School of Social & Political Sciences

Jim Tomlinson joins the School as Professor of Economic and Social History from 1 July 2013.

"My interests are in the historical political economy of modern Britain. Within this very broad label, there are currently four main strands to my research. First, I am currently completing a book for Edinburgh University Press on Dundee and Empire: Juteopolis, 1850-1939, which is part of a broader interest in the social and political as well as economic impact of imperial globalization and de-globalization in modern Britain.

Linked to this, I am interested, especially in the light of the debate on Scottish independence, in the historical development of the idea of a ‘Scottish economy’; what has such a concept meant, and what purchase does it have today?

Third, I work with Ben Clift (Politics, University of Warwick) combining political science and historical approaches to issues surrounding financial credibility and national economic management. We have done a number of pieces of work together, especially on Britain and the IMF, and our next project is to compare the politics of the two crises of financial credibility of 2010 and 1931.

Finally, I have a long-standing interest in popular understanding of economic issues in relation to economic policy. At the moment I am particularly concerned with this question in the context of the inflation of the 1970s, but in the long-run my aim is to write a broad study of the issue in Britain since circa 1931."

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First published: 11 June 2013