ABSTRACT
As a sociological oddity, a nation without an independent state, Scotland presents problems for sociologists and historians who would explain its economic and social development. Nevertheless, the case of Scotland has attracted much interest from those who see it as an exemplar of certain general models of change, and as a result a number of key debates have been generated around the issue of development and social change in Scotland. The main purpose of this chapter is to show how particular conceptual and theoretical vocabularies have shaped the study of Scotland.
