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Purpose – This chapter explores the way in which the food crisis of 2008 and issues of food security have impinged upon debates about agriculture and agricultural support in Scotland.

Methodology/approach – Adopting a discourse analytic approach, a series of pivotal Scottish agricultural policy documents produced between 2001 and 2010 are examined. Official agricultural policy discourse over time is traced as is the nature of that discourse as the food crisis impinged upon and altered the context of debates about agricultural policy reform.

Findings – The chapter finds that prior to the food crisis, agricultural policy documents were dominated by neoliberal discourse that emphasised the importance of agriculture becoming more oriented towards the market and by a growing emphasis on multifunctionality. But after the food crisis, the dominant political rhetoric utilised different arguments to defend agricultural subsidies and argue for a continuing role for the state in perpetuating agricultural production. It is suggested, however, that the key factor in this retrenchment to continued farm support was not the food crisis per se; rather, it was the intersection of issues of food security with the rise to power of the Scottish nationalists and their resistance to the UK's neoliberal position.

Originality/value – The chapter provides the key insight that, for Scotland at least, the food crisis did not spark a change in domestic agricultural policies, but rather became an argumentative resource that was opportunistically deployed in established debates about agricultural policy reform.

This chapter examines curriculum reform in Scotland, showing how the ambitious aspirations of its flagship policy, Curriculum for Excellence, were subject to a complex array of global, national and local pressures and had to take account of political and cultural circumstances that posed particular challenges. Both the Scottish Government's management of the reform programme and the teaching profession's response to it are subject to detailed scrutiny. The discussion pays particular attention to the discourse used in promoting the policy, the shifting nature of the official narrative as the recommendations of international agencies were taken on board, and the issues that arose as the policy moved from intention to enactment. Drawing on the notion of ‘curriculum making’, which serves as a conceptual thread for all the contributions to this volume, the analysis highlights both evidence of progress and sites of continuing debate.

This chapter reports a study that investigates the link between rural small firms’ social networks and their market diversification strategies in the context of the Internet.

Telephone interviews were conducted with a random sample of 142 Scottish small rural and urban firm owners in May 2012. The purpose of the telephone interviews was to understand how Internet usage impacted on the social networks and market diversification experiences of small rural firms. Analysis of the categorical data was performed using a variety of established methods.

Internet usage for many small Scottish rural firms was facilitating both their market reach and social networks. In addition, small rural firms’ most important social network contacts are highly correlated to their origin of sales, and this can be either locally or extra-locally based.

A positive relationship between Internet usage, social networks and market reach expansion offers support for further developing and improving the Internet infrastructure of rural communities.

Internet usage emerges as a critical tool for augmenting the social networks of Scottish rural small firms, which in turn helps to extend their market reach activities.

Scotland has geographical, economic and social extremes which combine to create its distinct identity within the United Kingdom. The country also has a vibrant civil society which includes sport. The devolved Scottish parliament has, in recent years, been delivering a progressive legislative gender equality agenda. This includes leading the world in 2020 on mandating the widespread availability of free menstrual products for women and girls, an initiative which began as a campaign led by Celtic Football Club fans. Sport occupies an important position in Scottish civil society and this chapter draws on feminist standpoint theory to examine the extent to which gendered power relations have supported an over-romanticisation of progress on gender equality and impeded the implementation of good governance in Scottish sport. The lived experiences of citizens in relation to sport paint a picture of participation rates remaining static, sports fields sold off by councils and sport governing bodies being slow to implement policies and practices on gender equity issues which include leadership, media coverage and investment. This chapter explores how governance structures can be an instrument for gender equality transformation in sport by drawing not just on related legislation, but the governance principles of leadership, accountability, integrity, effectiveness, transparency, and sustainability.

The development of electronic monitoring policy over the last decade in Scotland has contributed towards its expansion and the intensification of what McNeill (2019) refers to as mass supervision. Often posited as a solution to relieve problems in the criminal justice system such as prison overcrowding and high remand populations, electronic monitoring can be punitive and problematic, exposing more people to diffused forms of social control and functioning more as a supplementary feature of prisons as opposed to a substitution for prisons. In this chapter, I explore the existing and emerging policy landscape of penal electronic monitoring Scotland, drawing upon qualitative, experiential data about being subject to and enforcing penal electronic monitoring in Scotland (see Casey, 2021) to highlight how policy is enacted in practice. Ultimately, I argue that there are fundamental issues with how electronic monitoring is currently enacted in terms of what it promises, in terms of fairness and in relation to the potential harms of integration. I call for a fundamental and holistic reframing of policy and regulation of penal electronic monitoring in Scotland that avoids siloed approaches towards policymaking, attending to both the social and digital impacts of electronic monitoring in people’s lives, thus contributing to arguments about how ‘mass supervision’ should be moderated and resisted.

