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Young People on Being British and European: Some Scottish Identities James Oliver University of Sheffield, UK Introduction With

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Young People on Being British and European: Some Scottish Identities James Oliver University of Sheffield, UK Introduction With Young People on being British and European: Some Scottish Identities James Oliver University of Sheffield, UK Introduction With this conference paper I hope to explore one of the questions that I asked young people during my PhD fieldwork. That question was: Is being Scottish the same as being British or European? I have chosen this question as I feel it might make my research a bit more relevant and interesting to the delegates at this social science conference. From the outset though, I should make it clear that this is not a paper about nationalism, it is about identity. Therefore, to get to the heart of this paper I have to frame it within the context of my PhD thesis, which has the provisional title, Young People and Gaelic in Scotland: Changing Identities in a European Region. The aim of this research has been to get inside (Macdonald 1993) the identities of some young people in Scotland, with particular reference to the Gaelic language. Gaelic is a Celtic language indigenous to Scotland, which is unrelated to the English language; however, unlike the language issues in Wales and in Ireland, Gaelic is not intimately associated with nationalism. As a cultural entity though, it is linked to issues of identity. For my fieldwork I interviewed a total of 46 young people who attended two different secondary schools in Scotland that provide Gaelic-medium streams of education. These schools were chosen because at the time they were the two largest providers of Gaelic-medium education at secondary level. But also because they were based in two very different regions, and the two spatial contexts also giving me an opportunity to explore the rather crude dichotomies that are often used in sociological studies of Scotland as a whole: that is, Highland/Lowland, rural/urban, Gaidhealtachd/non-Gaidhealtachd (see below). I initially conducted 6 focus groups with the 46 students, and the focus groups were then supplemented with individual interviews. This research though was not restricted to those who could speak Gaelic as Gaelic is only an optional medium of education, and only available in some schools. Some interviewees had no knowledge of the language at all, other than that it was a possible medium of education in their school. Research context Traditionally, Gaelic is the language of the Highlands and western islands of Scotland, a large rural area known as the Gaidhealtachd. The 1991 Census, however, reported that those who are still able to speak the language are evenly distributed, approximately half-and-half, between the Highland area and the Lowland central belt, a largely urban area. From the Census it was also possible to establish that the two most concentrated areas are now the Outer Isles and the Glasgow conurbation. The Outer Isles being a traditional Gaelic community and Glasgow being a modern city where people from the traditional areas go to live and work. There has also been a general and large decline in the number of Gaelic speakers throughout the 20th century. A quick overview of the Census figures show that in 1891 there were approximately 250,000 speakers of Gaelic, 6.84% of the population of Scotland, whereas in 1991 there were approximately 66,000, 1.37% of the population. The next Census is expected to report further decline to approximately 50,000. Not surprisingly, the fall in numbers has resulted in a decline in the actual use of the language, and especially amongst the speakers that go to, or continue to live in, an urban setting. However, since the mid 1980’s, much money has been issued from the public purse to bolster the Gaelic language, particularly in the field of broadcasting where there are now over 300 hours of Gaelic television broadcasted in Scotland every year, consuming £8 million. A less highlighted but equally important development has been within the education system, where Gaelic medium education has been promoted by the Government as a progressive means of teaching for the first time since the 1872 Education Act (Scotland). 2 Gaelic medium education is mainly available at primary school level, as an optional stream of education along side an English stream of education. It is not compulsory and most of the primary schools are in the Highland region and the Western Isles. There are some in the Lowlands also, with Glasgow having a Scotland’s only all Gaelic primary school. In some secondary schools, there are also Gaelic streams, where some classes are taught through the medium of Gaelic, this is on much smaller scale and is often dependant on the availability of teachers who are able to teach a subject through Gaelic. In total there are approximately 2500 students engaged in Gaelic medium education each year, and that is excluding the less regulated pre-school classes which will often feed into the system. The Gaelic language has therefore become a much more conspicuous feature in Scottish society and politics than it previously was. This increased visibility of Gaelic, especially in relation to broadcasting exposure, has brought Gaelic much further into the public domain and consciousness. My thesis is an investigation into the identities and identifications of young people in Scotland, with particular reference to the Gaelic language and culture. I am interested in the changing values, perceptions and identities that may be occurring within Scotland, particularly in relation to the question of what it means to identify as a member of a specific community or group. For example, according to recent work related to Gaelic identity, Sharon Macdonald (1997, 1999) suggests that Gaelic may not be so central to the identities of the younger generations from traditional Gaelic communities, and she also suggests that Gaelic may be shifting from a language of interaction to a more symbolic marker of identity. Ultimately, identities may be shifting from ‘Gael’ to ‘Scot’. From my own research results, this would appear to be the case, with respondents less sure and more reticent as to what a Gael is, compared with claiming to be Scottish. But apart from the possibility that there is an increased sense of Scottishness, I am interested in the fluidity of identity, how it changes and cannot be defined once and for all. Theory Identities are dynamic and often simultaneous, which can challenge external attempts to categorise. For example, in a geographical sense at least, Scottish 3 people are also British and European, and there may be any number of other identities competing with those classifications. My approach to identity is based on the ‘subjectivist’ and ‘situational’ perspectives of Barth (1969), Cohen (1982) and Jenkins (1996). This approach does not assume identity to be fixed. In terms of a group identity, it is therefore important to understand that the identities of each individual constituent member of that ‘group’ is relevant, and especially so if it challenges a stereotype. From the ‘situational’ perspective there are major problems of validation when attempts are made to objectively define an identity; therefore, subjective self-ascription is seen to be far more important than definitions imposed from the outside. And that is because and individual’s identity may have little to do with what the wider world perceives to be a group identity, especially if the perception is largely rooted in the past and in former, historical, imposed identities. Tom Nairn, the political scientist, pointed out in his book The Break-Up of Britain that ‘the one thing which the Scots can never be said to have lacked is identity’ (Nairn 1981 [1977]: 131). A generalization that can, without a doubt, be applied to all nations. However, that does not mean that there is no grain of truth in the statement. In my interviews, for example, I gleaned these responses: Scottish people tend to be a bit more protective of their country because…some people think we’re part of England, like Americans and that, so we feel much more Scottish than we do British, while a lot of English people might feel British rather than English. [phs –Nfg] I don’t think there’re many Scots who aren’t proud of where they come from, you know. But then there might be people in other countries who are not proud of where they come from, you know. They could be adopted Scots, you know… somewhere where they feel proud. [phsp – fg] Identity, therefore, is about a sense of belonging but it is often easier to be more conscious of the orders of difference than the orders of sameness, which we take for granted. As a result, ‘groups become aware of their ethnic identity when they engage with others’ (Barth 1969:24). This engagement is the vital in informing our reflexive identity. This, in essence, is Barth’s concept of boundaries and boundary 4 maintenance (Barth 1969). Scottishness, like any identity, is often most visible at its boundary of difference and in the Scottish case it is often the boundary of difference from the English that has to be maintained: ‘We are not English!’ is a common cry, to paraphrase M. McDonald’s: We Are Not French! (1989): Mm… yeah… if they think you’re British they just… then most people automatically think, mainly kind of English, when you say British, if they don’t know where you’re from, if you haven’t spoken to them before. [phsp – Fm2] Mm… I don’t think it’s very different from being British but when you think of British you’re more likely to think of English people. Do you know why? Because there’s more of them and they seem to have more influence within Britain.
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