I am a Gaidheal scholar whose primary research interest at present is in the Highlands and Islands as a site of colonisation and in seeking to understand the imperial nature of Scottish and British understandings of the Highlands and Islands since the medieval period. My working hypothesis is that the primary and enduring relationship between, on the one hand, the centres of imperial power in Scotland and in Britain and, on the other, the Gaidheal culture of much of the Highlands and Islands is most productively thought of as a domination relationship enforcing 'internal colonisation'. This relationship can be exemplified by the terms of the Treaty of Perth of 1266 by which the Hebridean islands were made a 'dominion' of Scotland. I believe that understanding the ongoing diminution of the Gaidheal in this way, as a centuries old attack on the legitimacy of a collective way of being, offers insights into the relentless historical erosion of our political gravity and cultural distinctiveness, as well as the catastrophic nature of the our present.
On the Gaelic speaking islands of Arranmore (Donegal, Ireland) and Barra (Outer Hebrides, Scotlan... more On the Gaelic speaking islands of Arranmore (Donegal, Ireland) and Barra (Outer Hebrides, Scotland) the fishermen believe that their livelihood and way of living is being threatened by powerful governmental forces who are not listening to them. In Barra, the dispute centres around two proposed marine Special Area of Conservation designations while in the islands off Donegal (including Arranmore) the dispute is around the Irish moratorium on drift-net fishing for salmon. There appear to be two different sources of authority in these disputes. One is external, legislatively based and has a clearly defined process and aim based on the need to conserve biodiversity. The other is internal, rooted in tradition and custom and comes from a way of knowing different to the prevalent system of ‘book’ learning and formal education processes. It is based on respect for, and ensuring the endurance of, an older and more particular way of knowing.
The Connecting Coastal Communities project engages with the island fishermen’s way of knowing the marine environment with the aim of reflecting this way of knowing in a way which would be visible to government agencies and other outsiders to the islands.
In light of the strong community support on both islands for this project and the innovative aspect of a research collaboration between two social scientists and a visual artist, we envisage that this project has the potential to create a model approach which could help other communities express and engage with their natural and cultural heritage in a way which is unique to each community.
The Connecting Coastal Communities project has led to the publication of a short book - Duthchas na Mara/Duchas na Mara/Belonging to the Sea - which was launched at the Clan MacNeil Gathering on Barra on 15 August 2012.
In the preamble of the response articles to the recent special issue of Scottish Affairs on Scotl... more In the preamble of the response articles to the recent special issue of Scottish Affairs on Scotland's Gàidhealtachd Futures the authors make some negative assertions about the editorial position. This short and positive essay revisits and reiterates the key themes of ‘plurality’ and ‘futures’ that are the focus of the special issue's contribution to important discussions and emerging priorities for Scotland's Gàidhealtachd Futures.
This article analyses some claims made about the Gàidheal identity in Scotland, with particular r... more This article analyses some claims made about the Gàidheal identity in Scotland, with particular reflection on a distinct ‘sociolinguistic turn’ within Gàidhlig studies and related research over the last two decades. Through critical analysis of a major sociological survey on the structuring of various markers in framing Gàidheal identity, a normative basis is provided to then assess other identity classifications made by some academics whose work is focussed on the single identity-marker of the Gàidhlig language. It is argued that identity claims predicated on the specific nature of the Gàidhlig sociolinguistic turn fail to capture the complex reality and living histories of actual Gàidheal identities (and claims on those identities), in particular, the socio-cultural importance of place-based practices and understandings. Recent proposals for a Gàidheal ethnolinguistic assembly may enable modes of articulation and recognition to develop which better capture those realities, as well...
