Scottish Magazines Network: New Research Directions and Partnerships

Sparked by Scottish International (Review) in 1968, a range of small independent magazines played a major creative role in Scottish literature, culture and politics over the next three decades. Fostered by the Scottish Arts Council, these titles featured (publicly subsidised) poetry and short fiction, and were the key venue in which writers, journalists and campaigners developed a shared agenda centred on Scottish cultural difference, literary revival and democratic dissent. Writing in Radical Scotland in 1983, George Kerevan noted that 'politics is no longer confined to the Establishment and Labourist agenda of economic tinkering. Cultural values represent a new Second Front'. The arena of this 'second front' was established - and gradually expanded - by titles such as New Edinburgh Review (from 1969), Chapman (1970), Crann-Tàra (1977), MsPrint (1978) and Cencrastus (1979). By the 1980s, these magazines had significant influence on the 'first' front - the field of electoral politics - in yoking together assertions of Scottish cultural identity and demands for constitutional change. Looking back, we can see post-1960s magazine culture as the laboratory in which the discourse and identity of the 'new' Scotland was experimentally debated, strategised and disseminated. These titles were also key sites of literary innovation, featuring work by every major and emerging Scottish poet of the period (Maclean, Morgan, Leonard, Lochhead, Jamie), short fiction by James Kelman, Janice Galloway, Iain Crichton Smith, and many others, and even the watershed of the modern Scottish novel, Alasdair Gray's Lanark. The same titles featured key essays and critical interventions by thinkers such as Tom Nairn, Isobel Lindsay and George E. Davie, influential debates on the marginalisation of women's writing, and were a key venue for the reassertion of Scottish folk traditions and the importance of Gaelic and Scots. Constant crossover between literary, cultural and electoral debate - from page to page and within the same article - is central to the interest and influence of these titles. To the extent that an earlier process of 'cultural devolution' paved the way for the new Scottish parliament in 1999, it can be directly witnessed in the writing, criticism and artwork of these magazines, and in the interpretive communities and political alliances which were formed around and through them.

The study and re-discovery of these magazines matters: first, because they are the 'missing link' in recent scholarship on Scottish culture and politics, the neglected arena in which movements for literary identity and democratic renewal intersect and interact. These magazines also answer the strong public appetite to understand the cultural and intellectual strands that helped to form today's Scotland. They had far-reaching impact in post-1960s Scottish literature, politics and cultural life, but they are seriously overlooked in histories and literary studies of the period. To address these needs, our network brings together four key groups:

- academic researchers (working in Scottish history, literature, politics, publishing)
- editors, contributors, and readers of our target magazines
- students, media and members of the public curious about Scotland's recent magazine heritage
- experts in restoring comparable magazines to public life through digitisation

The network will establish the resources and frameworks necessary to put these magazines firmly back on the map, potentially via a future digitisation programme (in partnership with the National Library of Scotland). Through our publications (including a taster 'megazine' reproducing the content and design of our target titles), we will boost the profile of these materials, stimulate new research directions, and consolidate the research field. Everyone interested in the intersection of cultural and political developments in recent Scottish history will benefit from this research and these resources.

Impact I: Who?

Curators and Librarians: Graeme Hawley (Head of General Collections, NLS) and Dr Polly Russell (Lead Curator of Contemporary Politics and Public Life, British Library) have been closely involved in the formation of the network, and will participate in SMN events and discussion. Through focused discussion with researchers and digital humanists (Events 4 and 5), curators will gain new insights into the research opportunities and challenges (scholarly, legal, technical) of c20 magazine digitisation. Already, the process of devising SMN has benefitted both these organisations, e.g. the PI was able to pass new NLS legal guidance on evolving EU copyright directives to the BL's Spare Rib team.

Magazine Professionals and Media Practitioners: Nikki Simpson (International Magazine Centre) sits on the SMN advisory board, and will facilitate Event 3. Held to coincide with the Edinburgh International Magazine Festival, this is a public-facing workshop intended to engage magazine professionals and current media practitioners (editors, podcasters, journalists) with our research, and to involve these outlets in re-discovering our target titles.

Digital Humanists and Information Managers: Professor Lorna Hughes (University of Glasgow), Dr Sarah Ames (NLS) and Fredric Saunderson (NLS) are expert in pedagogical, technical, and legal frameworks of the digital humanities. They will benefit from the hands-on discussion of Events 4 and 5, as the aims and needs of researchers intersect with the (shifting) possibilities of producing digital scholarly resources, and also from hearing an insider's perspective on the BL's Spare Rib digitisation, a benchmark project for the sector.

Public engaged in Scottish culture and politics: The cultural debates and developments of our target periodicals are alive and kicking, and there is strong public interest in the 'backstory' of contemporary Scotland we can reconstruct via this independent periodical culture. Reaching and stimulating this general audience has been a central SMN objective from the start.

Impact II: How?

Public-facing Events: Events 1 and 3 are intended to directly engage the public, including magazine professionals and media practitioners, in the network's task of recovering and 're-circulating' these magazines and their stories.

FLYTE: A Scottish Megazine: Launched at Event 3, 1000 copies of this printed output will be disseminated as an introduction to the world of our target periodicals, including details of the SMN blog and events programme. We will distribute the publication at the Edinburgh International Magazine Festival, and with the assistance of our NLS partners and other contacts.

Exhibition at University of Stirling: Launched at Event 4, this exhibition will display magazines and related correspondence held by the Scottish Political Archive, focusing on the role of target periodicals in constructing a 1980s 'cultural campaign' for Scottish devolution.

Online exhibition via NLS: Launched at Event 5, this online exhibition (on the Google Arts and Culture platform) will showcase a selection of target titles in the NLS collection, highlighting common elements of design and production. As with the Stirling exhibition, the choice of titles for display will be shaped by public input via the SMN blog.

Network blog and social media: Events 1 and 3 will be promoted to the public via social media (Twitter and Facebook), and reports on the network's developing discussions will be posted to the SMN blog throughout the duration of the project.

Media participation: A number of Scottish media outlets participating in Event 3 - the Haverin' podcast, the Bella Caledonia blog, and the culture magazine The Drouth - have expressed interest in covering the network and its findings, with a view to boosting awareness of Scotland's modern magazine heritage and exploring parallels and lessons for today's independent cultural media.