The City That Refused to Die: Glasgow : The Politics of Urban Regeneration

Keating, Michael

History

Aberdeen Univ Pr

The United Kingdom has often been seen as a unitary nation-state. This book argues that it should be understood as a plurinational union in which the key elements of demos, telos, and ethos are contested. Except in the mid-twentieth century, its territorial boundaries have been contested and the matter of sovereignty has never definitely been settled. Since the end of the twentieth century, devolution to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland has made this more apparent. With the weakening of the British national project, tensions between the centre and the peripheral nations have grown, greatly exacerbated by Brexit. Eurosceptics have long argued that membership of the European Union is inconsistent with the sovereignty of the British people and Parliament. On another reading, however, both the UK and the EU are plurinational unions and highly compatible. The EU, indeed, served as an important external support system for the devolution settlement. Brexit destabilizes it. Unionism historically served as a doctrine and a set of practices seeking to reconcile a unitary state with a plurinational reality. Since devolution, it has struggled to come to terms with the new constitutional reality or embrace the idea of shared sovereignty. The Union is under increasing strain but there is no simple way of resolving these strains, either by secession of the component nations, or a return to the unitary state. The peoples of these islands need to find new constitutional concepts for living together in a world in which traditional ideas of national sovereignty have lost their relevance.

State and Nation in the United Kingdom: The Fractured Union

Legal Theory & Systems

Oxford University Press

Plurinational Democracy: Stateless Nations in a Post-Sovereignty Era

Transnational integration and other challenges to the nation-state have deprived it of its mystique and broken the automatic link between state and nation. This has encouraged the revival of stateless nationalisms, but also provided new means for their accommodation. The author argues that these changes call for a radical rethinking of the nature of sovereignty and of the state itself to meet the twin challenges of recognition of nationality and of democracy. Drawing on the experience of four plurinational state - United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, and Canada - and of the European Union, he analyses the challenges of plurinationalism and its recognition.

Reference

Words, Language & Grammar

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

After three hundred years, the Anglo-Scottish Union is in serious difficulty. This is not because of a profound cultural divide between England and Scotland but because recent decades have seen the rebuilding of Scotland as a political community while the ideology and practices of the old unionism have atrophied. Yet while Britishness is in decline, it has not been replaced by a dominant ideology of Scottish independence. Rather Scots are looking to renegotiate union to find a new place in the Isles, in Europe, and in the world. There are few legal, constitutional or political obstacles to Scottish independence, but an independent Scotland would need to forge a new social and economic project as a small nation in the global market-place, and there has been little serious thinking about the implications of this. Short of independence, there is a range of constitutional options for renegotiating the Union to allow more Scottish self-government on the lines that public opinion seems to favor. The limits are posed not by constitutional principles but by the unwillingness of English opinion to abandon their unitary conception of the state. The end of the United Kingdom may be provoked, not by Scottish nationalism, but by English unionism.

The Independence of Scotland: Self-Government and the Shifting Politics of Union

Europe

Social scientists have regularly proclaimed the end of territory under successive waves of modernization, yet it continually re-emerges as a key principle of social, economic, and political organization. Rather than a de-territorialization we are witnessing a rescaling of social life as functional systems, identities, and political expression migrate to new levels. This is not new, but is a recurrent feature of the European state. States have sought to reassert control over these new spaces, while political and social movements have sought to politicize them and open them up to popular influence. The result has been the emergence of the meso-level or region as set of contested spaces, and increasingly as a level of government. Social and economic interests are refracted at these new territorial levels to reshape the policy agenda and create new social alliances and conflicts. Regions have emerged as spaces for public policy, with significant divergences over economic development, welfare policies, public services and environmental issues. Rescaling poses important normative questions about self-determination and social solidarity. These cannot definitively be resolved but are reframed, with new forms of self-government being possible and social solidarity emerging at new levels. Competitive regionalism has become a dominant theme but there is no generalized race to bottom as regions respond to the challenge in multiple ways. Regions are not going to replace the nation-state as they remain loosely-bounded and contested spaces but territory continues to reshape European polities. Drawing on a rich interdisciplinary literature and on original research, the volume provides a fresh and engaging analytical approach to the understanding of territory and power in contemporary Europe.

Rescaling the European State: The Making of Territory and the Rise of the Meso

Hoosiers have always loved basketball! 
 Long before Larry Bird carried Indiana State University to the 1979 NCAA National Championship or Bobby Knight walked the sidelines at Indiana University, basketball fostered community identity across the Hoosier state. From Indiana's tiniest towns to its biggest cities, high school basketball is a source of pride, unifying communities with different races, religions, and social and economic status.
 First drawn simply to documenting the architecture of Indiana's high school buildings and basketball courts, Chris Smith and Michael Keating quickly discovered that the real story was about more than just brick and mortar, maple and shellac. Told repeatedly by locals how important these places were to their communities, they began to embrace the "game on Saturday, church on Sunday" mantra that is found in many towns through Indiana, watching countless hours of basketball and becoming a part of the Hoosier tradition themselves. 
 With over 150 color photographs and unforgettable stories from high school basketball and beyond, Chasing Indiana's Game: The Hoosier Hardwood Project is a tribute to the Hoosier state and all who love basketball.

Chasing Indiana's Game: The Hoosier Hardwood Project

Arts & Photography

Smith, Chris

Photography & Video

Indiana University Press

Labour and Scottish nationalism

Macmillan

The Hand of God is a non-fictional, compelling account of John Keatings survival and recovery after accidentally contacting 16,000-volt Swedish railroad power line. It is an inspiring story of courage, determination, and the power of love. The story traces his journey from the accident scene in the Swedish mountains, through his lengthy hospitalization and rehabilitation in Sweden, to the familys return to the United States. The near-death experience affected many and the life saving amputations challenged their emotional resources. The book includes many of the powerful letters he received. These inspirational letters, which empowered John and his family, are as powerful today as they were when received. The humor and the heartbreak, the joys and the disappointments, and the hopes and the frustrations are blended into an emotional and unforgettable story.

The Hand of God: The Story of John Keating and the Power of Love

Religion & Spirituality

iUniverse

How might Scotland achieve independence? And what would be the consequences, for Scotland and the rest of the UK? Independence is ever-present on the Scottish political agenda. This book is the first serious study of the likely road to independence, and the consequences for the Scottish people and the Scottish economy. Scottish Independence starts with a detailed guide to the stages along the route to independence and goes on to analyse the legal, political and economic consequences. It asks key questions:* If Scots vote for an SNP government in Edinburgh, how will that government deliver its manifesto promise of achieving independence in Scotland?* If the Scots attain independence, what will change? What will Scotland's place be in the world? Can Scotland remain in the EU?* What are the economics of independence? Would there be a flight of capital and a stock-market fall? How much economic freedom would an independent Scotland have?* How much would change in the daily lives of Scots as a result of

Scottish Independence: A Practical Guide

Jones. Peter

Murkens, Jo E.

Edinburgh University Press

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