Reading Govan Old: interpretative challenges and aspirations

This paper explores the conceptual and strategic issues raised during the transformation of Govan Old church into a heritage attraction and community cultural centre. This exceptionally important Gothic revival church houses the largest collection of early medieval sculpture that is not in state care in Scotland. The quality and depth of Govan’s cultural assets and its historical traditions provide great interpretative opportunities, but come with great expectations. Govan is in the early stages of post-industrial urban regeneration and the church has been identified as its prime cultural resource. So the success of the transformation of Govan Old has the potential to have a significant influence on the future growth and prosperity of the community

Weber’s Protestant Work Ethic: a case study of Scottish entrepreneurs, the Coats family of Paisley

This study examines the potential of Weber’s Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) to illustrate the growth, development and business philosophy of J & P Coats, a thread manufacturer from Paisley. The company grew from humble beginnings in 1826 to dominate the world thread market in a comparatively short period of time. The article will begin with a synopsis of the key arguments from the PWE, before moving to a summary of many of the debates, both past and recent, which have been put forward both for and against Weber’s work. The review of this body of work will highlight the continued relevance of Weber’s thesis. The brief history of the J & P Coats firm, and the main family members involved in its rise and progress will be provided, which will then provide a background against which Weber’s theories can be examined. Finally, the article will conclude that Weber’s thesis provides a rationale for understanding the development of the company, and the behaviour of its owners, which will in turn offer more contemporary validation of Weber’s theories

'Strangers and Brothers’: The Secret History of Profit, Value and Risk. An inaugural lecture.

Introduction [First Paragraphs] As political history is signposted by decisive battles and the rise and fall of great leaders, so the history of finance is marked by speculative booms and busts. From the failure of the futures market in Dutch tulips in the seventeenth century, to the South Sea Bubble of 1720, and more recently the Wall Street crash and, more recently still, the various ‘Black Mondays’, ‘Black Wednesdays’ and so on. These bubbles are characterised by upward speculation that leads prices to depart from some notion of underlying value, followed by a sharp readjustment, marking the re-imposition of the rule of value. The pattern is well illustrated by the ‘dot-com’ boom of 2000. In spite of the misleading signals about value given by financial markets, we are witnessing an increasing dominance of such markets as the sole arbiter of valuation. Not only is this a tautology, but its application has some important and potentially dangerous consequences. Some economists, following the development of the Black-Scholes option pricing model, have gone as far as arguing that volatility itself is a source of value.2 As Bernstein notes, ‘the product in derivative transactions is uncertainty itself’.3 According to this model, inter alia, the greater the risk, the higher the price of the asset. Such attitudes afforded scant protection to the Black Scholes inspired hedge fund,Long Term Capital Management when its losses of $3.75bn shook the world financial system in 1998

A comparative study of institutional frameworks for local public service partnerships in Finland and Scotland

This research presents a cross-national comparative review of the institutional arrangements for how local public service partnerships are regulated and governed in Finland and Scotland.Both legal and administrative differences of partnership policies are analysed in order to explain the nature of the incentives and obligations for local governments to collaborate with external partners. Institutional theory and conceptual partnership approaches are utilised in the analysis. The Scottish institutional framework provides defined requirements for public-private partnerships. The partnership term is not recognised in the Finnish legal framework;instead it operates with the general concept of co-operation. Both Scottish and Finnish municipalities have more institutional obligations than incentives for partnerships or collaboration. The Scottish institutional framework requires municipalities to partner with external organisations, while in Finland, the legislature has not been proactive in promoting or encouraging public-private partnership. While the political incentives for partnerships are stronger in Scotland, Scottish municipalities have limited financial incentives to look for budgetary savings from partnership arrangements. In contrast, in Finland such financial incentives exist. However, the fixed forms of municipal-municipal collaboration may inhibit the search for more effective forms of partnerships

Cast Off the Yoke of Tyranny!: The Influence of the Reformation upon the Enlightenment and World Revolution

This paper explores the connection between the Protestant Reformation and the Revolutions in America and France during the eighteenth century. When the Reformation started, with it came a strong opposition to absolutism and other forms of perceived tyranny. Over time, this culminated in both the American and French Revolutions. An oft-neglected subject in the history of these events, however, is the influence of the Reformation upon Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke. Locke lived in seventeenth-century England at a time when the Geneva Bible outdid the King James Bible in popularity. The Geneva Bible contained marginal notes that promoted the deposition of tyrannical monarchs. The author begins with tracing revolutionary events since the Lutheran Reformation in Germany, including the Peasants’ Revolt and eventually the English Civil War, and finally the American and French Revolutions. Rather than show the Reformation and the Enlightenment as two distinct streams leading to the river of the Revolutions, the author shows that the Reformation, Enlightenment and the Revolutions all come from one stream, with its head at the Reformation

Debt, Imperialism, Eunuchs, and Contemporary Christian Worship

(Excerpt) There are three ways to begin a lecture such as this. The first is to ask people to turn to each other and say why they came to this particular part of the program and what they expect to hear. This approach has the advantage of giving the speaker five to ten minutes less lecturing time. Much as I\u27m tempted, I think this tactic might leave you feeling shortchanged. The second approach is to say: I don\u27t quite understand the title I\u27ve been asked to address and then waffle for twenty minutes on the semantics before ever dealing with the subject. But since I chose the title, I can hardly quibble over it. The third approach (at least for me) is to admit that the last sixty seconds have simply been an exercise in enabling your ears to be attuned to my [Scottish] accent, so that when I begin to deal with the topic, you might at least acknowledge that you can hear if not understand