“Scotland should also develop its own niche areas of expertise, starting with the gamut of environmental issues related to climate change. Indeed, the aim for the coming years should be: ‘Scotland – the Green Capital of Europe.’”
Environment
Oor land
“And herein lies the rub with Scotland’s supposedly “radical” land reform journey. The measures so far have not transformed the big picture: some have merely dragged Scotland’s anachronistic land laws into the 20th century as the rest of the world has entered the 21st. Most changes have worked within the old paradigm, treading carefully—maybe even neurotically—around established property rights.”
Energy transition: vital spark of national renewal or dying ember?
The story of BiFab, a fabrication yard that symbolised Scotland’s hopes for a “just transition” from North Sea oil to offshore renewables yet went into administration at the end of last year, has salient lessons for Scotland’s future. Profound institutional redesign is required in the near term if national renewal, predicated on disruptive decarbonisation technologies, […]
Is modernism obsolete?
In the final piece of his series the author makes a stand for classicism – and sustainable buildings in green cities
Modernist mythologies 2
In the second part of his series on architecture David Black finds that modernism is an expression of far right neo-liberal ideology
Allotments make a comeback
‘The most deprived communities have faced an eight times greater loss of allotments when compared to the least deprived. This is a loss of the ability to grow food in areas where communities are most at risk from not having enough food.’
Mythologising modernism
‘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…
Hyperlocal: reinventing cities
Has September 2020 snuffed out the last flicker of a struggling economy? Or are we seeing the first signs of hyperlocal revival? Fay Young looks and thinks local
The Road to Tobha Mòr
Why Gaelic matters: ‘Standing on the ‘Atlantic edge of Europe’, facing the ocean from a South Uist beach, Professor Hugh Cheape felt his world rearrange itself: “Conceptual clichés of periphery and centre flipped over and slipped away.”
The politics of ‘independent’ reviews
‘As for the other people on the forum, it would be surprising if any ‘wild cards’ are to be found, since the tried and tested mechanisms of patronage ensure that those who get through the vetting process have to be judged ‘sound’. In the conformist culture of Scottish education, any tendency to ‘rock the boat’ is unlikely to lead to career advancement.’ On the OECD review of the Curriculum for Excellence…