The purpose of this study is to investigate the connection between people and the hill of Bennachie in the Garioch region of North-East Scotland. The scholarly aim is to complete an inter-disciplinary study in Folkloristics and Anthropology and to enhance ethnological method with landscape theory. The methodology for the fieldwork involved a mix of qualitative research carried out through participant observation and oral history interviews. Whilst the focus of the interviews was on a core group of community volunteers, fieldwork ranged from solitary walking to group participation. Midway through the fieldwork an archival survey was commissioned and this information was used to complement the fieldwork and introduce a collaborative perspective. With a dual methodological focus the thesis approached community relationships with landscape through diverse routes: personal narrative; poetry; the dynamics of community woodland groups, and the interpretation and management of a twentieth century farm ruin. These appear to be very different scales of analysis, yet each topic was heavily influenced by the legacy of land change and clearance in Scotland during the Agricultural Improvements. Each element is related to landscape physically, particularly through walking, and are individual and group performances that generate and reproduce moral values. The principal conclusion is that relationships between people and land in North-East Scotland have been misrepresented through a historic and scholarly legacy of dispossession. Coupled with this misrepresentation is the continuing belief in the North-East that farm lifestyles and dialect is dead or dying. This thesis underlines an alignment between Improvement and antifeudalistic discourse with walking and looking in Scotland. It demonstrates the continuing primacy of landscape and language through looking at, walking on and writing about Bennachie. Landscape attachment is exemplified in these performances and demonstrates a strong co-constitutive relationship between the ‘Lan and the Fowk'.

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The examination of Scottish and Irish links with the Atlantic realm of the British Empire has made an important contribution to national histories and imperial historiography. This thesis concentrates on an underdeveloped field of eighteenth- century historical studies of Scotland and of Ireland. Eighteenth-century perceptions of the English East India Company (EIC) in Scotland and Ireland have been analysed throughout this study, an approach offering a number of advantages. By shifting the geographic focus, established conceptualisations of Scottish and Irish provincialism, formulated within the field of Atlantic history, have been reviewed using evidence relating to the Asian Empire. This dissertation also contributes to Scottish and Irish comparative historiography. It exposes distinct similarities and subtle differences in the reactions of Scottish and Anglo-Irish societies to the EIC. Factions within both societies sought access to global trade, particularly once the parliaments of their respective countries had been constitutionally liberated. The monopoly posed fundamental questions in the politics of union and empire in both Scotland and Ireland. It prominently featured in Irish debates over union at the end of the eighteenth century, just as it had in Scotland in 1707. Nonetheless, Scottish and Anglo-Irish societies remained sensitive to the extra- commercial character of the EIC. Proposals for participation in the East Indies trade offer insights into the complexities of their respective political cultures. Responses to the EIC have been used throughout this thesis to test influential theories in imperial historiography, regarding the political culture which promoted overseas expansion. Accepted ideas regarding the role of the British Empire in the construction of North British and Anglo-Irish identity have been challenged. The hypothesis that provinciality was a product of the Atlantic Empire is also contested. This dissertation questions certain aspects of the ‘gentlemanly capitalism’ thesis. The notion that East India patronage inhibited Scottish debate should also be reassessed. Furthermore the thesis contends that the importance of the Eastern Empire to contemporaries has been underestimated in both Scottish and Irish historiography.

This thesis analyses network, networking and interprofessional collaborative features and their potential development within health services. An ethnographic methodology was used that included non-participant observations to provide a background, basic quantitative data as well as a qualitative approach. The qualitative method involved a random sample of twenty-four individuals working in one acute NHS hospital using semi-structured, in-depth interview questions to determine, through thematic interpretation of the analytical data, their perceptions of network, networking and interprofessional collaboration features. This provided insights into how these features manifest themselves and are interlinked.

