Full CV of Alastair McIntosh, Scotland
[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Work & Campaigns ] [ My Books ] [ Published Articles ] [ En d'Autres Langues ] [ Search this Website ]

This is a full academic c.v. - for a 2-page version, click here

Alastair McIntosh’s CURRICULUM  VITAE 

(as of Summer 2009)

1.         FULL NAME:                                    McIntosh, Alastair Iain

2.         DATE OF BIRTH:                 1955

3.         ADDRESS:                             26 Luss Road, Drumoyne,

Glasgow G51 3YD, Scotland

                                                            Tel: 0141 445 8750                                                                                           

                                                            mail@AlastairMcIntosh.com

                                                            www.AlastairMcIntosh.com    

4.         MARITAL STATUS:             Married to Vérène Nicolas

5.         EDUCATION: 

5.1.      Primary School (1960-67)

Leurbost Junior-Secondary School, Leurbost Village (my home village), North Lochs, Isle of Lewis. 

 5.2.     Secondary School (1967-73)

The Nicolson Institute, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. Highers in physics, chemistry, maths, geography and English.

 5.3.     Undergraduate Studies, University Of Aberdeen (1973-77), graduated with Degree of Bachelor of Science (BSc), Designated in Geography; sub-majoring in Moral Philosophy and Psychology. (Aberdeen University's "designated" degree represents the Scots generalist tradition that allowed study of a wide range of subjects)

5.3.1.    Degree examination passes:

June '74: Geography (1), Geology (1), Physics (1)

June '75: Geography (2), Moral Philosophy (ordinary)

June '76: Geography (3), Psychology (ordinary)

June '77: Psychology (advanced), Moral Philosophy (advanced)

 5.3.2.   Executive member of the Students' Representative Council (SRC) included experience on University committees as follows:

Faculty of Science Committee (SRC Convenor)

World University Service (Chairperson)

Students' Book Agency (Convenor)

Senatus/Student Consultative Committee

Degree Regulations (Science) Committee

University Chapel Committee

University Library Committee

Aberdeen Assoc. of Social Service (SRC representative)

 5.3.3.   Other activities at Aberdeen University included being:

Founder/President of the Parapsychological Society

Secretary of the Amnesty International Society

Member of the Potholing and Caving Club

Member of the Philosophical Society

 5.3.4.   Vacation employment included crofting work, factory shift work processing seaweed and work as a ghillie on salmon lochs and red deer stalking with hill ponies on estates at home on Lewis.  

5.4.      Postgraduate Studies

 5.4.1.   University Of Edinburgh, (Oct. 1980 - Sep. 1981), graduated with the Degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA),  Faculty of Social Science (Scottish Business School).Core subjects:  General Management, Marketing & Business Policy, Financial & Cost Accounting, Business Economics (micro/macro), Business Statistics, Computing for Management, Business Law, Organisational Behaviour and Industrial Relations.

 Specialised Options: Business Finance & Investment, Management Accounting, Management Science. 

Dissertation Topic: The Financial Management and Policies of Major Aid Agencies

5.4.2.    University of Ulster: Because I have chosen to be an academic generalist, I never felt moved to do a conventional PhD, though I have supervised several as a staff member of the University of Edinburgh. However, in 2008 a collection of my published work was awarded the Degree of PhD by Published Works by the Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages, Faculty of Arts, University of Ulster. The thesis linking the dozen submitted publications can be downloaded -  Some contributions of liberation theology to community empowerment in Scottish land reform 1991 - 2003.

5.4.3. University of Strathclyde: In 2006 given the honorary post of Visiting Professor of Human Ecology at the Department of Geography and Sociology, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. This is the first such recognition of human ecology in a Scottish university. 

 6.        EMPLOYMENT HISTORY (in chronological order): 

6.l.       Voluntary Service Overseas (November 1977 - January 1980): deputy-head teacher of St. Peter's Extension School, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea. Responsibilities included school finance, administration,  teaching a range of subjects and relocating the site of school for 240 boarding students with six staff. In final 3 months was responsible for completing the Bema 25kva micro-hydro power scheme including  installation of all electrical plant, three phase site wiring for village, installation of some hydraulic machinery, finalising concreting work on raceway and penstock, voltage stabilisation system and survey work on Haubango 5kva micro hydro.

