It might not be a combination that often springs to mind, but an academic paper has been published recently which looks at the influence of religious factors on modern Scottish land reform. The paper has been co-authored by Alistair McIntosh, known to some in the community land world for his role in previous community buy-outs. The research described in the paper is based on interviews with people involved in the Assynt, Gigha and Eigg buy-outs, as well as discussions with key church leaders. It seems that many of those interviewed felt that whilst religion had no direct political effect on the land reform process, it did deepen the debate, both in terms of connectedness to the land and social injustice. The paper is published in the Journal for the study of religion, nature and culture and agree, disagree or indifferent, you can read a copy here.
