract":"This article serves as a rebuttal to McLeod et al’s criticism of Ó Giollagáin and Caimbeul’s ‘Moving Beyond Asocial Minority Language Policy’ article in this journal, while also offering an analysis of McLeod et al’s disapproving viewpoint of the conclusions and recommendations in Ó Giollagáin et al’s The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community (2020). This rebuttal argues for the inclusion of the threatened first-language Gaelic vernacular community in Gaelic policy, as well as the integration of the protection of Gaelic communities in official Gaelic promotion – minority language promotion with language community protection. McLeod et al’s contribution to the debate on the Gaelic vernacular crisis is essentially a collective effort to reinforce the relegation of the Gaelic crisis within official language promotion in Scotland and to promote a reinvigorated status quo.","PeriodicalId":43295,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Affairs","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45971486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There arguably exists something of a great human rights divide stretching across the ninety-six miles of the Anglo-Scottish border from the Solway Firth on the west coast to the town of Lamberton in the east. As Scotland appears to take impressive strides forward in human rights implementation, England seems to lag ever further behind international best practice. But how can two countries so closely linked in central governance display such seemingly divergent attitudes and approaches to human rights? This article seeks to explore this apparent polarisation in more detail and to investigate the factors that might be underlying it. In particular, it questions whether Scotland is more progressive when it comes to human rights because the people are more accepting of human rights as a concept worth upholding, or whether this ostensible national acceptance of human rights is instead clever political posturing on the part of the Scottish Government to paint a picture of a country that differs to such an extent from its southern neighbour that it really ought to be independent.
{"title":"The Great Anglo-Scottish Human Rights Divide","authors":"A. Struthers","doi":"10.3366/scot.2022.0395","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2022.0395","url":null,"abstract":"There arguably exists something of a great human rights divide stretching across the ninety-six miles of the Anglo-Scottish border from the Solway Firth on the west coast to the town of Lamberton in the east. As Scotland appears to take impressive strides forward in human rights implementation, England seems to lag ever further behind international best practice. But how can two countries so closely linked in central governance display such seemingly divergent attitudes and approaches to human rights? This article seeks to explore this apparent polarisation in more detail and to investigate the factors that might be underlying it. In particular, it questions whether Scotland is more progressive when it comes to human rights because the people are more accepting of human rights as a concept worth upholding, or whether this ostensible national acceptance of human rights is instead clever political posturing on the part of the Scottish Government to paint a picture of a country that differs to such an extent from its southern neighbour that it really ought to be independent.","PeriodicalId":43295,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Affairs","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41575675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wilson McLeod, R. Dunbar, Michelle Macleod, Bernadette O’Rourke, Stuart S. Dunmore, Timothy C. Armstrong
This article considers a range of weaknesses and deficiencies in the article ‘Moving Beyond Asocial Minority-Language Policy’ by Conchúr Ó Giollagáin and Iain Caimbeul and the underlying research study on which it was based. The authors’ presentation of previous research was inadequate and the framing of their survey results was sensationalistic, risking the demoralisation of Gaelic speakers and the weakening of social or political support for the language. The authors fail to justify and properly define the key terms used in their analysis, including ‘vernacular community’ and ‘Gaelic group’, so that there is a pervasive lack of clarity to their discussion, with serious implications for their key policy proposal. We also identify shortcomings in the geographic framing of their study; which areas were included and which were not. We then challenge the social classification they use in their analysis, and their rigid distinction between Gaelic speakers in their study area and all those living elsewhere. We then demonstrate how the authors’ presentation of current Gaelic policy is incomplete, misleading and biased, and we critique their proposals for fundamental changes to the current policy structure, including the creation of a new Gaelic community trust. We argue that strengthening existing policy structures and exploiting such structures much more energetically and effectively offers a better approach to strengthening the language, both in the areas studied and elsewhere in the country.
{"title":"Against Exclusionary Gaelic Language Policy: A Response to Ó Giollagáin and Caimbeul","authors":"Wilson McLeod, R. Dunbar, Michelle Macleod, Bernadette O’Rourke, Stuart S. Dunmore, Timothy C. Armstrong","doi":"10.3366/scot.2022.0399","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2022.0399","url":null,"abstract":"This article considers a range of weaknesses and deficiencies in the article ‘Moving Beyond Asocial Minority-Language Policy’ by Conchúr Ó Giollagáin and Iain Caimbeul and the underlying research study on which it was based. The authors’ presentation of previous research was inadequate and the framing of their survey results was sensationalistic, risking the demoralisation of Gaelic speakers and the weakening of social or political support for the language. The authors fail to justify and properly define the key terms used in their analysis, including ‘vernacular community’ and ‘Gaelic group’, so that there is a pervasive lack of clarity to their discussion, with serious implications for their key policy proposal. We also identify shortcomings in the geographic framing of their study; which areas were included and which were not. We then challenge the social classification they use in their analysis, and their rigid distinction between Gaelic speakers in their study area and all those living elsewhere. We then demonstrate how the authors’ presentation of current Gaelic policy is incomplete, misleading and biased, and we critique their proposals for fundamental changes to the current policy structure, including the creation of a new Gaelic community trust. We argue that strengthening existing policy structures and exploiting such structures much more energetically and effectively offers a better approach to strengthening the language, both in the areas studied and elsewhere in the country.","PeriodicalId":43295,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Affairs","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45765713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A personal review of the 2021 Edinburgh International Festivals, which made limited but welcome returns to ‘in-person’ events in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
{"title":"‘Circles of Empathy’: Edinburgh International Festivals Diary 2021","authors":"M. Relich","doi":"10.3366/scot.2022.0397","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2022.0397","url":null,"abstract":"A personal review of the 2021 Edinburgh International Festivals, which made limited but welcome returns to ‘in-person’ events in the wake of the COVID pandemic.","PeriodicalId":43295,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Affairs","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45134405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the preamble of the response articles to the recent special issue of Scottish Affairs on Scotland's Gàidhealtachd Futures the authors make some negative assertions about the editorial position. This short and positive essay revisits and reiterates the key themes of ‘plurality’ and ‘futures’ that are the focus of the special issue's contribution to important discussions and emerging priorities for Scotland's Gàidhealtachd Futures.
{"title":"Our Plural Gàidhealtachd: An Editorial Rejoinder","authors":"James Oliver, Iain MacKinnon","doi":"10.3366/scot.2022.0400","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2022.0400","url":null,"abstract":"In the preamble of the response articles to the recent special issue of Scottish Affairs on Scotland's Gàidhealtachd Futures the authors make some negative assertions about the editorial position. This short and positive essay revisits and reiterates the key themes of ‘plurality’ and ‘futures’ that are the focus of the special issue's contribution to important discussions and emerging priorities for Scotland's Gàidhealtachd Futures.","PeriodicalId":43295,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Affairs","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46748305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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