 6.2.     Scottish Organiser With Lepra, The British Leprosy Relief Association (September 1981 - June 1984): responsibilities and achievements included fundraising (at 51% over the requisite cost:benefit ratio) and development education, including talks to approximately 34,000 people reached through some 200 schools and 50 adult groups. Also advised on electrical power requirements of leprosy control stations.

 6.3.     Financial Adviser And Company Secretary With The South Pacific Appropriate Technology Foundation (Spatf), (July 1984 - May 1986): responsibilities included assisting and advising executive director, financial control of organisation turning over £1.3 million with 85 direct employees, full computerisaion including accounts, staff training, liaison with government’s Department of Trade and Industry and management advice to a wide  range of appropriate technology projects including a scrap metal recycling foundry, two small business development centres, a crafts marketing centre, the Liklik Buk information centre, Village Equipment Suppliers and the University of Technology’s Appropriate Technology Development Institute. 

6.4.      Co-Director Of Uk Foundation For The Peoples Of The South Pacific And Business Adviser To The Iona Community, (July 1986 - March 1990):

6.4.1.    With UKFSP my work included:

 ·       Developing from scratch a funding base in excess of  £100,000 per annum from other charitable organisations, the ODA and the EC for conscientisation, environmental, appropriate technology and small scale entrepreneurial development work predominantly in the Melanesian nations of the South Pacific.

 ·       Initiating the Pacific Regional Sustainable  Forestry Programme between Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, as featured on p.59 of the British Government’s 1990 White Paper on the Environment.

·       Serving on the Education and Promotion Committee of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, the Steering Committee of Scottish Churches Action for World Development, the Planning Group of the Scottish South-North Network for Cultures and Development, and a founding Trustee of Scottish Peace House.

6.4.2.    With the Iona Community responsibilities included:

 ·       Advising the Leader and Council on strategic planning, management structures, business policy and marketing for Iona Abbey, the MacLeod Centre on Iona, Camas Adventure Camp on Mull, Wild Goose Publications, etc..  

·       Raising nearly a quarter of a million pounds from sources including the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, trusts, industry and individuals.

·       Introducing computers into the organisation, training staff and setting up electronic mail networks.

·       Representing the Community on the European Coordinating Committee for Unemployed and Disadvantaged Youth, Brussels.

6.5       Teaching Director, Centre For Human Ecology, University Of Edinburgh, (April 1990 - October 1996): Responsibilities included:

 ·       With Ulrich Loening (then director), establishing the first British MSc course in human ecology through the Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, Faculty of Science and Engineering. Serving as course director with average of ten students since 1992.

 ·       Teaching modules in Ecological Ethics & Education, Organisational Finance and Management, Principles of Human Ecology and Management of Sustainable Development. Also, overseeing British Council funded advanced professional training courses in sustainable development for mainly government and NGO professionals from the South - normally two per year.

·       Supervising an average of 4 PhD students a year.

·       Research into psychospiritual aspects of sustainable livelihood, with focus on re-establishing relationship between people and the land through conscientisation-based empowerment methodologies.

·       Co-ordinating Edinburgh University’s widely influential 1991 review of all environmental teaching, resulting in “Environmental Education for Adaptation” report.

·       Overseeing administration and raising necessary funds and other inputs to maintain Centre for Human Ecology’s ethos of conviviality appropriate to creative academic community.  

 6.6     Work Related To Being A Fellow Of The Centre For Human Ecology And Freelance Writer, Broadcaster, Speaker, Researcher And Activist, (October 1996 - present):

  In 1996 the Centre for Human Ecology developed into an independent academic network, outside of Edinburgh University and accredited  by the Open University, in order to maintain, uncompromised, what a New Scientist editorial described (4-5-96) as its “tradition of fearless inquiry.” Since that time I have worked mostly freelance as a Fellow of the Centre and, during an emergency period, I stepped temporarily back in as its Executive Director. Activities have included:

·       Action for Transformation (1996 - March 2001): I was funded by the Christendom and Russell Trusts to write Soil and Soul, and then by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust for three years from April 1998 to work on Action for Transformation, a programme of community empowerment through liberation theology involving a) Land reform, b) Blocking the proposed superquarry on the Isle of Harris, c) Urban ecology and empowerment with the GalGael Trust, d) People & Parliament national values discernment process and e) Combatting (with the Glasgow Mosque). Details of much of this work will be found reflected in my publications for the period.