This special issue of Scottish Affairs is the first to be solely dedicated to matters relating to... more This special issue of Scottish Affairs is the first to be solely dedicated to matters relating to Scotland's Gàidhealtachd. Scottish Affairs has a broad, interdisciplinary readership and this informs our approach as guest editors for the special issue. As such, the focus for the issue is to be future-oriented, whilst necessarily being informed by cultural context, contemporary society and lived experience. By curating the articles in these terms, an aim is to encourage an ethic of engagement with a spectrum of topics (not exhaustive) of contemporary research and debate of relevance to the Gàidhealtachd, and to encourage relational perspectives and creative horizons across that spectrum. Therefore, the special issue is not constrained by a single disciplinary focus or structure; although, in important, different ways, the articles are oriented to forms of disciplinarity and practice. This emphasis on emerging debates within the Gàidhealtachd includes their intersections and orien...
Human beings today are living in times of unprecedented social and ecological crisis, a crisis th... more Human beings today are living in times of unprecedented social and ecological crisis, a crisis that is to a significant degree of human making. The impending arrival of the Anthropocene geological epoch gives this crisis a name. As academics with a sense of responsibility for our relationships with planetary kin, the awareness of unfolding crisis calls on us to reach a deeper understanding of assumptions about the world, and of modes of living that these assumptions permit, which have been a human contribution to crisis. Furthermore, the Anthropocene calls us to act upon our new understanding. Taking modern European imperialism as a key generative force in the development of Anthropocene, we provocatively develop the idea in this article that the life-ways and worldviews of Indigenous Peoples colonized by European imperialism – including, potentially, marginalized and suppressed life-ways and worldviews of Indigenous Europeans – may hold critical insights by which to negotiate the A...
On the Gaelic speaking islands of Arranmore (Donegal, Ireland) and Barra (Outer Hebrides, Scotlan... more On the Gaelic speaking islands of Arranmore (Donegal, Ireland) and Barra (Outer Hebrides, Scotland) the fishermen believe that their livelihood and way of living is being threatened by powerful governmental forces who are not listening to them. In Barra, the dispute centres around two proposed marine Special Areas of Conservation designations while in the islands off Donegal (including Arranmore) the dispute is around the Irish moratorium on drift-net fishing for salmon. (Authors: MacKinnon and Brennan. Photographs: Hurrel).
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 2017
Addressing our growing planetary crisis and attendant symptoms of human and human-ecological disc... more Addressing our growing planetary crisis and attendant symptoms of human and human-ecological disconnect, requires a profound epistemological reorientation regarding how societal structures are conceived and articulated; named here as the collective work of decolonisation. While global dynamics are giving rise to vital transnational solidarities between Indigenous peoples, these same processes have also resulted in complex and often contradictory locations and histories of peoples at local levels which unsettle the Indigenous–non-Indigenous binary, providing new and necessary possibilities for the development of epistemological and relational solidarities aimed at increasing social–ecological resilience. The International Resilience Network is an emerging community of practice comprised of Indigenous and settler–migrant peoples aimed at increasing social–ecological resilience. This article narrates the story of the Network's inaugural summit, and provides an overview of contextua...
This article examines and contests Scottish historiography's current assessment of the identi... more This article examines and contests Scottish historiography's current assessment of the identity and concomitant ideology that formed a basis and motivation for collective political action taken by the indigenous population of the west Highlands and Islands during the second half of the nineteenth century in response to their territorial marginalisation and expulsion in the late modern period. Over the last forty years historians and historical geographers of the modern Highlands and Islands have accepted and developed James Hunter's argument that in the second half of the nineteenth century a ‘crofting class’ emerged in the area which, based on an underlying feeling of being in ‘community’ as crofters, understood its identity in class-based terms. Furthermore, this historiography takes the view that the members of this community, recognising themselves collectively as crofters, began to engage in acts of resistance to the law on the basis of their shared experience and ident...
