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This thesis examines the dynamics in the process of cultural policy concerning the museum and gallery sector in Taiwan and Scotland of the United Kingdom. By applying a cross-national comparative methodology, it explores the factors influencing policy development for museums in relation to individual national contexts. The historical outline of the development of museums in relation to the political, economic, social and cultural settings of Taiwan and Scotland respectively informs the various ways in which museums have been perceived and reflects historical outcomes in contemporary policy issues. The study of the structural context of each political system brings to light institutional issues underlying the policy process. Focusing on the governance of publicly funded museums, the thesis investigates the positions of museums within public sector structures, the relationship between museums and relevant bodies at national and local level, and the role of a governing body or representative agency. Also, it looks into approaches to museum governance and resource allocation in relation to the governance models. In order to specify causes and consequences of a museum’s internal operations in response to external forces in the policy process, the thesis investigates six case studies: three cases of Taiwan are the National Palace Museum, the National Taiwan Museum and the Taipei Story House, and three cases of Scotland are the National Galleries of Scotland, Glasgow Museums and the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery. Different features, diverse operational approaches and challenges facing individual museums with regard to their roots, funding sources and contents are indicated, whereby their relevant contexts are also examined. The research explores the diversity of the museum sector and demonstrates the links between museums’ operation, functions and engagement in policy. To conclude the study, it specifically discusses a number of main points arising from the previous contextual and empirical examination and identifies national differences and limited similarities between Taiwan and Scotland, which ultimately contributes to the knowledge of the complex relations between governments, museums and changing environments in the policy process.

The Southern Uplands of Scotland is at present a region of great interest to both geologists and geophysicists. The complex tectonic history associated with the closing of the proto-Atlantic ocean has yet to be determined. Previous geophysical studies have shown that the Southern Uplands is atypical of normal continent. Geomagnetic investigations have indicated a zone of anomalously high electrical conductivity underlying the Southern Uplands region at a depth of 12-30 km. In order to determine further the exact structure and spatial variation of this conductivity zone, two geomagnetic studies have been carried out in the region. A Geomagnetic Deep Sounding Array of 19 Gough-Reitzel variometers recorded the naturally varying Earth's magnetic field during December 1973 and January 1974. This was followed by Magneto-Telluric observations on lines perpendicular and parallel to the strike of the supposed anomaly. In this thesis, reviews of various regional MT studies, the geophysical significance of conductivity measurements and the known geology and geophysics of the Southern Uplands region are given. The aims, and relevant theory, of induction studies are also presented. The observational procedures for both the GDS and MT techniques, and the type and form of the MT activity, are described. Techniques for analysing the MT data are developed in some detail. Methods are proposed, and examples given, for (a) estimating the gross structural strike direction, (b) averaging response function estimates, (c) estimating the confidence intervals of the response functions, (d) estimating new forms of coherence functions, which exhibit many desirable properties, and (e) a frequency-time analysis· for estimating the response.functions for sub-intervals of the data set. The full MT and GDS estimates from analysis of the single station data - rotated major and rotated minor impedance estimates, azimuthal angles, skew factors and real and imaginary induction vectors - are presented and qualitatively discussed. A one-dimensional interpretation of two-dimensional MT data is examined and shown to be valid for 'rotated major' impedance estimates from locations sufficiently distant from gross lateral inhomogeneity. Various methods for determining an 'optimum model' that best satisfies, in some manner, the observed MT responses are reviewed. A Monte-Carlo inversion procedure is developed and applied to the 'rotated major' data from six of the thirteen locations. It was considered, for various reasons, unjustifiable to interpret all the data. The GDS and MT results agree on the complexity of the conductivity variations in the Midland Valley, the Southern Uplands and Northern England. The simple 'Eskdalemuir anomaly' proposed by Edwards et al. (1971) cannot explain the observations. A conductive layer is required beneath the Midland Valley at a depth of no greater than 11 km. The conductive zone underlying the Southern Uplands is at a depth greater than 24 km. For the Northern England response, the top layer of highly conducting sediments 'screen' the possible effects of a 'lower crustal/ upper mantle' conductive layer. The geological and geophysical implications of the acceptable MT models are discussed. In this work, the quantitative information, offered by the MT technique, is shown to be necessary for a full interpretation of the conductivity distribution. Also, estimation of the phase response, as well as the amplitude response, of the impedance tensor elements is shown to resolve the surface structure of the acceptable models. Various suggestions are made about further investigation of the region.

This thesis is an interdisciplinary study with two major objectives, namely to investigate both the cultural and historical developments which took place between c.795 and c.1000 in the West Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Various types of evidence are examined in order to understand the impact of the Norse upon the preexisting population of Western Scotland and vice versa. In Chapter 1, the onomastic evidence is reviewed in order to isolate the total area of Norse settlement, and to find within it areas where this settlement developed in differing ways. In Chapter 2, I survey the archaeological evidence. Chapter 3 examines the linguistic situation pertaining in the west vis a vis Norse and Gaelic, while Chapter 4 reviews the evidence for the survival or otherwise of Christianity. Particular attention is paid to the investigation of the people called Gall-Gaidheil 'Foreign Gael'. Using onomastics and historical sources, the area of their ethnogenesis is isolated and their linguistic and religious affiliation explored. Chapter 5 examines the evidence for their later presence in Galloway. On the historical side, Chapter 6 investigates the Norse raids and settlement and provides a date for these events. Also in Chapter 6, and in Chapters 7 and 8, I focus upon the political links between the West Highlands and Islands and the kingdoms of Scotland and Dublin during the ninth and tenth centuries.

