'A Peculiar Diversity': Public Health in Inverness County 1845 - 1912

This thesis examines public health developments in Inverness County between<br/>1845 and 1912. Government legislation, policies and practical guidance were<br/>prolific during this period but effective implementation was left to local government.<br/>Scholarship on public health problems and achievements has concentrated<br/>primarily on larger towns and cities. This thesis shifts the focus to smaller towns,<br/>villages and scattered communities within a large geographical area. It<br/>demonstrates that, given the limitations of state intervention and diverse socioeconomic conditions, delivering public health improvements in a rural region was<br/>often complex in different ways from urban areas.<br/>The development of public health in Inverness County was affected by a<br/>range of local variables. They included wider structural, social and economic<br/>changes in the Highlands. Transformation of the transport network, particularly the<br/>stimulus of railway construction, encouraged growth in business and tourism. It<br/>was also a time when government intervened more actively in economic<br/>circumstances especially after the 1880s. In addition to these wider influences,<br/>localised social, economic and geographic conditions and power structures had a<br/>profound and often limiting effect on public health activity. Four main local factors<br/>shaped developments in the region’s public health provision. These were middle<br/>class influence on public health policy and practice; questions about the<br/>affordability of any proposed public health scheme; the power of landowners to<br/>shape the nature of these provisions; and the geographic and technical feasibility<br/>of meeting public health needs in a dispersed region of varied and challenging<br/>topography. Personal agency was also a crucial dynamic of progress with<br/>individuals taking a prominent role in campaigning and practical actions.<br/>The nature and extent of public health services and infrastructure differed<br/>widely within the County. The interplay between national, regional and local factors<br/>both enabled achievements and restricted improvements. By expanding<br/>understanding of public health developments in a rural region, this thesis<br/>establishes that the history of public health should no longer be regarded as<br/>synonymous with urban and industrial situations

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (awarded by OU/Aberdeen)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral Thesis

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Aberdeen

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Souter, Mary

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• MacPherson, D. A. J.
• Ritchie, Elizabeth

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

oai:pure.atira.dk:studenttheses/343872a8-efd0-4e97-849e-b09894fb8aaa

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:pure.atira.dk:studenttheses/343872a8-efd0-4e97-849e-b09894fb8aaa