Excluded from Scotland’s democratic renewal? Civil Society and its limitations in Craigmillar, Edinburgh
dc.contributor.advisor
Hearn, Jonathon
en
dc.contributor.advisor
Jamieson, Lynn
en
dc.contributor.author
Nielsen, Claire N
en
dc.date.accessioned
2009-01-19T15:11:09Z
dc.date.available
2009-01-19T15:11:09Z
dc.date.issued
2007
dc.description.abstract
A new parliament and resulting democratically elected executive marks a symbolic point
of hope for democratic renewal in Scotland. The expectations of democratic renewal are
found in three forms: (1) in the formal structural changes in governance, (2) in the policy
directions of a Labour government and (3) in the push for greater democratic participation
from civil society generally. The concept and construct of civil society is not just central to
the last of these forms, it also plays a vital role in the governance structures and policy
reforms.
Craigmillar – a collection of periphery housing schemes in Edinburgh – is taken as a
case of an ‘excluded community’ in Scotland during the first few years of the Scottish
Parliament. This research explores the extent to which the exclusion of the area is reinforced
or undermined by the type of changes envisioned in the expectations of democratic renewal.
Literature concerned with social exclusion often mentions ‘political exclusion’ in
passing, but here the concept is developed drawing on notions of citizenship, democracy and
power. Silver (1995) provides us with a means of distinguishing different paradigmatic ways
of understanding exclusion and inclusion and these are used to understand different notions
of political inclusion, all of which in some way have a special role for civil society. By
concentrating on three local level civil society organisations in Craigmillar we explore the
extent of civil society’s capacity for increasing political inclusion in the new institutional
environment in Scotland.
This research finds that political inclusion is ultimately hampered by unequal power
relationships which are not being addressed sufficiently in most of the approaches to
democratic renewal in Scotland today.
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6164773 bytes
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4587236 bytes
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application/pdf
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application/octet-stream
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dc.identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2628
dc.language.iso
en
dc.subject
Sociology
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dc.title
Excluded from Scotland’s democratic renewal? Civil Society and its limitations in Craigmillar, Edinburgh
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dc.type
Thesis or Dissertation
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dc.type.qualificationlevel
Doctoral
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dc.type.qualificationname
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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