Enlightenment in a Smart City ― Edinburgh's Civic Development 1660-1750

This is a study of Enlightenment in Edinburgh like no other. Using data and models provided by urban innovation and Smart City theory, it pinpoints the distinctive features that made Enlightenment in the Scottish capital possible.

In a journey packed with evidence and incident, Murray Pittock explores various civic networks - such as the newspaper and printing businesses, the political power of the gentry and patronage networks, as well as the pub and coffee-house life - as drivers of cultural change. His analysis reveals that the attributes of civic development, which lead to innovation and dynamism, were at the heart of what made Edinburgh a smart city of 1700.

Murray Pittock is Bradley Professor at the University of Glasgow, Pro Vice-Principal and Honorary Scottish History Adviser to the National Trust for Scotland. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Historical Society and the English Association and a prize lecturer of both the RSE and the British Academy. He has held senior appointments at the universities of Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Manchester, and visiting appointments in history and literature globally at universities including Yale, Trinity College, Dublin, New York University and Charles University, Prague. Recent publications include The Scots Musical Museum (2 vols, 2018); Culloden (2016) and Material Culture and Sedition (2013). His current projects include The Collected Works of Allan Ramsay (funded by the AHRC, 2018-23), The Scottish Heritage Partnership (on VR and Immersive design and procurement, funded by EPSRC-AHRC) and Robert Burns and the Scottish Economy (funded by Scottish Government).