The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Statistically Modified Farming: The Spatial Politics in Scottish Farming Statistics A Thesis in Geography by Alistair Geddes © 2006 Alistair Geddes Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2006 The thesis of Alistair Geddes was reviewed and approved* by the following: Cynthia A. Brewer Associate Professor of Geography Thesis Advisor Chair of Committee Deryck W. Holdsworth Professor of Geography James McCarthy Assistant Professor of Geography Leif I. Jensen Professor of Rural Sociology and Demography Roger M. Downs Professor of Geography Head of the Department *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii Abstract This study is concerned with some of the statistical developments that have occurred in Scotland since the late eighteenth century, with a particular emphasis on developments related to Scottish agriculture. There are two main purposes to the study: (1) to add understanding of how both historical and contemporary developments in national statistics can be used to study Scottish farming changes; and (2), to show that those developments have involved a variety of “spatial politics”—some ongoing, others changeable—concerning why, how, when, and by whom and for whom national-scale statistics about Scottish farming have been created. Hence, the latter purpose supports the former. Discussion of a conceptual framework forms the first part of the study, centered on reviewing other relatively recent geographical studies of national statistics, particularly those that have attempted to apply and extend concepts from poststructuralist theorizing on governmentality. The second part of the analysis draws on the first and involves empirical analyses primarily of three statistical projects, all of which include statistics about Scottish farming conditions. One development is the Statistical Account of Scotland, conducted between 1790 and 1798, and significant as the first-ever geographically organized statistical survey of the modern nation. Examined next is a sequence of national agricultural surveys performed in the mid-1850s, these surveys being the first specifically about Scottish farming. The third development encompasses the consolidation of state data systems, focusing on the agricultural censuses conducted since 1866. More recent data systems have included those required in relation to the workings of European Community’s Common Agricultural Policy. These three iv developments are first analyzed individually, each providing a perspective on the spatial politics of statistical observation and their connections to knowledge and regulation. Finally, continuities and changes over the three developments are assessed and then discussed in relation to current data developments. v Table of Contents List of Figures...............................................................................................vii List of Tables ................................................................................................ix Acknowledgements......................................................................................x Chapter 1 Introduction: Statistically Modified Modern Farming? ...........1 1.1 Introduction to the spatial politics of Scottish farming statistics....................1 1.2 Geographical research with agricultural statistics ..........................................2 1.3 Structure of the work ......................................................................................10 1.4 Parishes: a two centuries old statistical geography.........................................20 1.5 Chapter summary............................................................................................22 Chapter 2 Conceptual Considerations ......................................................29 2.1 Introduction: the state, farming, and statistics................................................30 2.2 Governmentality theory: political rationalities and governing technologies..31 2.3 Governmentality, statistics and geography.....................................................37 2.4 Work on the historical geography of geographical knowledge......................51 2.5 Chapter summary............................................................................................54 Chapter 3 Statistically Accounting for Scotland.......................................55 3.1 Introdution: knowing the modern nation through statistics............................55 3.2 Organizing “the field”: spatial politics of abstraction and assortment in the Statistical Account ...................................................................................58 3.3 The spatial politics of centralization...............................................................67 3.4 The spatial politics of compiling the Account ................................................76 3.5 The geography of Sinclair's “public”: a partial survey...................................86 3.6 Chapter summary............................................................................................88 Chapter 4 National Agricultural Surveys...................................................89 4.1 Introduction: “national” agricultural statistics................................................89 4.2 A patriotic duty...............................................................................................91 4.3 The Society’s role in ennrolling “the flower of the Scottish tenantry” ..........97 4.4 Who was counted?..........................................................................................101 4.5 Who did the counting?....................................................................................107 4.6 Chapter summary............................................................................................116 vi Chapter 5 State Agricultural Statistics, Part 1: Improving Legibility ......118 5.1 Introduction: the “impetus to categorize”.......................................................118 5.2 Pre-Twentieth century categorizations ...........................................................121 5.3 Twentieth century categorizations..................................................................128 5.4 Chapter summary............................................................................................139 Chapter 6 State Agricultural Statistics, Part 2: Managing Farming's Economic Identity ..................................................................................141 6.1 Introduction: managerial liberalism and census-based typologies .................141 6.2 Birth of a problem...........................................................................................143 6.3 Assembling the “European farm”...................................................................155 6.4 Fixing to count sheep......................................................................................159 6.5 Chapter summary............................................................................................165 Chapter 7 Conclusions ...............................................................................166 7.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................166 7.2 Main findings from the study .........................................................................168 7.3 Possiblities for future research........................................................................177 7.4 Closing comments ..........................................................................................184 References ....................................................................................................185 Appendix A Copy of Sinclair’s questions for the Statistical Account of Scotland .............................................................................................193 Appendix B Copy of Sinclair’s updated tables .........................................198 Appendix C Copy of tables from Highland and Agricultural Society’s surveys of 1853 ......................................................................................201 Appendix D Excerpts of parish summaries from 1st agricultural census in 1866........................................................................................204 Appendix E Copy of parish summary table from 1919 agricultural census.....................................................................................................207 Appendix F Copy of parish summary table from 1919 agricultural census.....................................................................................................211 Appendix G Copy of a parish summary sheet from the 1941 agricultural census ................................................................................213 Appendix H Copy of questionnaire for agricultural census of 2000 .......218 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1: Structure of this dissertation. ...........................................................13 Figure 1.2: Map of the 891 “frozen” parishes used for agricultural census purposes.........................................................................................................23 Figure 1.3: Map of Scottish industrial and urban development around two hundred years ago..........................................................................................24 Figure 3.1: Timeline of the Statistical Account of Scotland................................57