Abstract
Against the historical policy backdrop to industrialise Scotland’s Highlands a Islands region (Burnett, 2011; Hunter, 1991), followed by late 20th-century national deindustrialisation (Danson, 1991), a complex and contentious legacy regarding socio-economic development, rural regeneration, and culture, arts and language enterprise has emerged. In the early 1990s, a key entrepreneurship policy event occurred with the juncture of replacing the former Highlands and Islands Development Board (the HIDB, established in 1965) with the new Highlands a Islands Enterprise (HIE) agency. This transition platformed a mind-shift from to new thinking on rural development enterprise, towards a model of endogenous growth. The refreshed narrative was now one of ‘lessons learned’, with a formal reappraising of the IE potential. This shift underpinned HIE’s early re development ambition to address HIDB failings, by articulating ‘the people’ communities and their local culture – more fully in this ambition. Notably, with the regional agency’s geographical remit mapped significantly to the historical geography of the Gàidhealtachd,1 Scotland’s Gaelic language and culture were identified as emblematic of the region’s cultural wealth. Today, HIE as the key enterprise stakeholder continues to advocate Gaelic’s role in wider regional ambition (H 2023, p. 20): the ‘region’s Gaelic language and heritage is engaging and authentic and is an economic, social and cultural asset’. Certainly, entrepreneurial endeavour harnessing cultural assets via place-making, and targeted language heritage promotion is well established today, evidenced especially in cultural tourism growth, media clusters (including Gaelic) and arts enterprise success. Nonetheless, complexities and complacencies inform the relationship between Gaelic, enterprise a regeneration in Scotland in both rural and urban contexts, and their interface. Th future remains unwritten for now for Gaelic’s minority language enterprise in rural areas, and this chapter offers some concluding comment on what may lie ahead.
The core aims of this chapter are twofold. First, it comments on enterprise policy concerning Scotland’s Highlands and Islands region, and the ongoing concerns to both sustain and regenerate communities across the area. Scotlan dregion includes both north and west mainland communities, as well as notable island communities, strongly associated with Gaelic language, culture and heritage (the Gàidhealtachd). It also includes Shetland and Orkney, both island regions distinctively typified by their own unique ‘northern’ Scots, and Scandinavian-influenced language and culture. This chapter engages specifically with Scots Gaelic language and cultural enterprise, however. Second, then, this chapter aim to introduce Scottish Gaelic as an example of how a minority language is currently articulated as a ‘rural regenerative’ enterprise asset.
As one final introductory comment, it is perhaps useful to quote directly from the current IE (2023, p. 23) strategy plan and its highlighting of where language offers strategic focus to place (Scottish Gaelic: àite):
Gaelic language and regional dialects help shape confident, diverse communities and are an asset to the regional economy. However, rurality and peripherality can drive disadvantage and regional topography creates difficulties for the development of physical clusters, networks, and support infrastructure.
In response to our aims and this regional place context, this chapter is organised as follows: to begin, the account reflects upon Scotland’s Highlands and Island regional economy within a European context of rural challenges. Entrepreneurship that aligns with the region’s iconic heritage and culture is then considered, most notably that of the region’s Gaelic enterprise potential. By way of illustration, a current rural community ‘regeneration’ example whereby Gaelic as a local and community-centred enterprise asset is notably fore fronted, follows. The chapter concludes with a short appraisal of Scotland’s Gaelic minority language, rural art and cultural enterprise landscape as innovative, inclusive and sustaining ‘for all’.
The core aims of this chapter are twofold. First, it comments on enterprise policy concerning Scotland’s Highlands and Islands region, and the ongoing concerns to both sustain and regenerate communities across the area. Scotlan dregion includes both north and west mainland communities, as well as notable island communities, strongly associated with Gaelic language, culture and heritage (the Gàidhealtachd). It also includes Shetland and Orkney, both island regions distinctively typified by their own unique ‘northern’ Scots, and Scandinavian-influenced language and culture. This chapter engages specifically with Scots Gaelic language and cultural enterprise, however. Second, then, this chapter aim to introduce Scottish Gaelic as an example of how a minority language is currently articulated as a ‘rural regenerative’ enterprise asset.
As one final introductory comment, it is perhaps useful to quote directly from the current IE (2023, p. 23) strategy plan and its highlighting of where language offers strategic focus to place (Scottish Gaelic: àite):
Gaelic language and regional dialects help shape confident, diverse communities and are an asset to the regional economy. However, rurality and peripherality can drive disadvantage and regional topography creates difficulties for the development of physical clusters, networks, and support infrastructure.
In response to our aims and this regional place context, this chapter is organised as follows: to begin, the account reflects upon Scotland’s Highlands and Island regional economy within a European context of rural challenges. Entrepreneurship that aligns with the region’s iconic heritage and culture is then considered, most notably that of the region’s Gaelic enterprise potential. By way of illustration, a current rural community ‘regeneration’ example whereby Gaelic as a local and community-centred enterprise asset is notably fore fronted, follows. The chapter concludes with a short appraisal of Scotland’s Gaelic minority language, rural art and cultural enterprise landscape as innovative, inclusive and sustaining ‘for all’.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Rural Entrepreneurship: Harvesting Ideas and Sowing New Seeds |
| Subtitle of host publication | Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship Research |
| Publisher | Emerald Publishing Limited |
| Volume | 20 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781837535781, 9781837535767 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781837535774 |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 28 Mar 2024 |
