Chapter 7: Roots tourism as return movement: semantics and the Scottish diaspora

2017 ◽  
pp. 131-150 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roots Tourism ◽  
Scottish Diaspora

Encountering an Imaginary Heritage: Roots Tourism and the Scottish Diaspora

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tawny Paul
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Heritage Tourism ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
The World ◽  
Roots Tourism ◽  
Scottish Diaspora

Around the world, some 40 million people claim Scottish ancestry. Every year thousands of members of the Scottish diaspora travel to their imagined homeland. They come to Scotland to experience the culture of their ancestors and to walk in the places where their forebears walked. They come to Scotland because, like many diasporic populations around the globe, they imagine that their home is somewhere other than in the place they reside, and they travel in order to connect with their roots. Scotland is, of course, not the only country with a strong tradition of roots tourism. Cultural heritage trips, in which participants seek out an embodied experience of culture and connection, are part of a growing global fascination with heritage and genealogy. Nations with significant migration histories, including Israel and China, have, like Scotland, recognised the power inherent in their global communities and actively promote heritage tourism programmes.

‘To see oursels as ithers see us’: Reflections on Scottish Independence from the United States

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Euan Hague ◽  
Alan Mackie
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Scottish Independence ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Scottish Diaspora

The United States media have given rather little attention to the question of the Scottish referendum despite important economic, political and military links between the US and the UK/Scotland. For some in the US a ‘no’ vote would be greeted with relief given these ties: for others, a ‘yes’ vote would be acclaimed as an underdog escaping England's imperium, a narrative clearly echoing America's own founding story. This article explores commentary in the US press and media as well as reporting evidence from on-going interviews with the Scottish diaspora in the US. It concludes that there is as complex a picture of the 2014 referendum in the United States as there is in Scotland.

scholarly journals Old World Homecomings: Campaigns of Ancestral Tourism and Cultural Diplomacy, 1945–66

2021 ◽  
pp. 002200942098684
Author(s):  
Adam Hjorthén
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Marshall Plan ◽  
Old World ◽  
Subsequent Transformation ◽  
Political Incentives ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Economies ◽  
Roots Tourism

This article examines the history of ancestral tourism and its development as a form of cultural diplomacy between 1945 and 1966. The phenomenon often referred to as ‘roots tourism’ has during the last decades increased in popularity, especially in Old World countries that historically have sent large numbers of people to North America. While previous scholarship has focused on its existential dimensions and its relation to the twenty-first century tourism and heritage economies, this article looks at how ancestral tourism grew out of European attempts at expanding the tourism industry after 1945. It studies the international spread of ‘person-to-person’ programs that sought to turn travelers into ‘ambassadors’, and the subsequent transformation of such initiatives into ‘homecoming’ campaigns through notions of co-descent, targeting Americans of European descent. By exploring the case of the 1966 Homecoming Year campaign in Sweden, the article shows that the attraction of ancestral tourism was grounded in its ability to combine economic and political incentives articulated in the Marshall Plan. It developed out of a liberal-democratic ideology that vested individual travelers with diplomatic agency. In the process, European tourist agencies calcified the notion that ancestral tourism served not only individual experiences, but also national economies and international relations.

Scottish devolution and the Scottish diaspora

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Sim
Keyword(s):  
Scottish Diaspora

‘Part of my Heritage’: Ladies’ Pipe Bands, Associational Culture and ‘Homeland’ Identities in the Scottish Diaspora

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin C. M. Grant
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identities ◽  
Individual Band ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Sense Of Identity ◽  
Scottish Diaspora ◽  
Public Group

Throughout the imperial and non-imperial destinations to which Scots gravitated, they expressed their ethnic identities in various ways. To date, scholars have generally focused on either one particular aspect of Scottish expressions of identity, such as ethnic societies, or provided fleeting mentions of individual elements, such as pipe bands, without sustained analysis. Since most Scottish migrants did not join a Scottish association, it was their personal sense of Scottishness, which overshadowed their ethnic affiliations. This chapter will build on current scholarship by surveying Scottish ethnic identities through two new approaches: public group expressions of Scottishness as revealed by ladies’ pipe bands and their various connections to other forms of Scottish associational culture; and in the personal expressions of individual band members and their audience members across the diaspora. Further, this chapter sheds light on a glaring gap in scholarship regarding ethnic identities: the sense of identity held by multi-generational descent groups, as well as the extent to which these were articulated and reinvented.

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