IASH Director Professor Jo Shaw reflects on the Institute's most recent pop-up forum on constitutional reform in Scotland and the United Kingdom.
The referendum on Scottish independence – or #indyref as it is universally known on social media – has given rise to unprecedented levels of political engagement and participation. Here are some of the key indicators: 97% voter registration, 84% turnout, and atypical levels of attendance at public meetings. For those who lived through the process, anecdote suggested that the referendum was talked about everywhere. At home, at work, on the bus (Edinburgers like their buses), and in social milieu such as pubs, cafes and restaurants.
Before the referendum we decided to contribute to the debate by highlighting some issues that we felt had received less attention than they deserved. And to do this we wanted to draw on the strengths of IASH as part of the University of Edinburgh. So we held two well attended and informal ‘pop up forums’ to explore issues around culture and cultural policy, and then around the fear and anxiety generated by the vote and particularly the divisions it seemed to be bringing out. The audiences brought together our IASH Fellows (many of them new to Scotland and curious about this historic moment of constitutional transformation), colleagues from across the University, and many people from outside the University, some involved directly in campaigns, and some just wanting to know more and to find a comfortable space in which to debate the issues.
But the #postindyref scenario, reflecting the relatively narrow nature of the vote which was 55.3% against independence and 44.7% in favour, is just as important a challenge. There’s more to come in the future, but first up, we needed an opportunity to reflect on the vote itself, and in particular the infamous ‘Vow’ by the Unionist parties credited by some observers with pushing the Scottish electorate towards a No vote.
So, on Monday 6 October 2014, we brought together two academics from the University of Edinburgh (Ailsa Henderson of Politics and International Relations and Richard Williams of Edinburgh College of Art) with a colleague from the University of Stirling (Paul Cairney), moderated in conversation by Jolyon Mitchell, Academic Director of IASH.
This meant we had:
- an expert on public opinion and survey data who could provide us with detail about how and why Scots voted as they did, but who could also bring in important lessons from Quebec, another place where an independence referendum has been held in recent years (Ailsa);
- an advocate for the importance of cities and urban areas as drivers of economic prosperity (Richard)
- together with a commentator on issues relating to politics and policy-making in Scotland, who could help us navigate the thorny thickets of devo-max and devo-more, and the rest of the opaque terminology of political change.
There’s no need to dwell here in detail on what they said on that particular evening. All of our panellists are experts in communicating their work, through blogs and on twitter (follow the hyperlinked names above). Ailsa has been working within an ESRC funded programme on the future of UK and Scotland, blogging about topics as diverse as the lessons from Quebec and the myth of meritocratic Scotland, and presenting her fresh research on why Scots voted no, based on extensive survey data. Paul has been provoking debate successfully on the issue of devo-max and whether it is (a) on the table and (b) achievable, getting plenty of reaction from his more than 2700 followers on twitter, and beyond. Richard published a provocative paper on the city of Edinburgh in 2013, demanding that in Edinburgh – as in other Scottish cities – we take the issue of urban regeneration more seriously. It was these themes that were picked up in their short contributions and in extensive Q&A with the audience.
But one general theme ran through the debate. We all recognised that the referendum was not the end of anything, but at most a staging post within an ongoing process of constitutional reform that will most likely affect not just Scotland, but every part of the United Kingdom.
Plenty of food for thought for subsequent IASH pop up forums. Watch this space for events on key challenges for modern Scotland, and for its future. Equality, poverty, land reform, culture and the creative industries, identity - these are just some of the topics we will reflect on in upcoming forums.
We hope to see you there.