Isla Kinnear
Research title: Citizenship, Ownership and Energy Resources in Scotland from the 1970s to the 2010s.
Research summary
Research Summary
My research focuses on the experiences of communities in energy projects. Specifically focusing on Scotland, my research uses oral history interviews and archival documents to examine how community ownership, participation, and/or benefit can enable national and local interests in energy developments to be met. My thesis examines the war time development of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, the negotiations between Shetland Islands Council and the oil industry in the 1970s, and the creation of Fintry Development Trust in Fintry, Stirlingshire, in the early 2000s.
Research Interests
- community energy
- community benefit
- energy policy
- land ownership
- resource ownership
Grants
Grants
- SGSSS ESRC-funded 3.5 Studentship - 2022-2026
Conferences
Conferences
- 2023: Presentation of MSc Thesis - 'An analysis of the role of the state in financing renewable energy R&D, with an examination of state-led energy R&D in France'. Centre for Energy Ethics: Financing the Future, University of St Andrews, 6-8 June
- 2025: Association for Business Historians: '"Out of the World and Into Fintry": Community Wind Energy Ownership in Fintry, Glasgow.', Queens University Belfast, 20-21 June
- 2025: Extractive Natures: 'Extracting Futures: Oil Development and Community Benefit in the Shetland Islands', University of Bristol, 6-7 November
Workshops
- 2024: Nature (Re)Contested: 'Social Responsibility and Public Interest: The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board and Loch Sloy', University of St Andrews, 7 June
- 2024: Tony Slaven Workshop - Economic and Business History Society and Association for Business Historians (joint conference): 'Social Responsibility and Public Interest: The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board Development of Loch Sloy', University of York, 27-29 June
Invited Speaker
- 2025: Secrets of My Success workshop. Invited to speak on the role of community development trusts in creating green enterprise and widening women's employment access. University of Bristol, 7-8 July
Teaching
Graduate Teaching Assistant
- Economic and Social History 1A
- Economic and Social History 1B
- British Economic Policy 1945-1951
Additional information
Board Member
- Director of Fintry Development Trust, 2023-present
Membership
- Climate, Energy & Environment Network (CEEN), University of Glasgow
Internships
- Community Land Scotland, July-October 2022
Media
- BBC News: 'The communities seeking to cash in on wind turbine ownership', 22 December 2025.
Archives
- The National Archives, Kew
- National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh
- Shetland Museum & Archives, Lerwick