ABSTRACT Fair Isle is one of the best known of the Scottish islands having given its name to a shipping forecast region and to an internationally known style of knitting patterns and also because it has a world renowned bird observatory, and is the most remote of the inhabited British islands. Over the last five decades it has experienced major changes in its economic and social fabric, reflecting the influences of both endogenous and exogenous forces. This paper reviews and interprets those changes, utilising two surveys made fifty years apart using the same survey instrument and the same methodology in order to provide a basis for a consistent comparison. The paper discusses the changes that have taken place in agricultural practices, in infrastructure, in the economic base and the successful stabilisation of population numbers, and in tourism to the island, which reflect changes in ownership of the island and the impacts of North Sea development and local government re-organisation.

中文翻译：

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费尔岛：半个世纪的变化

摘要费尔岛是苏格兰最著名的岛屿之一，因其航运预报区和国际知名的针织图案风格而得名，还因为它拥有世界著名的鸟类观测站，是最偏远的有人居住的岛屿英属岛屿。在过去的五年中，它的经济和社会结构发生了重大变化，反映了内生和外生力量的影响。本文利用相同的调查工具和相同的方法，利用相隔 50 年的两次调查来回顾和解释这些变化，以便为一致的比较提供基础。该文件讨论了在农业实践、基础设施、经济基础和人口数量的成功稳定方面发生的变化，