Intermittent Citizens

Scotland's Travellers, Welfare, and the Shifting Boundary of State and Voluntary Action in the Early Twentieth Century

Bibliographic Data

ID10067978
AuthorsBecky Taylor (0000-0001-7275-6016, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume62
Issue3
Pages640-661
Publication date2023-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of British Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9371 • E-ISSN: 1545-6986
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/jbr.2023.9
OpenAlexW4385220359
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited10

This article explores the shifting relationship between Scottish Travellers, voluntary and mission action, and the state. Examining missionary and state attempts to settle, assimilate, and turn Scots Travellers into so-called good citizens in the first decades of the twentieth century—initially during the First World War and later in a designated camping scheme in Perthshire—reveals three things. First, many of the techniques used to manage Travellers’ behavior were not exceptional but rather can be seen as part of the wider armory deployed by welfare workers and reformers in this period. Often they used the particular sites of the mission hall, schoolroom, and camping ground to inculcate good citizenship. Second, the boundary between state and voluntary action was never fixed. And third, exploring how this boundary shifted over time can lead to a better understand of how Travellers were positioned as citizens at a time when both who was considered a citizen and what that might mean were profoundly changing. In this way, this article not only extends our understanding of Gypsy and Traveller history but also contributes to histories of the state, citizenship, and voluntary action

Action (physics · Art · Boundary (topology · Citizenship · Economics · Management · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Scots · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Turnover · Voluntary action · Voluntary association · Welfare · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History · Irish and British Studies · Law · Romani and Gypsy Studies

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access