ABSTRACT
Scotland in the twenty-®rst century: how are we to understand it sociologically? Should we even try? It might seem that we would be better focusing on the broad social, economic and cultural processes which shape the modern world as a whole, and that there is little to be said that is different about a small, north-west European nation to make the effort worthwhile. Do we not, after all, live in a `global' world in which individual societies, especially small ones which are part of bigger states, seem to be unimportant players? That would be to misunderstand the modern world. Globalisation does not create bland, uniform homogeneity. How territories react to these broad social forces is very different, and the local and the global are but two sides of the same coin. Further, we are frequently more likely to spot social change in small societies before we do so in bigger ones, just as we notice the turn of the tide by observing small boats rather than large ships.
