Economic Development in Scotland:Changes and Prospects for the Economic Core Region Edinburgh

Inhaltsangabe: Introduction: This thesis tries to examine the structures, activities, changes and spatial impacts of economic development in Scotland. Looking at the Scottish economy it has to be considered that Scotland is both an integrated part of the UK and the UK economy and a peripheral region within the UK. Therefore Scotland does not have an economy of its own, but the distinctiveness of the region in terms of location, history and recent political devel-opments justifies a closer examination of the matter. Scotland is in many aspects a very heterogeneous region. This is in particular true for the economic structure and a focus on one region cannot be representative. Edinburgh is an exceptionally prosperous region, not only in Scottish terms. However this prosperity and activity in economic development makes Edinburgh an interesting subject for examination. Thus the focus of this thesis lies on the developments in Edinburgh. Economic development is certainly influenced by a vast number of factors and it is impossible to take all of them into account. Within this thesis the emphasis lies on governmental influence on the developments. However European development measures are not considered. Accordingly the thesis aims to look at the ways the promotion of economic development is carried out in Scotland and tries to assess the measures on the background of the distinctiveness of Scotland and Edinburgh. Thus in the first chapter the thesis takes a look at Scotland as a whole, examining the physical environment, the administrative framework and its re-cent changes. Furthermore it looks at the economic legacy of the heavy industries and the recent developments in the Scottish economy. Subsequently the history and institutions of the promotion of economic development in Britain and Scotland are presented. The last part of the first chapter deals with the planning framework in Scotland. The second chapter portraits Edinburghs economic structure. The key indust