Search results

This paper compares the gamma‐radioactivity values determined in an intertidal ecosystem on the Atlantic island of Barra in the Western Isles of Scotland in 1989 and 1994. Distinct differences in the accumulation values in different trophic levels were detected on each occasion, but, in the intervening five years between surveys, there have also been marked reductions in the gamma counts in many different organisms of each trophic level. Gamma‐radioactivity has continued to move through the sandy soils of the machair coastal dunes system, and hence away from the rooting zone of the vegetation. The decreasing gamma‐radioactivities noted point to a shoreline ecosystem that is recovering from the input of Chernobyl fallout.

This article attempts to describe the Scottish approach to integrated care, covering historical background, policy context, progress towards implementation and current issues.

The general problem of structural unemployment has evoked three types of theoretical responses from the body politic of social science. The most ambiguous and least developed set of ideas refers loosely to the notion that structural changes in the economy necessarily lead to structural unemployment as a consequence. This has tended to be rejected by policy makers and indeed the views expressed within this mode of reasoning have been subsumed under discussions that refer either to inefficient labour markets or policy inconsistencies.

Considers the topic of food retailing in rural areas, a subject that has been barely researched of late. This is achieved through a case study of the Uist chain in the southern Western Isles of Scotland. Although there has been previous work on food retailing in this area, this has largely been from a consumer‐led perspective. The research presented here takes a provider‐oriented approach, involving a census of retail businesses on the Uists and interviews with owner‐managers of food retail outlets. Specifically, the role of the customer base, logistics and supply, and legislative and economic issues are discussed. In conclusion, it is suggested that future research should concentrate on combining consumer‐ and provider‐led perspectives, investigate the role of effective management in small rural retail businesses, and assess whether such findings are generalisable to other rural areas.

A detailed review of J. Ennew's The Western Isles Today, published by Cambridge University Press, 1980. The reviewer finds it to be a book that flounders on theoretical, methodical and empirical inadequacies.

This paper comprises an examination of a connection between geographical remoteness and isolation, and food availability and choice amongst the local populations. The paper focuses on three locations within the Highlands and Islands: the Western Isles, Upper Loch Torridon, and the rural areas surrounding Thurso. Following an outline of the research projects and their methodology, selected results are presented, focusing on the contemporary diet, and food choice and availability. The paper concludes with a discussion concerning the extent to which the data from the three rural case studies support a relationship between “place” and food choice, and makes recommendations concerning future policy and research issues.

The issue of retailing in rural areas has received relatively little attention in recent years. This article considers retail businesses in a remote, rural area, the Uist chain in the Western Isles of Scotland. Drawing on the marketing and retail strategy literatures, a “funnical” model of rural retail strategies is developed, and examples of independent retail businesses that have adopted both market‐led and product‐led strategies are posited. These have ranged from a situation of “strategic stasis” within some retail organisations, where more “extensive” methods of running retail outlets have been adopted, through to various new development strategies. Overall, it is evident that retailers may mix strategic directions for their business within the specific geographic context that they are located. This appears to contrast with Jussila et.al. (1992: 192), who imply that their strategic alternatives are mutually exclusive and that the individual strategies are “spatially bound”. In the light of these findings, the article considers the implications presented for retailers in other rural areas of the UK.

The concept of lifelong learning is one of inclusiveness and flexibility and the emerging idea is that education will come to the people in their own communities, no matter where they are located. Reviews the implications and challenges for management and staff as they strive to implement changes which will support students studying courses in remote, rural communities who previously had little or no library support provision. In particular, it focuses on the need for increased interaction between all sites and staff involved in the implementation and provision of networked resources – senior management, academic staff, lecturers, technical and library staff and the increased use of technology to facilitate this. It examines their changing roles and the implications for staff development and training in a distributed networked environment such as the UHI Millennium Institute. In addition, the potential benefits of forming partnerships with outside public bodies such as the local authority public library are considered.

The NHS faces a crisis in terms of staffing and recruitment. Many of the ethnic minority GPs in inner city areas throughout the UK are coming up to retirement age, and there is an insufficient supply of trainees to fill estimated vacancies. Over 2,000 nursing vacancies exist across the UK, and recruitment to the profession and retention within the profession are poor. Nurses have been recruited from overseas for the past 40 years, and are currently being recruited from Finland, Malaysia, and the West Indies, whilst doctors are being sought in India, Pakistan and Africa. Overseas recruitment is not a new phenomenon, and numerous studies have been carried out to examine equal opportunities and racial discrimination within the NHS. The aim of this paper was to examine ethnicity and equal opportunities within the Scottish NHS and record the levels of organisational awareness of ethnicity and equal opportunities’ issues. The paper also examines the link between health service delivery to ethnic minorities and internal cultural attitudes to staff.