The climate of the Wester Ross region of NW Scotland is particularly sensitive to fluctuations in the strength and latitude of the North Atlantic Gulf Stream. This was particularly apparent during the last deglaciation (14.7-12.9 ka), when overall climatic amelioration was interrupted by periods of cooling, the most significant being a 1.2 ka return to glacial conditions during the Younger Dryas (12.9-11.5 ka). Glacial readvances during these cooling episodes left behind numerous geomorphological features, which have been mapped and interpreted through a variety of methods, including fieldwork observations, aerial photography and digital elevation models, to form a detailed reconstruction of the style and timing of deglaciation. These methods were augmented by the study of 3D digital models, produced by combining 5cm resolution, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scans with colour photography, leading to the production of a detailed geomorphological map of a cirque formation in Torridon, Wester Ross, which was covered by an ice-sheet at the Last Glacial Maximum, and experienced localised ice flow during subsequent deglaciation and readvances. Six statistically comparable cosmogenic 10Be bedrock exposure ages give a Younger Dryas age for sites in Torridon and Applecross (Wester Ross), and have also been used to constrain the vertical extent of these ice fields. Reconstructions of these ice bodies revealed that the Torridon ice field (mean ELA, 482m) covered ~100km2, over twice the surface area covered by the Applecross ice field (~43km2). This could have resulted from the survival of ice in Torridon prior to the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling, and is tentativelty supported by pre-Younger Dryas cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages from this study and previous studies, which imply that ice existed close to the Wester Ross coastline and within central Torridon between 14-13ka. The Applecross ice field mean ELA (361m) was lowered by the presence of independent glaciers, which formed in low-lying troughs as snow was efficiently transferred to the NE by prevailing SW winds. Using empirical values from a global dataset, average annual Younger Dryas palaeoprecipitation values for the Torridon and Applecross ELAs are 2010 ± 266 and 2312 ± 534 mm a-1 respectively, suggesting a wetter climate than today. Palaeoprecipitation calculated using equations based on a climate model of NW Scotland, yield lower values between 1005 ± 67 mm a-1 and 1758 ± 118 mm a-1 for the Torridon ELA and 1205 ± 233 mm a-1 to 2109 ± 407 mm a-1 for the Applecross ELA, perhaps a more reliable estimate which reflect enhanced continentaility, promoted by the formation of sea ice on the NE Atlantic seaboard during the Younger Dryas.Despite the rapid warming observed in palaeotemperature proxies, studies of glacial geomorphology and basal shear stress suggest that initial deglaciation was slow, oscillatory and warm-based, leading to the formation of prominent retreat moraines in the lower valleys. This prolonged transition can be related to the northward migration of sea ice and the gradual reintroduction of a Gulf Stream-dominated maritime climate. Ice remaining in the central area down-wasted in-situ as the regional ELA increased, creating hummocky landscape. Finally, cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages indicate that glaciers (probably characerised by a polythermal regime) retreated into the high north-facing corries at approximately 11.8ka, depositing a series of flutes.