·       Executive Director of the CHE (2001): during a crucial period of restructuring in 2001. This resulted in the Centre's academic programme being placed onto a firm footing, the financial position stabilised, and funds being raised to appoint a full-time Executive Director so that I could return to other work.

·       Academic Board, Teaching and MSc Curriculum Development (1996 to present): I played a lead role in preparing the documentation that led to the CHE's full academic accreditation by the Open University Validation Unit and to the re-launch of the MSc in Human Ecology (now in partnership with Strathclyde University). I wrote the curriculum and teach on one of the three core modules, Land, Self and Community, and have developed a new option module, Spiritual Activism. Academic Board work includes sitting on the Examination and other sub-committees. In 2009 appointed as a PhD External Examiner to the University of Dundee.

·      Cultural Psychotherapy, Identity and Racism (1996 to present): The CHE's main non-academic work is the Community Empowerment Programme, which works with ethnic minorities, women's groups and marginalised peoples. I am Honorary Advisor to this, and have played a key role in CHE's research looking at national identity and ethnicity - particularly the reports Who's a Real Scot? Embracing Multicultural Scotland (2000) and the Dream Job report (due September 2005, on ethnic minority employment issues). My work on "cultural psychotherapy" (the notion that whole cultures need to undergo a psychotherapeutic-like process of recovering and reconciling their histories) has been the focus of a BBC 2 TV documentary, The Whole Shebang, broadcast in March 2002, and related themes are drawn out in other broadcasting work, such as presenting the 4-part Voices for Peace series on BBC Radio Scotland in March 2003, which includes interviews with Nobel Peace Prize winners Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

·        Nonviolence Teaching at Military Staff College (1997 to present): I guest lecture annually on the Advanced Command & Staff Courses at Britain’s Defence Academy, the Joint Services Command & Staff College at Shrivenham, where I have also twice lectured on the Initial CSC course. In addition, I have addressed warrant officers and staff at the Army Training Regiment Bassingbourne (2005), the Irish Military College's Advanced Course (2009) and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy's PfP programme with NATO (2009). Themes include The Case Against Weapons of Mass Destruction and The Dynamics of Violence and Nonviolence. A written version, The Nonviolent Challenge to Conflict, will be published in 2010 as a chapter in a forthcoming staff college textbook from Palgrave Macmillan: Ethics, War and Strategy.

·        Corporate Social Responsibility with Lafarge (2004 onwards): Having persuaded Lafarge to withdraw its proposal for a coastal superquarry in a National Scenic Area on the Isle of Harris, I now, after consultation with fellow campaigners, serve (unpaid) on the company’s Sustainability Stakeholder Panel.

  ·        Spirituality of Community Regeneration with WWF International (2004 onwards): The campaign against Lafarge on Harris drew me closely into liaison with WWF International. I now collaborate with them in England, France and Switzerland. Through the Centre for Human Ecology they fund research that I coordinate on The Spirituality of Community Regeneration (£34k over 2005-2006).

  ·        Treasurer and Director of the GalGael Trust, Govan, Glasgow (1997 onwards): About one third of my time is taken up with this local community empowerment group addressing urban poverty – see www.GalGael.org . I oversee the finances, help with fundraising, mentor senior staff and benefit enormously from the participants it brings me into contact with. In 2004-5 this drew in about £600,000.

·       Speaking and Writing: I run workshops on a wide range of themes relevant to human ecology - sustainable development, community, spiritual activism, etc., and speak and write in contexts as indicated below. Since autumn 2005 I have been a regular contributor for BBC Radio Scotland’s Thought for the Day slot, presenting 7 - 10 pieces annually on peak-time current affairs radio.

7.      Publications - Books And Articles - Research Funding

Most of my work evolves out of practical action in community contexts. Rarely do I undertake work that can be planned and funded in advance. As such, I have many peer-reviewed publications but little to show for them in terms of research funding grants. Exceptions to this are a grant of £34,000 for researching the spirituality of urban and rural community regeneration (2005-08) which resulted in several publications including Rekindling Community, and 3 years of funding at £23,000 a year from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, 1998-2001, which contributed to many publications including Soil and Soul. I have singularly failed to procure main stream government research council funding such as is the mainstay of much academic life. This is because I value teaching students properly over research, and I suspect my interests are seen as being too broad to figure on the Richter scale of most research councils.

I have published some 200 academic papers, newspaper articles and books - see listing with downloads at http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/publications.htm .