The aim of the thesis is to examine the nomenclature of the Barra Isles by investigating the distribution and interaction of Norse, Gaelic and English name-forming elements. Consideration is given to the historical, political and economic reasons for changes in placenames, and the language situation is assessed. In a theory-based chapter the function of names, naming strategies, name changes, and reasons for loss of names are examined. The main thrust is to compile a gazetteer of place-names gathered both from historical documents such as maps, sea-charts, registers and travel literature, and from interviews with local people. With the help of a database the corpus is analysed with regard to semantics, morphology and naming intention. Finally, a consideration of the historical development of names illustrates degrees of stability and of change in the place-names of Barra.

Offshore wind farms are widely considered to become a cornerstone of energy transition for securing energy supply and tackling climate change simultaneously. But recent developments have demonstrated that the siting of offshore wind farms is far from being conflict-free, evoking confrontations with a number of stakeholder interests. Such real-life evidence implies a reductio ad absurdum, as offshore wind farms are generally supposed to be less contested than the ones onshore and therefore more convenient for local communities. By drawing on two case studies in Scotland and Germany (Argyll Array / Baltic 1), this thesis examines various conflicts that emerge from the siting of offshore wind farms and compares their underlying causes as well as their implications and institutional consideration in the planning process. In order to understand the conflicts over offshore wind farms, the research employs the epistemological framework of ‘space-related conflicts’ which turns the attention to conflicting interests, values and practices of affected actors as well as to the significance of structural and spatial conditions. Throughout the thesis, it will be argued that it is not the wind farms per se that are contested, but that the conflicts rather revolve around the places and spaces which are meant to be changed by the siting of offshore wind farms. The findings show that both case studies reflect similar conflicts, where adverse impacts on coastal tourism and environmental impacts turned out to be the key issues for local opponents from the public. However, even though key controversies are comparable, major differences result from the rationales that opponents invoke to substantiate their concerns and more dominantly from the existing planning frameworks which pre-structure the power relations and dynamics of public engagement. The comparative study concludes by suggesting some policy recommendations for future practices of dealing with affected actors. Therefore, the research findings do not just provide a contribution to the theoretical debates about the formation of resistance to renewables, but they also present practical implications relevant to policy-makers.

The Eastern Scottish population of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) is the northernmost population of this species. The resident core of this population consists of 120 to 150 different individuals. This small size and its geographical isolation from other populations raises questions about its viability and whether the population has behavioural patterns that differ from those common to other populations of the same species. Microsatellite genetic diversity was low and mitochondrial DNA genetic diversity values were lowest in East Scotland compared to other populations worldwide and to neighbouring populations around UK waters. It has been well documented, from four different field sites worldwide, that male bottlenose dolphins form alliances with preferred male associates. These alliances can last for several years and the males involved show association coefficients similar to those of mothers and calves (0.8-1.0). These alliances appear to be of great importance in obtaining matings for the males. In the Eastern Scottish population males do not form alliances. No evidence of strong associations between individuals of either sex was found and there was no correlation between association and relatedness patterns. I suggest that the isolation and small size of the population together with reduced genetic diversity affects the pressure of kin selection for altruistic behaviours. There is no gain in competing or associating with close relatives for access to mates and it might be more important to avoid inbreeding by dispersing. Although evidence of gene flow between East Scotland and its neighbouring populations was not confirmed with Bayesian clustering analysis, a small set of individuals from Wales were found to be closely related to individuals from the East Coast of Scotland. In general the dynamics found in UK water populations resemble those of the Western North Atlantic with sympatric populations of coastal as well as pelagic individuals.

This thesis is an examination of the most important Scottish saints’ cults and pilgrimage centres in the period c.1349-1560. Specifically, this project locates the role of this group within the wider devotional practices of the late medieval kingdom. Through analysis of liturgical calendars, ecclesiastical dedications, contemporary literature and naming and pilgrimage patterns, it identifies and explains the distinctive features of the veneration of national saints in late medieval Scotland in the two centuries from the first appearance of the Black Death in 1349 to the Reformation in 1560. The key theme of this thesis is the consideration of the manner in which external factors, such as general Western European social and religious developments, and distinctly local phenomena such as the intermittent warfare with England and the varied agendas of interest groups like shrine custodians, the national church and the crown, impacted upon the saintly landscape of the late medieval kingdom and the popular piety of its people. The medieval cult of the saints is a subject of considerable value for historians because it was a movement in a constant state of flux. It adapted to the socio-religious context of the societies in which it operated. Although never neglected as an area of study, the cult of the saints in Scotland has received further attention in recent years through the influence of the Survey of Dedications to Saints in Medieval Scotland project carried out at the University of Edinburgh from 2004-7. However, studies on the role and function of national and local saints, those believed by contemporaries to have had a Scottish provenance or a hagiographical connection to the medieval kingdom, have tended to focus on two specific periods. These were the so called ‘age of the saints’, the period between the fourth and eighth centuries in which the majority of these men and women were thought to have been active, or the twelfth and thirteenth centuries from when the main Latin hagiographical sources originate. The role and function of this group in the later middle ages has been either neglected or subject to the pervasive influence of a 1968 article by David McRoberts which argued that church- and crown- sponsored patriotism was the main factor in shaping popular piety in this period. This thesis will question this premise and provide the first indepth study of the cults of St Andrew, Columba of Iona/Dunkeld, Kentigern of Glasgow and Ninian of Whithorn in a late medieval Scottish context, as well as the lesser known northern saint, Duthac of Tain.

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