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This research is concerned with how cultural policy is made in contemporary Scotland. Focussed on deciphering and understanding the actions, behaviours, meanings and performances of those involved in cultural policy making and how a cultural policy community is created and maintained, a qualitative research approach was adopted. As such, the research is based on semi-structured interviews with fifteen key players from the cultural policy community The influence and application of a range of theoretical perspectives shaped my data analysis and research outcomes in significant ways, leading me away from an initial positivist approach - where I had hoped for a ‘cultural policy making toolkit’ to emerge from the data - to a more nuanced understanding of the complex and unpredictable dynamics at play in cultural policy making. In particular, writings broadly defined as within the postmodern camp - namely those of Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari - provided the possibility of new paradigms for the discussion and understanding of cultural policy making, leading me to unexpected insights into cultural policy making processes. Key findings relate to the characters and their performances within the cultural policy community as well as the spaces where cultural policy is created. Firstly, the significance and impact of key players emerged as having less to do with their perceived status, influence or professional positions, than their ability to construct a ‘cultural policy’ identity, attune themselves to, engage with and affect an ever changing and fluid policy environment. Paradoxically, the data revealed that those who appeared at first sight to be the most powerful and influential often emerged as the least so. Notably, the most effective players seemed to be those who invested in their sense of self and social identities and roles, clearly articulated values, principles and beliefs, bringing an authenticity to their performances in the cultural policy sphere. In addition these players demonstrated an almost intuitive understanding of the power of myth and storytelling in the construction of cultural policy. Similarly, the most significant cultural policy spaces were not where I had thought them to be - for example, public agency boards and political committees - but rather in the more amorphous spaces of gossip, ‘off-the-record’ comments, newspaper commentary and opinions, networks and the assumed meanings in both the said and unsaid. My data also reveal an active engagement in the ‘public domain’ by the cultural policy community, a space that is constructed and defined by meanings, signs and values - the substance and language of cultural policy. Finally, it is the performances of actors in the cultural policy spaces that bring cultural policy into being. The data disclose the power of speaking and writing in shifting and disrupting perceptions, views and interpretations, and in creating different spaces of encounter and creativity, leading to new understandings and unintended cultural policy directions. Indeed, my data suggest that it is more often than not the accidental happenings, productive outcomes of inadvertent actions, incubation of ideas and serendipity, that lead to the most effective and affective cultural policy outcomes - rather than the formulaic and process driven approaches required of local and national government and its agencies in the name of public accountability. The main implications of my research and recommendations for future action include: the desirability of wider dissemination of cultural policy research to practitioners, and an increase in practitioner-led research; recognition of the diversity and potential of atypical and informal cultural policy spaces; and the need for professional development opportunities and programmes to take cognisance of the latent resource inherent in practitioners who, with some encouragement, confidence-boosting and on occasion guidance in developing themselves as ‘readers’ of cultural policy discourse, could contribute to a more active and engaged cultural policy community.

Our thesis discusses the issue of Europeanization in light of Scottish cultural heritage policies since devolution. This sectoral public policy is not the subject of much attention, but this thesis wants to fill the gap. This thesis also raises the questions of identity in the field of cultural heritage. We tend to determine the forces that are involved in the construction of the Scottish identity post-devolution. This work is done by keeping in mind the fact that Scotland is torn between the European and the British influences. In order to operationalize our object of study, we identify six variables that are part of the EU public policies. These variables are the economic and social justifications of cultural public policies, the importance of cultural democracy, the cultural development of regions, the EU policy process and the decision-making process, the emphasis placed on the development of partnerships and the ambivalence of the notion of the EU identity. Our analysis reveals that all of these variables are present in Scottish cultural heritage policies. The omnipresence of all these variables is significant. Nevertheless, because of the limited extent of our work, we consider that it is more appropriate to assert that policy convergence is taking place in Scotland instead of concluding that Scottish cultural heritage policies are openly Europeanized. Our thesis also shows that the presence of these variables in Scottish cultural heritage policies since devolution is an efficient way for Scotland to assert its difference from the UK. Indeed, for almost all of these variables, Scotland’s position tends to differ from the UK.

This thesis explores the factors leading to the images of self-deprecation and shame in contemporary Scottish film. It would seem that the causes of these reoccurring motifs may be because the Scottish people are unable to escape from their past and are uneasy about the future of the nation. There is an internal struggle for both Scottish men and women, who try to adhere to their predetermined roles in Scottish culture, but this role leads to violence, alcoholism, and shame. In addition, there is also a fear for the future of the nation that represented in films that feature a connection between children and the creation of life with the death of Scotland's past. This thesis will focus on films created under a recent boom in film production in Scotland beginning in 1994 till the present day.

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Worldwide, representative democracies have been experiencing declining levels of voter turnout, lower membership levels in political parties, and apathy towards their respective political systems and their ability to influence the political process. E-democracy, and specifically E-petitioning, have been touted as a possible solution to this problem by scholars of electoral systems. In 1999, the Scottish Parliament reconvened for the first time in nearly three hundred years, and quickly set out to change the way politics were handled in Scotland by launching the world's first online E-petition system. Analyzing the Scottish Parliament's E-petition system, and assessing the extent to which it fulfilled the aspiration and goals of its designers serves as a litmus test to see whether it is an effective medium to increase public political participation, and whether it could be replicated in other democratic countries. Data was collected from the Scottish Parliament's E-petitioning website, which hosts all the E-petitions and details of who signed them, each E-petition's path through the Parliament, who sponsored the petition, and other important information. Since success of an E-petition is highly subjective due to the original petitioner's own desired goals, three case studies of E-petitions and a data analysis were utilized to evaluate the system. Results suggest that the Scottish Parliament's E-petition system has engaged Scots in the political process, given them a medium to participate in meaningful policy formulation, and produced tangible changes in policy through E-petitions.

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