Places of publication include through the United Nations Environment Programme, Russian Academy of Sciences (Economics Dept.), Journal of Law & Religion, Encyclopaedia of Religion & Nature, Journal of Accounting, Business & Financial History, Oral History, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Interculture, The Ecologist, Scottish Affairs, Theology in Scotland, Environmental Values, ECOS, Oceania, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Christian Parapsychologist, Third Way, The Trumpeter, Edinburgh Review, John Muir Trust Journal, New Internationalist, Cencrastus, Fourth World Review, Resurgence, Fishing News, Fishing Monthly, Journal of Contemporary Health, Ecotheology, Directory of Social Change, Reforesting Scotland and The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, The Herald, The Guardian and, The Stornoway Gazette.

I serve on the editorial advisory boards of Tikkun (the progressive Jewish and interfaith magazine) and of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture.

My best known books are: Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power (Aurum 2001), Love and Revolution - collected poetry (Luath 2006), Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition (Birlinn 2008) and Rekindling Community: Connecting People, Environment and Spirituality (Schumacher Briefings / Green Books, 2008).

Praise for Soil and Soul: “This is a world-changing book, one of the most important I have ever read, which will transform our perception of ourselves, our history and our surroundings … the work of a great thinker and a great poet” - George Monbiot; “This has to be the book of the decade. Lyrical, passionate and poetic. McIntosh’s writing is truly compelling” – Sunday Herald;  “Gripping” – Observer; “Life-changing” – Bishop of Liverpool; “Truly mental” – Thom Yorke, Radiohead.

 Praise for Hell and High Water: “Very scientifically rigorous … a kind of rage and optimism” – Radio 4’s Open Book; “It’s psychological and spiritual insights make such an important contribution to the debate surging around climate change” – Jonathan Porritt; “A profoundly important book” – Michael Russell MSP, Minister for Environment; “I found it very helpful indeed. As I have to speak in Copenhagen this December, I shall be quarrying it for inspiration.” – Archbishop of Canterbury.

8.   TV & Radio Broadcasts (except short interviews; most recent first)

24. BBC 2 TV programme on land reform, forthcoming autumn 2009, and various minor broadcasts.

23. Thought for the Day – regularly from August 2005, BBC Radio Scotland.

22. Presentor of Voices for Peace, BBC Radio Scotland, comprising 4 26-minute programmes featuring peace work from Israel/Palestine, South Africa, Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka, including interviews with Nobel Peace Prize winners Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

21. Interviewed for BBC Radio 4 programme made by Sandra Sykes and Steve Chalkie about the cultural regeneration work of the GalGael Trust, Glasgow, of which I am a founding trustee.

20. Guest in the BBC 1 TV Iraq Debate, broadcast 8.30 p.m. 12 February 2003.

19. Without Prejudice? Channel 4 gameshow, broadcast 9.10 p.m. 25 January 2003 - click here for details.

18. In Confidence, a 30 minute interview with me by Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh, broadcast on STV 15-16 December 2002. Also, panel participation in other STV religious/ethical broadcasts. 

17. The Whole Shebang (Programme 3), BBC 2 TV, broadcast 7.30 p.m. 11 March 2002, relating my work on "cultural psychotherapy" to black America and Israel/Palestine.

16. Multiple TV and radio discussion programmes, including BBC Asia service and Lesley Riddoch show on launch of the Embracing Multicultural Scotland report, March 2000, and related items concerned with national identity, culture and ethnic inclusion.

15. The Colin Bell Show, BBC Radio Scotland, 1999, on power in the British establishment, and on the condition of Scottish culture.

14. BBC 2 TV’s Newsnight, covering my hosting of the Scottish Landowner’s Federation’s “right of reply” to the address that I delivered to them on 10 June 1998, broadcast on the “Glorious 12th” August 1998.

13. Filmed by BBC for 2-part programme on Celtic contribution to Scottish Parliament in dialogue with Booker Prizewinner, James Kelman, and Canon Kenyon Wright, convenor of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, broadcast autumn 1998.

12. 1996, various BBC programmes including World Service on land ownership, community empowerment and issues in higher education, including contributions to Channel 4’s “Stinking Rich” programme featuring landownership on the Isle of Eigg.

11. 1996, broadcast  21 January, Nature of Nature: Ecological Resistance Movements, Religion, Politics and Ethics, US Public Radio (some 140 stations), 30 minute interview in the Ian Flemming series, It’s to the Best of our Knowledge, towards hour-long broadcast focussed around University of Wisconsin Dept. of Religious Studies conference; discussing psychospiritual aspects of Highland clearances, American colonisation, and transatlantic intergenerational effect on native peoples.

