Oil, culture & economy: the reinvention of the Shetland way of life

• Main Author: Simchak, T
• Other Authors: Barry, A
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Economic and Social History; Geography; Social anthropology; Europe; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:47cc64ea-de5e-4dab-baff-28386378d93f

Claims to historically-based identities and cultures have long been prevalent in Shetland, an island group bordering the North Sea and North Atlantic approximately 300 kilometres north of Aberdeen. In the early 1970s, however, oil and gas discoveries in the North Sea made Shetland an ideal location for oil infrastructure and ultimately the site of a major oil terminal and extensive oil-support and servicing activities. The prospect of such major developments, however, stirred fears regarding the disruption of a local culture and identity heavily based on historical elements. Discussed in this thesis are the elements and influences that led to the creation – sometimes intentionally – of Shetland’s sense of identity and culture and how the construction of the Sullom Voe Terminal and other oil support infrastructure impacted such perceptions. Not only did the actual externalities of development alter the ‘Shetland way of life’, but also in response, significantly, to fears about what the industrial growth in their midst would bring, Shetlanders’ understandings of their own cultures and identities were changed. Petroleum-related immigration and income both significantly altered the practicalities of Shetland life but did not wholly replace the cultural influences which had existed previously. Instead they fuelled the creation of new hybrid identities that largely embrace these modern influences while remaining grounded in the historical crofting and fishing ways of life, claims to Norse heritage, and a sense of island remoteness that have long characterised Shetlanders’ outlooks on the world and perceptions of self.