In the modern western world urbanisation has often been both the companion and

corollary of industrialization and no more so than in Britain. Here the population

changed dramatically during the long nineteenth century, transforming parts of

England and Scotland into some of the most industrial and urban societies in the

world. Scottish society was particularly affected by this process. The growth of

towns or cities, and the radical overhaul of the balance of population between the

rural and urban worlds that this implies, is one of the most sensitive indicators of

the emergence of a modern industrial state.

Nor surprisingly then, Scottish towns are seen as central to any understanding of

modern Scotland. For some they have an identity all of their own which distinguishes

them from towns in other parts of the United Kingdom. Indeed it is to

these same towns that political scientists have turned to explain why the Scots

have never lost their sense of national identity, despite Scotland's "stateless nation"

status since 1707.

This Graat conference brought together contributions from a wide range approaches

to the Scottish urban experience: from history to literature, architecture

and the fine arts. They focus on three main perspectives. Firstly we have images

of the city and an exploration of how these became part of the Scottish mind-set.

A second perspective concentrated on the Scottish city during the nineteenth

century. Finally, there is the twentieth and twenty-first century "revival" with its

distinctive avenues of development. All in all, a recognition of the fascination

which the distinctiveness of urban life has exerted over the Scottish people as

much as a tribute to the renewed dynamism of Scottish studies in France.