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Sceptical Scot

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David Black

About David Black

David J Black is an author, playwright, and journalist who lives in Edinburgh. An admirer of sociologist, ecologist, and urban theorist, Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) and the American community activist, Jane Jacobs, he has campaigned for the historic environment and the retention of mixed urban communities for more than four decades.

Is modernism obsolete?

November 14, 2020 by David Black 3 Comments

In the final piece of his series the author makes a stand for classicism – and sustainable buildings in green cities

Modernist mythologies 2

October 31, 2020 by David Black Leave a Comment

In the second part of his series on architecture David Black finds that modernism is an expression of far right neo-liberal ideology

Mythologising modernism

October 17, 2020 by David Black 1 Comment

‘This is not the model of capitalism envisaged by Adam Smith, that beautiful smooth-running machine with its assumptions of benign reciprocity between an industrialist and a workforce. It is, rather, an unfettered Hobbesian monster, not unlike the rampant and exploitative mercantilism which Smith (a proto-social psychologist, as well as economic theorist) sought to discredit.’ First of three in a series on Edinburgh’s architecture…

Monumental follies 2

June 28, 2020 by David Black 1 Comment

In Part 2 of his historical analysis of Scotland’s relationship with slavery, David Black highlights a typical ambivalence: progressive views sitting alongside naked exploitation.

Monumental follies 1

June 27, 2020 by David Black Leave a Comment

‘…our statue problems in Scotland are surely puny; our current outrage a mite self-indulgent and synthetic, though the emblematic validity of our public monuments should indeed be critically scrutinised from time to time.’ Pt 1 of an exploration of our ambivalent representations of history.

Floating on airbeds

February 22, 2020 by David Black 1 Comment

‘It wasn’t only the US investment houses which were scenting opportunity. Indeed, it was a subsidiary of veteran (1908) Edinburgh-based asset management specialist Baillie Gifford, which became really excited.’ Pt 2 of David Black’s examination looks at Airbnb’s history and upcoming IPO…

Airbnb blitz is blighting cities

February 21, 2020 by David Black 5 Comments

‘Nor is it all bad, by any means. Just as there were ‘good banks’ and ‘bad banks’ after the 2008 economic crash, so there is a ‘good’ Airbnb and a ‘bad’ Airbnb.’ But the bad outweighs the good, says the author

Part Two: the council boards a runaway train

December 15, 2019 by David Black 3 Comments

A wrecking ball in Edinburgh St James

Edinburgh, once a working city, seems destined to become a tourist theme park – that falls victim to the demise of cheap air travel…

TIAA: a global American invades Scotland

December 14, 2019 by David Black 6 Comments

‘If subsidizing a rich US corporation amounted to an abuse of Scottish revenues, arguably it is even more serious that the government and local council forfeited their impartiality as planning authorities by buying into TIAA’s deal. They may even have breached EU State Aid rules..’

Drugs, poverty and entertainment Pt 2

November 24, 2019 by David Black 2 Comments

Cool Britannia Danny Boyle’s film of Trainspotting was the pitch-perfect opening salvo for Tony Blair’s Cool Britannia. A post-ideological antidote to the conscience-pricking social realism of such politically-driven directors as Peter Watkins and Ken Loach, its purpose was not to evoke sympathy for those enslaved to a drug habit; rather, it was to cash in […]

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