The thesis is concerned with the study of the economics of venison production in Scotland. It examines the various production systems utilised at present both in the wild and on an intensive farm and analyses the factors affecting productivity and their relative importance in each system. The evolution of the red deer in Scotland and more recent developments in the market for venison are examined in the early chapters. In addition, the production system in the wild is analysed and a production function is developed. In order to study the population dynamics of the red deer, a mathematical model is constructed. This is used in conjunction with the production function developed previously to illustrate the interaction between the ecological and economic factors which govern the productivity of red deer populations. In the light of this analysis, a number of recommendations are made for the improvement of productivity in the wild. The limitations of this production system, however, pose a problem for the practical implementation of such proposals. To some extent, these may be overcome by the adoption of a more intensive production system, although this in turn creates its own problems. The second part of this thesis is thus concerned with the study of the intensive system. The experimental deer farm at Glensaugh forms the basis f~ the investigation of this system. The data thus obtained are used in conjunction with a modified version of the mathematical model previously developed. This is incorporated in a linear programming format so that the farming system may be analysed and the operating strategies compared. The objective of the analysis is to determine which factors exert the greatest influence upon the operating strategies in terms of operating profit. Once these critical areas are identified, research effort may be directed more effectively to improve the system performance. The above analysis leads to a number of recommendations regarding' the operating strategies on a deer farm. The financial aspects of such an operation are examined and provide some basis against which the future viability of the farming operation might be assessed. No attempt is made to define levels of acceptable returns on investment. The intention is rather to determine the effects which changes in the economic and environmental conditions have upon investment potential. Although this study provides some tentative solutions as to how improvements in productivity may be obtained these should not be regarded as final. As knowledge of the production system improves, the solutions to the problems will change as will the problems themselves.

This study attempts to examine change to the industrial relations system of Renfrewshire over the last few decades. By focusing on the area's traditional historical reliance on manufacturing industry as a vital contributor for employment in Renfrewshire, the consequences of change and its effect on the area's local industrial relations system provide the main emphasis for our research. In particular, the study adopts the concept of'externality' as a theme, and as an analytical tool for analysis, in order to comment on change experienced by Renfrewshire's distinct industrial relations system. Investigation took the form of a survey of workplace industrial relations in manufacturing small and medium sized establishments in the districts of Renfrew and Inverclyde. The main chapters of this study consider the main institutions of industrial relations support for the Renfrewshire area, such as Employers' Organisations, Trade Unions or ACAS; and the changes which have been seen to occur with regard to these bodies. We contend that an industrial relations parallel to the concept of 'branch factory syndrome' has been witnessed by these institutional bodies in relation to Renfrewshire. The main conclusion of this study is that the system has adapted, in its own way, based on its historical characteristics, especially in respect of workplace organisation. The study identifies four main factors which have a relevance on the changing face of the industrial relations system in Renfrewshire: 1. industrial re-structuring (at macro level) 2. non-unionism 3. national bargaining decline 4. organisation-level rationalisation Finally, some recommendations for further research are made

The Free Church of Scotland's home-mission campaign played a major role in the Church's attempt to define itself as the true national Church of Scotland following the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843. It also represented the Free Church's effort to confront the problems of irreligion and social degradation which accompanied industrialisation and urbanisation. The study begins with the contribution of Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847). As a Church of Scotland minister in Glasgow between 1815 and 1823, Chalmers endeavoured to make the parish the focal point for the local community. Chalmers was supported in his ministry by a large voluntary agency which visited local residents and encouraged self-help and communal responsibility. He created a system of day and Sunday schools, and sought to reform the system of poor relief. The aim was to create self-reliant district communities, through what was termed the 'territorial plan'. This thesis argues that Chalmers' posthumous contribution to home-mission work, through his writings on the territorial plan and missionary work in Glasgow and Edinburgh, profoundly influenced the social outreach of all the Presbyterian Churches, and especially the Free Church, in nineteenth-century Scotland. Territorialism gave the Presbyterian Churches a valuable link to those groups in society which had been adversely affected by urbanisation and industrialisation. The thesis also considers how the home-mission movement in Scotland was influenced by external forces such as political, social and economic developments as well as religious matters such as theological controversies, Church union negotiations and a growing disestablishment campaign. This thesis demonstrates how the Free Church's territorial campaign was a fundamental aspect of its commitment to an essentially new, predominantly urban society.

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