Successive devolved governments have been attempting to address inequalities which are deeply rooted in Scotland, by adapting UK policies or by devising their own solutions. In addition, from 2007, Scottish National Party (SNP) governments have criticised the policies conducted at UK level – especially the austerity policies in response to the Recession from 2010. They have demanded further powers to be able to mitigate or reform them, thus adding a constitutional dimension which has been reignited after the referendum on Brexit. This chapter deals with some of the policies aiming at tackling inequalities related to incomes and capabilities in the fields of education and health. It sheds light on the ongoing debates in Scotland and on some of the results which have been achieved under SNP governments.

The re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, with education in schools being a devolved area, meant that school education would be area of focus for the labour–liberal democrat coalition. The consequent impact on Teacher Education of changes to school education is explored. This chapter will consider changes such as Curriculum for Excellence to discuss how Initial Teacher Education (ITE) at universities was impacted and, additionally, how changes to teacher conditions, following the McCrone Agreement, effected change in teachers' working conditions, and which influenced a range of professional standards under the guardianship of the General Teaching Council for Scotland. These factors engendered a fundamental shift in teachers' professional development. The chapter also explores the context of ITE with its locus firmly in Higher Education Institutions and how operational and strategic issues impacted the discipline of ITE within universities. In relation to ITE specifically, the two-stage review is discussed but the chapter concludes that the most change and innovation occurred at the post-qualification level rather than within ITE in universities. The reasons for this are explored.

This chapter provides a qualitative discussion on the role of social justice mechanisms as a response to alleviate stressors within neoliberal frameworks. Lifelong learning (LLL) has various models and goals, inclusive of social justice. It establishes flexible learning modes and environments to expand educational opportunities to include disadvantaged or marginalised individuals (Armstrong, 2014; Yang, Schneller, & Roche, 2015). Further, LLL has the capability to assess new events and use methods to effectively implement strategies that manage negative educational and economic impacts (Sharma, 2004). Within the Bologna Process (BP), LLL continues to be evaluated, and interestingly, LLL operates within this system that aims to create universalised and standardised practices across participating countries. As a result, there is a dynamic relationship of flexible learning within a structured framework.

This chapter addresses the issue of whether and how LLL has been responsive to major social and economic crises that have impacted the BP and inevitably learning processes. To determine LLL responses and possible contributions, a case study examination of policy and implementation in Scotland is presented through the lens of two major global crises. The two crises are the 2008–2009 Global Recession and the 2019–present day COVID-19 pandemic, which have impacted the planning and provision of education across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Analysis is drawn from national government documents, academic and international organisation research papers, an interview and articles from relevant years. Challenges in LLL provision are also presented in the analysis. And although we cannot forecast with certainty the next global crisis to impact our educational system, this chapter concludes with points on how future impacts may be mitigated through LLL.

The purpose of this paper is an investigation of internal transparency in government budgeting.

A case study which uses mixed methods – documentary analysis, some observation and elite interviews.

Politicians do not want transparency. Despite the way in which the idea of transparency in government is beyond open challenge, this study reveals the manner in which politicians can inhibit and limit transparency through political will and action.

These findings raise serious challenges for policymakers who design government budgeting systems. They should raise concerns among other interested parties, including the media, the electorate and oversight bodies.

Are government budgets rigorously scrutinised? This evidence suggests not. This has major implications for accountants in government and for those who seek to use this information.

This research needs to be extended beyond the case of a government body – the Scottish Parliament – which was designed for and committed to transparency in its activities. For those public service organisations which have no such commitment, is public accountability achievable?

This study uses a novel lens of three levels of transparency as devised by Biondi and Lapsley (2014). It focuses on an emergent field of internal transparency in government budgeting.

It is now fashionable to suggest that the Celtic regions of the United Kingdom are the internal colonies of the central English state and that they have been, particularly since the rapid industrialization of the nineteenth century, subject to a penetrating anglicization of their culture and institutions. In terms of the internal colonialism thesis, it can be argued that the cultural nationalism of Scotland which was developed in the nineteenth century was an attempt to maintain the distinctiveness of civil society in Scotland in the context of massive regional economic imbalance. The Scottish intelligentsia, dominated by Edinburgh lawyers and Presbyterian ministers, can thus be compared with the intelligentsia of Third World societies undergoing a process of de‐colonization where separate cultural identities have to be preserved or, if necessary, constructed.