This article employs a new approach to studying internal colonialism in northern Scotland during ... more This article employs a new approach to studying internal colonialism in northern Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries. A common approach to examining internal colonial situations within modern state territories is to compare characteristics of the internal colonial situation with attested attributes of external colonial relations. Although this article does not reject the comparative approach, it seeks to avoid criticisms that this approach can be misleading by demonstrating that promoters and managers of projects involving land use change, territorial dispossession and industrial development in the late modern Gàidhealtachd consistently conceived of their work as projects of colonization. It further argues that the new social, cultural and political structures these projects imposed on the area's indigenous population correspond to those found in other colonial situations, and that racist and racialist attitudes towards Gaels of the time are typical of those in colonial ...
Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 2010
Since 2007 the Irish government have prevented the fisher-men of the Donegal islands of Arranmore... more Since 2007 the Irish government have prevented the fisher-men of the Donegal islands of Arranmore, Tory and Inishbofin from engaging in their generations-old drift-net salmon fishery. We have been involved in supporting the islanders as they organise themselves to find ways to oppose the ban. In this dialogue we reflect on some aspects of our involvement.
In their response to my Scottish Affairs article ‘Recovering and Reconstituting Gàidheal Ethnicit... more In their response to my Scottish Affairs article ‘Recovering and Reconstituting Gàidheal Ethnicity’, Armstrong et al. present misleading and misinformed beliefs about my views on identity and indigeneity. In doing so they distort and divert from my article’s focus. Armstrong et al.’s own views on identity and indigeneity not only contain problematic claims relating to ancestry and race, but also disclose superficial essentialist thinking. Indigeneity is not decided by abstract theorising or legal fiat, as Armstrong et al. propose. Instead, the contemporary emergence of indigeneity in the Gàidhealtachd is happening in community settings among many self-identifying and community recognised or affirmed Gàidheil, and with support from those working in allyship. It is developing, and apparently intensifying, in relation to real-world experiences, concerns and aspirations. This development has global resonance and offers the best hope for the resurgence of Gàidheil as a historically, cult...
On the Gaelic speaking islands of Arranmore (Donegal, Ireland) and Barra (Outer Hebrides, Scotlan... more On the Gaelic speaking islands of Arranmore (Donegal, Ireland) and Barra (Outer Hebrides, Scotland) the fishermen believe that their livelihood and way of living is being threatened by powerful governmental forces who are not listening to them. In Barra, the dispute centres around two proposed marine Special Area of Conservation designations while in the islands off Donegal (including Arranmore) the dispute is around the Irish moratorium on drift-net fishing for salmon. There appear to be two different sources of authority in these disputes. One is external, legislatively based and has a clearly defined process and aim based on the need to conserve biodiversity. The other is internal, rooted in tradition and custom and comes from a way of knowing different to the prevalent system of ‘book’ learning and formal education processes. It is based on respect for, and ensuring the endurance of, an older and more particular way of knowing.
The Connecting Coastal Communities project engages with the island fishermen’s way of knowing the marine environment with the aim of reflecting this way of knowing in a way which would be visible to government agencies and other outsiders to the islands.
In light of the strong community support on both islands for this project and the innovative aspect of a research collaboration between two social scientists and a visual artist, we envisage that this project has the potential to create a model approach which could help other communities express and engage with their natural and cultural heritage in a way which is unique to each community.
The Connecting Coastal Communities project has led to the publication of a short book - Duthchas na Mara/Duchas na Mara/Belonging to the Sea - which was launched at the Clan MacNeil Gathering on Barra on 15 August 2012.
In the preamble of the response articles to the recent special issue of Scottish Affairs on Scotl... more In the preamble of the response articles to the recent special issue of Scottish Affairs on Scotland's Gàidhealtachd Futures the authors make some negative assertions about the editorial position. This short and positive essay revisits and reiterates the key themes of ‘plurality’ and ‘futures’ that are the focus of the special issue's contribution to important discussions and emerging priorities for Scotland's Gàidhealtachd Futures.
