Based on archival work in England, Scotland, the United States, Canada and Australia, my dissertation expands the traditional purview of diplomatic history into the international dimensions of the social and cultural realms. My study treats doomed attempts to reconstruct previously-held notions of hierarchy and deference as encapsulated in the Empire Settlement Act (ESA) in the wake of the dramatic changes to the world order resulting from World War I. To counter the emergence of Japan as a world power, under the auspices of the ESA, British Columbia and Western Australia, the two most distant outposts of the “white” British Empire in the Pacific, imported poor Celtic farmers and militiamen from northern Scotland in an attempt to retain their “British” identity, which they felt was threatened by Japan on the one hand, the Japanese in their midst on another, and local “nationalisms” on a third. This dissertation argues that such schemes were undermined by the conflicting priorities of Britain and the Dominions, the tensions between laissez-faire and excessive centralized control, the disconnect between government, capital and labor, the valuations of self-help within highly circumscribed situations, the conflict between the themes of rejuvenation and permanent regression, the fight between an idiosyncratic rural ideal and the reality of the urbanized and industrialized world of the twentieth century, and the inconsistent application of supposedly inviolable Social Darwinist ideals. The birth and death of plans to recruit Hebridean crofters to British Columbia and Western Australia in the 1920s reveals a great deal about the fluidity surrounding concepts of identity and security in a very unstable time. The debates surrounding the status of the Hebridean Scots, especially vis-à-vis their British compatriots and the Japanese, are an extreme window through which the much wider dialogues taking place regarding the status of the British Empire both internally and on the global stage, on the changing role of race as the final determinant of one’s identity and status, and the clashes between the Victorian and the modern ways of defining and conceiving of Empire, can be viewed and debated. / text

Recent developments in Scottish historiography have done much to resurrect the Restoration from the obscurity in which it had conventionally languished. Lacunae remain, however, and one of these surrounds the Highlands, which has often had to make do with broad generalisation. The present thesis aims to address this deficiency through exploration of two general themes. Firstly, it considers the place of the Highlands within the broader Scottish and British contexts. Focusing on the linkages between central government and the local elite, and on the extent to which the Highlands were socially and culturally distinct, it argues that historians’ continuing treatment of the Highlands as a self-contained entity is misguided. Instead, it is suggested that the region should be viewed as simply another locality within Britain, a locality which, while displaying a unique hybridised identity, was nevertheless heavily integrated with the rest of the country. Secondly, the thesis traces the development of government policy towards the Highland periphery. Recognising that policy was usually aimed at curbing the perceived problem of endemic animal theft, it uncovers opposing intellectual underpinnings – ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ – to the government’s approach. It then considers in detail the various policy initiatives launched over the period, arguing that most of these were shaped by the interplay of the underlying strategic impulses. It also acknowledges the influence of wider developments in British politics. Ultimately, the thesis seeks to recast the prevailing understanding of the Highlands. Moving away from well-worn stereotypes of endemic lawlessness and violence, it also questions the notion of a fundamental cleavage between central and local elites. Instead, it argues that, during the reigns of Charles II and James VII, the prevailing pattern was one of partnership and mutual reinforcement.

This study focuses on the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) modelled on a federal, collegiate university based on a number of existing and geographically dispersed Further Education (FE) colleges and research institutions. The inclusion of FE colleges and their geographical dispersal distinguishes it from most mainstream institutions. The UHI was heralded by its advocates as a distinctively radical enterprise designed to meet the fast-moving challenges of the twenty-first century by embracing new technologies and overcoming geographical barriers. After attaining Higher Education (HE) status in 2001, the policy goal of fostering a research culture emerged as a prominent concern for the UHI. This study explores the policy drive to foster such a research culture, focusing on the period from 2003 to 2008. The study was informed by a constructivist grounded theory methodological approach and the data gathering included twenty-six semi-structured interviews to ascertain how this policy drive was received within the UHI partners. The study found that a unified research culture was not perceived to have embedded throughout the partners, with the exception of one or two research institutions where it can be said to have pre-existed. Against this backdrop, the study identified emerging discourses encapsulating how the policy drive was perceived by a wide spectrum of different actors throughout the UHI. Two different types of performativity discourses proved to be central in shaping the policy aspiration, namely a ‘RAE performativity discourse’ and a ‘Further Education (FE) performativity discourse’. Both discourses can be seen to have influenced the trajectory of research expansionist policy within the UHI by setting up a normative space privileging certain identities, subjectivities and associated actions at the expense of others. In highlighting both the structural and socio-cultural barriers to the policy of promoting research, the study aims to contribute to wider debates on institutional policies for building research capacity in a dual sector/hybrid institutional setting. In terms of offering direct benefits to the UHI, by analysing the different sort of assumptions and realities that shape the meaning of a research culture within the UHI, this study may help inform future policy making on research expansion within UHI partners. The study concludes by making a number of practical recommendations which the author believes will help move research from the periphery to a more central stage within the UHI partners.

De 1750 à 1850, une activité nouvelle, le tourisme, commence son développement sur le territoire des Highlands d’Écosse. La région devient l’une des destinations les plus prisées des Britanniques. Le mouvement est déclenché par l’ensemble d’évolutions des sensibilités que l’on rattache au préromantisme et au romantisme. Un intérêt nouveau pour les paysages incultes et «sauvages», un goût pour l’histoire et un pour les traditions populaires se font jour. Cet intérêt est soutenu par une production littéraire et iconographique diffusant une image positive des Highlands. Les infrastructures de transport et d’hébergement, encore très déficientes au début de la période, s’adaptent en un temps relativement bref aux exigences de la nouvelle clientèle touristique, démontrant la capacité de la société locale à mobiliser ses ressources et à se saisir des opportunités ouvertes. Sous l’effet de cette activité, le territoire des Highlands se transforme. Certains lieux deviennent des sites touristiques, distingués pour leurs qualités esthétiques et les associations historiques qu’ils suscitent et entraînant des aménagements lieux pour faciliter leur accès, voire les embellir ou les protéger. En apportant compensations matérielles et symboliques à une région connaissant des difficultés économiques et en conduisant aristocratie et middle class à se côtoyer dans les mêmes activités, le tourisme dans les Highlands contribue à apaiser les tensions sociales par ailleurs très vives que peut connaître la Grande-Bretagne au cours de cette période. / From 1750 to 1850, a new kind of industry began its development in the Highlands of Scotland. The region became one of the most favored holiday destinations for the British. The entering into the age of sensibility and romantism accounts for those changes. A new interest in nature and « wild » landscapes and a taste for history and folklore appeared. This movement was supported by literary and pictural productions that spread enhancing representations of the Highlands. Transport and accommodation infrastructures were still very inadequate at the start of the period but improved rapidly to meet the demands of the new travelling community, revealing the capacity of the local society to mobilise their ressourcesto seize those opportunities. The territory of the Highlands was tranformed by this industry. Some places became highly regarded thanks to their aesthetic qualities or their historical associations. New organisations were made to facilitate their access or even to adorn or protect them. Tourism brought material and symbolic compensations to a region afflicted witheconomic difficulties and it brought the aristocracy and the middle class to share the same interests, contributing to appease social tensions during a period in which they could be very keen.