[JSRNC 3.3 (2009) 340-375] JSRNC (print) ISSN 1363-7320 doi: 10.1558/jsrnc.v3i3.340 JSRNC (online) ISSN 1743-1689 ____________________________________ The Political Theology of Modern Scottish Land Reform ____________________________________ Rutger Henneman Researcher and Activist, Heer Vrankestraat 64B, 3036 LH Rotterdam, The Netherlands
[email protected] Alastair McIntosh Visiting Professor of Human Ecology, Centre for Human Ecology, Department of Geography & Sociology, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland
[email protected] Abstract This paper gathers evidence that modern Scottish land reform was influenced by applied liberation theology from both grassroot community activists and institutional churches. Scotland’s land tenure was feudal until the late twentieth century. Plutocratic ownership impacted the economics and psychology of community well-being. The 1990s produced a land reform movement culminating in the new Scottish Parliament’s Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 and the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. These created a conditional ‘community right to buy’ and affirmed the freedom of ‘right to roam’. Two percent of Scottish land is now in community ownership. Our research interviewed fifteen movers and shakers—both national theologians and local activists from the van- guard land trusts of Eigg, Assynt, and Gigha. We conclude that spirituality and religion can be subtle drivers of community empowerment. By inspir- ing, informing, and legitimising socio-political transformation, a ‘Remnant’ theology was factored into Scottish legislation of international significance. Land, Theology, and Scottish Culture Modern Scotland retains one of the most highly concentrated patterns of land ownership in the world. This legacy, originating from early moder- nity’s market commodification of land and subsequent ‘clearances’ of the © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2009, Unit 6, The Village, 101 Amies Street, London SW11 2JW.