This article analyses some claims made about the Gàidheal identity in Scotland, with particular r... more This article analyses some claims made about the Gàidheal identity in Scotland, with particular reflection on a distinct ‘sociolinguistic turn’ within Gàidhlig studies and related research over the last two decades. Through critical analysis of a major sociological survey on the structuring of various markers in framing Gàidheal identity, a normative basis is provided to then assess other identity classifications made by some academics whose work is focussed on the single identity-marker of the Gàidhlig language. It is argued that identity claims predicated on the specific nature of the Gàidhlig sociolinguistic turn fail to capture the complex reality and living histories of actual Gàidheal identities (and claims on those identities), in particular, the socio-cultural importance of place-based practices and understandings. Recent proposals for a Gàidheal ethnolinguistic assembly may enable modes of articulation and recognition to develop which better capture those realities, as well...
This special issue of Scottish Affairs is the first to be solely dedicated to matters relating to... more This special issue of Scottish Affairs is the first to be solely dedicated to matters relating to Scotland's Gàidhealtachd. Scottish Affairs has a broad, interdisciplinary readership and this informs our approach as guest editors for the special issue. As such, the focus for the issue is to be future-oriented, whilst necessarily being informed by cultural context, contemporary society and lived experience. By curating the articles in these terms, an aim is to encourage an ethic of engagement with a spectrum of topics (not exhaustive) of contemporary research and debate of relevance to the Gàidhealtachd, and to encourage relational perspectives and creative horizons across that spectrum. Therefore, the special issue is not constrained by a single disciplinary focus or structure; although, in important, different ways, the articles are oriented to forms of disciplinarity and practice. This emphasis on emerging debates within the Gàidhealtachd includes their intersections and orien...
Human beings today are living in times of unprecedented social and ecological crisis, a crisis th... more Human beings today are living in times of unprecedented social and ecological crisis, a crisis that is to a significant degree of human making. The impending arrival of the Anthropocene geological epoch gives this crisis a name. As academics with a sense of responsibility for our relationships with planetary kin, the awareness of unfolding crisis calls on us to reach a deeper understanding of assumptions about the world, and of modes of living that these assumptions permit, which have been a human contribution to crisis. Furthermore, the Anthropocene calls us to act upon our new understanding. Taking modern European imperialism as a key generative force in the development of Anthropocene, we provocatively develop the idea in this article that the life-ways and worldviews of Indigenous Peoples colonized by European imperialism – including, potentially, marginalized and suppressed life-ways and worldviews of Indigenous Europeans – may hold critical insights by which to negotiate the A...
On the Gaelic speaking islands of Arranmore (Donegal, Ireland) and Barra (Outer Hebrides, Scotlan... more On the Gaelic speaking islands of Arranmore (Donegal, Ireland) and Barra (Outer Hebrides, Scotland) the fishermen believe that their livelihood and way of living is being threatened by powerful governmental forces who are not listening to them. In Barra, the dispute centres around two proposed marine Special Areas of Conservation designations while in the islands off Donegal (including Arranmore) the dispute is around the Irish moratorium on drift-net fishing for salmon. (Authors: MacKinnon and Brennan. Photographs: Hurrel).
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 2017
Addressing our growing planetary crisis and attendant symptoms of human and human-ecological disc... more Addressing our growing planetary crisis and attendant symptoms of human and human-ecological disconnect, requires a profound epistemological reorientation regarding how societal structures are conceived and articulated; named here as the collective work of decolonisation. While global dynamics are giving rise to vital transnational solidarities between Indigenous peoples, these same processes have also resulted in complex and often contradictory locations and histories of peoples at local levels which unsettle the Indigenous–non-Indigenous binary, providing new and necessary possibilities for the development of epistemological and relational solidarities aimed at increasing social–ecological resilience. The International Resilience Network is an emerging community of practice comprised of Indigenous and settler–migrant peoples aimed at increasing social–ecological resilience. This article narrates the story of the Network's inaugural summit, and provides an overview of contextua...
