Skip to main content

Scotland and Scottish society

Sociologists of a certain age will recall the courses on ‘The Social Structure of Modern Britain’ that many of us followed as students or taught as lecturers. Most such courses have now disappeared. However, there are distinct advantages in pursuing a course that is focused on the key structures constituting a particular national society- and, of course, its global context.
 Perhaps such courses are now taught mainly in those places where national identity has become a critical political issue. Scotland is a society in which these issues of national identity have always been strong and where they have acquired a particular salience in recent years. Devolution, the independence referendum, and Brexit have all ensured that the autonomy of Scotland and Scottish institutions have been important matters of political debate. It is not surprising, therefore, that Scottish society has been an important focus for teaching within Sociology Departments in Scotland.
 David McCrone has produced a major new book that not only meets teaching needs for such courses but also makes a significant contribution both to substantive debates in sociology and to current political discussions. The New Sociology of Scotland (Sage Publications) brings together a wealth of material on all aspects of Scottish society, placing this in a historical context of developing national identity and a global context of Scotland’s place within Britain and Britain’s place within the world.

 The book’s first three chapters discuss the overall shape of Scottish society and problematises the ideas of ‘society’ and ‘nation’, which have often been questioned as suitable objects for sociology. The book then explores the regional and demographic character of Scotland before arriving at central chapters on power and the economy and on inequality and social class. Lindsay Paterson adds a chapter on education to complement McCrone’s account of social mobility. Major chapter then follow on gender, ethnicity, and religion that pursue the identities that are alternative and complementary to class. This exploration of structurally based identities allows McCrone to proceed to consider the cultural aspects of identity and the role of history and landscape in the formation of a sense of community and national cohesion. These chapters address the central issues of identity politics that have been raised in contemporary sociology. They lead into an account of ways of representing and expressing Scottish identity in sport and the mass media. A final chapter on ‘Scotland and the World’ considers the implications and consequences of globalisation.

 Despite its presentation as a textbook, the book is very much a self-consciously personal account, written from the basis of the author’s own career within Scotland and his reflections on the future of his society. It will be an interesting and important read for all who are interested in the issues of identity, nationalism, and political self-determination, wherever they live.


Originally Posted May 23 2017.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What are ‘British Values’?

Politicians and commentators often talk about the importance of British values and the need for migrants and refugees to respect British values. Such arguments have emerged strongly in debates over terrorism. Claims of this kind often, perhaps typically, mask a more or less deep-rooted prejudice towards outsiders and an assumption of the inherent superiority of Britons. Proponents of these views look back to an imperial past when Britannia ruled not only the waves but also much of the land and when it seemed natural to divide the people of the world into distinct ‘races’. We are rightly sceptical of such arguments, but is any meaning to be found in the argument that a society such as Britain is indeed marked by values that are subscribed to by a majority of its members and that help to define a shared sense of identity? Under what conditions can we talk about any kinds of national values? These ideas are best understood through the arguments that I have developed on social conscio
Post a Comment
Read more

Objectivity and Subjectivity

In  Objectivity and Subjectivity in Social Research , which I wrote with Gayle Letherby and Malcolm Williams (Sage Publications, 2013), we set out an account of objectivity and truth in relation to the necesarilly subjective basis of social knowledge. This posting outlines a summary of the key arguments of the book. Why are so many sociologists concerned with objectivity and the pursuit of ‘truth’ when our knowledge and understanding of the social world is so self-evidently subjective and partial? The conventional view in all the sciences has been that it is only by securing objective knowledge that we can be guaranteed that it is true and that we can therefore avoid the claims of our critics that we are biased in our viewpoint and are merely parading ideology in the guise of science. This is an important justification of the search for objectivity, but many critics, especially in the social sciences, have argued that it is unrealistic: objectivity is seen as impossible and truth a
Post a Comment
Read more

Integration and Social Structure

In my previous post I set out a view of the relationship between the interaction order and social structure. I want now to discuss the forms of integration or malintegration that exist at each level. These issues were famously discussed by David Lockwood in an article of 1964 through his distinction between ‘social integration’ and ‘system integration’ (in  Explorations in Social Change , edited by Zollschan and Hirsch). My claim is that social integration should be seen as relating to the interaction order and system integration as relating to the macro-level social structure. A state of social integration exists when interacting individuals and groups establish shared understandings that permit a coordination of their actions. They produce a negotiated order that underpins their joint action. Where there are failures in mutual understanding and a resulting lack of coordination, there is social disorder, rather than social order, and the potential for social disintegration. This was
Post a Comment
Read more