10. 1994, 26 December, Scotland’s Islands, BBC Radio Scotland, 10 minute feature on Isle of Eigg and Scotland’s land ownership debate.

9. 1994, 7th December, Costing the Earth: ecopsychology, BBC Radio 4, 15 minutes on ecopsychology of the Pollok Free State M77 motorway protest.

8.  1994, broadcast December, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,  20 minute Fifth Estate TV documentary on Warrior Chief Stone Eagle’s visit to Isle of Eigg community land ownership bid and Harris superquarry public inquiry.

7.  1994, recorded 26th and 27th October,  various current affairs analysis programmes, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio Montreal and Nova Scotia, regarding Scottish land ownership and Stone Eagle’s testimony to Harris superquarry inquiry.

6.  1994, 26 October and previous 2 weeks, Whose Land is it Anyway? BBC 2 TV, contributions on land ownership to 3 part series.

5.  1994, 19 July, Dirty News, BBC Radio 5, 15 minute debate with Christopher Bourne-Arton, council member of the English Country Landowners Association about land ownership and community dis/empowerment.

4.  1994, 28 February, Speaking Out, BBC Radio Scotland, seven-minute introduction to the social history of the Highland land question, as prelude to broadcast debate between the people of Eigg and their laird.

3.  1992, 14 December, Nature: Do Sporting Estates have a Future, BBC Radio Scotland, debate with Lord Pearson of Rannoch and Martin Mathers of Worldwide Fund for, 27 minutes (repeated twice).

2.  1992, summer, Speaking Out, BBC Radio Scotland, debate on land ownership with the Laird of Eigg, 55 minutes.

1.  1990, October (One World Week), Evening Call,  Scottish TV, series of five two-minute evening religious reflection programmes.

9.         MAINCONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, ADDRESSES, ETC. (in chronological order):

10.   OTHER INTERESTS, COMMITTEES, ETC. NOT ALREADY INDICATED

10.1 Member of the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers).

10.2 Founding and community-elected trustee of the Isle of Eigg Trust (Scottish community land restitution).

10.3 Founding trustee, Peace House Trust (Iona Community & Quakers).  

10.4 Founding trustee of the GalGael Trust for indigenous artesan skills and cultural regeneration, Glasgow.

10.5 Member of Board of Management, Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Circa 1990 to 1999), including chairing Projects Committee (budget c. £2 million).

10.6 Initiator of theological testimony with Prof. D. MacLeod and Warrior Chief Stone Eagle in defence of Mt. Roinebhal and surrounding community at Harris Superquarry Public Inquiry, 1991 - 1995.

10.7. Advisor to Glasgow Mosque on interfaith relations, Gulf War and Bosnia. Advisor to Catholic Commission on Justice and Peace working party on Development. Consultant to Archbishop (subsequently Cardinal) Winning on strategic planning 1989-90. Honorary business advisor to Iona Community, 1990-94. Associate member of Iona Community.

10.8 Initiator and co-editor of 1991 GulfWatch computer networked alternative news service as 1987-94 steering committee member of Scottish Churches Action for World Development.

10.9 Notwithstanding being no longer on the staff of Edinburgh University, I continued to play a role within the Faculty of Science and Engineering teaching and examining a 10 hour course in accountancy for resource managers; also teaching on a contract basis in Women in Development and Sustainable Development in Social Forestry (professional training course). I have had an ongoing supervisory role with several PhDs and an have been contracted as an examiner for MSc dissertations in resource management.

10.10 Patron of the Iona Community’s Growing Hope appeal along with Baroness Smith and Chris Bonnington (2003 to present).

11.    OTHER SKILLS AND BIODATA

11.1  Conversant and literate in Papua New Guinea Tok Pisin, able to understand Solomon Islands Pidgin and Vanuatuan Bislama. Basic conversational French. 

11.2  Current car and motor-cycle licence.

11.3  Play traditional and contemporary Celtic music.

11.4  Microsoft Office 2000 applications, Sagesoft Accountant, MYOB, Keyboard touchtype @ 100 w.p.m..  

11.5 Full driving licence, groups A, D, E.

12.       REFEREES (Nb. - please check for updates and check before contacting)

Last updated: August 09, 2009

www.AlastairMcIntosh.com