This article examines and contests Scottish historiography's current assessment of the identi... more This article examines and contests Scottish historiography's current assessment of the identity and concomitant ideology that formed a basis and motivation for collective political action taken by the indigenous population of the west Highlands and Islands during the second half of the nineteenth century in response to their territorial marginalisation and expulsion in the late modern period. Over the last forty years historians and historical geographers of the modern Highlands and Islands have accepted and developed James Hunter's argument that in the second half of the nineteenth century a ‘crofting class’ emerged in the area which, based on an underlying feeling of being in ‘community’ as crofters, understood its identity in class-based terms. Furthermore, this historiography takes the view that the members of this community, recognising themselves collectively as crofters, began to engage in acts of resistance to the law on the basis of their shared experience and ident...
This article employs a new approach to studying internal colonialism in northern Scotland during ... more This article employs a new approach to studying internal colonialism in northern Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries. A common approach to examining internal colonial situations within modern state territories is to compare characteristics of the internal colonial situation with attested attributes of external colonial relations. Although this article does not reject the comparative approach, it seeks to avoid criticisms that this approach can be misleading by demonstrating that promoters and managers of projects involving land use change, territorial dispossession and industrial development in the late modern Gàidhealtachd consistently conceived of their work as projects of colonization. It further argues that the new social, cultural and political structures these projects imposed on the area's indigenous population correspond to those found in other colonial situations, and that racist and racialist attitudes towards Gaels of the time are typical of those in colonial ...
Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 2010
Since 2007 the Irish government have prevented the fisher-men of the Donegal islands of Arranmore... more Since 2007 the Irish government have prevented the fisher-men of the Donegal islands of Arranmore, Tory and Inishbofin from engaging in their generations-old drift-net salmon fishery. We have been involved in supporting the islanders as they organise themselves to find ways to oppose the ban. In this dialogue we reflect on some aspects of our involvement.
In their response to my Scottish Affairs article ‘Recovering and Reconstituting Gàidheal Ethnicit... more In their response to my Scottish Affairs article ‘Recovering and Reconstituting Gàidheal Ethnicity’, Armstrong et al. present misleading and misinformed beliefs about my views on identity and indigeneity. In doing so they distort and divert from my article’s focus. Armstrong et al.’s own views on identity and indigeneity not only contain problematic claims relating to ancestry and race, but also disclose superficial essentialist thinking. Indigeneity is not decided by abstract theorising or legal fiat, as Armstrong et al. propose. Instead, the contemporary emergence of indigeneity in the Gàidhealtachd is happening in community settings among many self-identifying and community recognised or affirmed Gàidheil, and with support from those working in allyship. It is developing, and apparently intensifying, in relation to real-world experiences, concerns and aspirations. This development has global resonance and offers the best hope for the resurgence of Gàidheil as a historically, cult...
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Books by Iain MacKinnon
The Connecting Coastal Communities project engages with the island fishermen’s way of knowing the marine environment with the aim of reflecting this way of knowing in a way which would be visible to government agencies and other outsiders to the islands.
In light of the strong community support on both islands for this project and the innovative aspect of a research collaboration between two social scientists and a visual artist, we envisage that this project has the potential to create a model approach which could help other communities express and engage with their natural and cultural heritage in a way which is unique to each community.
The Connecting Coastal Communities project has led to the publication of a short book - Duthchas na Mara/Duchas na Mara/Belonging to the Sea - which was launched at the Clan MacNeil Gathering on Barra on 15 August 2012.
Papers by Iain MacKinnon
The Connecting Coastal Communities project engages with the island fishermen’s way of knowing the marine environment with the aim of reflecting this way of knowing in a way which would be visible to government agencies and other outsiders to the islands.
In light of the strong community support on both islands for this project and the innovative aspect of a research collaboration between two social scientists and a visual artist, we envisage that this project has the potential to create a model approach which could help other communities express and engage with their natural and cultural heritage in a way which is unique to each community.
The Connecting Coastal Communities project has led to the publication of a short book - Duthchas na Mara/Duchas na Mara/Belonging to the Sea - which was launched at the Clan MacNeil Gathering on Barra on 15 August 2012.