The Use of Complex Adaptive Systems as a Generative Metaphor in an Action Research Study of an Organisation

Understanding the dynamic behaviour of organisations is challenging and this study uses a model of complex adaptive systems as a generative metaphor to address this challenge. The research question addressed is: How might a conceptual model of complex adaptive systems be used to assist in understanding the dynamic nature of organisations? Using an action research methodology, 6 Ai r Force internal management consulting teams were exposed to overlapping attributes of complex adaptive systems. The study shows that participants found the attributes valuable in understanding the dynamic nature of organisations; however they did present challenges for understanding. Despite being challenging to understand, using complex adaptive systems to understand organisations, particularly as dynamic systems, is of value

Religion and the development of an urban society : Glasgow 1780-1914

Introduction available: v. 1

The necessity of atheism: making sense of secularisation

Atheists and atheism have a negligible place in the historiography of secularisation. This is because, it is argued here, secularisation is something that is too often measured from religion and, in one influential narrative, has a strongly Christian character to its progress and its outcome. Taking Charles Taylor's A Secular Age (2007) as a foil, this article explores longstanding suppositions about the nature of the religious past. It explores on the one hand the persistence of the notion of the “enchanted world” of medieval Europe despite the accumulating evidence to the contrary, and on the other hand the conception of late-modern secularity as veined through with concealed religiosity. Instead, the author posits that secularisation requires an appreciation of the possibility of atheism in all human periods, and quickly assesses some of the evidence, and then argues from oral history evidence that much can be learned from examining contemporary atheist life narratives about the diversity of forms this takes. The article proposes five foundational principles about atheism across the last 1,500 years

The Curse: Film and the churches in the Western Isles 1945 to 1980

Focusing on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, this article looks at the interaction between religious culture and film between the 1940s and 1980s. Its first main feature is an examination of the causes of the closure of the Playhouse cinema in Stornoway in 1977–79 and the role of the Calvinist churches and the local authorities in this and other film censorship. It identifies a growing vigour on the part of some churchmen, notably of the Free Presbyterian Church, and the role of one of them in publicly imposing ‘a curse’ upon the manager of the Playhouse for daring to schedule the film ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ with its ‘blasphemous’ depiction of Jesus Christ. It notes the increasing attempts of local politicians in the 1950s, 60s and 70s to impose stricter religious formulae through statutory powers, especially after the creation of the separate Western Isles Council in the mid 1970s. The article explores church and lay attitudes to cinema through oral testimony, the tensions between urban and rural with Lewis, and the wider social, cultural, linguistic and demographic contexts in which both opposition to, and tolerance of, cinema need to be understood in an island less estranged from modern media than might be supposed

The individual, the community and the impact of touring film: interviews with Jim Hunter and others

The impact of the Highlands and Islands Film Guild is here explored through narrators interviewed in the 2010s about their experiences of touring film shows between the late 1940s and early 1970s. Centrally featured is the testimony of Jim Hunter, journalist, historian, erstwhile director of the Scottish Crofters’ Union and chairman of the Highlands and Islands Enterprise, whose testimony is analysed for six major narrative features – cultural and religious transformation, cinema as enchantment, sense of community, the sense of ‘the other’, social rescue for the Highland zone, and religion as social danger or social lifeboat for the Highlands. Other narrators, including Dr Finlay Macleod, are cited as foils in some of these narrative strands. The reception of the Guild in English and Gaelic-speaking areas is noted, as its place in the arrival of new broadcasting technologies

Religion in Scots Law: Report of an Audit at the University of Glasgow

No abstract available

Religion in Scots Law: Report of an Audit at the University of Glasgow

No abstract available

Nocturnal pollination: An overlooked ecosystem service vulnerable to environmental change

© 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society and the Royal Society of Biology and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). Existing assessments of the ecosystem service of pollination have been largely restricted to diurnal insects, with a particular focus on generalist foragers such as wild and honey bees. As knowledge of how these plant-pollinator systems function, their relevance to food security and biodiversity, and the fragility of these mutually beneficial interactions increases, attention is diverting to other, less well-studied pollinator groups. One such group are those that forage at night. In this review, we document evidence that nocturnal species are providers of pollination services (including pollination of economically valuable and culturally important crops, as well as wild plants of conservation concern), but highlight how little is known about the scale of such services. We discuss the primary mechanisms involved in night-time communication between plants and insect pollen-vectors, including floral scent, visual cues (and associated specialized visual systems), and thermogenic sensitivity (associated with thermogenic flowers). We highlight that these mechanisms are vulnerable to direct and indirect disruption by a range of anthropogenic drivers of environmental change, including air and soil pollution, artificial light at night, and climate change. Lastly, we highlight a number of directions for future research that will be important if nocturnal pollination services are to be fully understood and ultimately conserved

The media of modernity: film and new media in the Highlands & Islands 1946-1971: introduction

The Highlands and Islands Film Guild is briefly surveyed in this article that introduces the Special Issue on Media and Modernity. The foundations, principles and manner of operation are outlined, as well as the interdisciplinary research project. The article starts with a review of literature on the nature of society in the Highlands and Islands, and the way that researchers regard it as ‘the other’ in historical and ethnographic research within the United Kingdom. We note the work undertaken in cultural history that has tended to treat the Highland zone as disjoined in governance and everyday life. The researchers’ different approaches and methods are then discussed, moving through specialists in film and television, creative arts, religious and cultural history, and social geography. Finally, the article introduces the articles that follow in the Special Issue