NATION, IDENTITY AND SOCIAL THEORY

Perspectives from Wales

Edited by Ralph Fevre and Andrew Thompson

'. . . a useful and thought provoking contribution to our understanding'. (Political Studies)

‘In summary, this is an interesting and thought-provoking volume, which will provide valuable reading for anyone engaged in researching Welsh culture, politics and society . . . the variety of topics examined in the book will provide much of interest for readers both within and beyond Wales.’ (Journal of Rural Studies)

‘This very useful collection of essays . . . provide detailed . . . discussions of various aspects of social theory and their application to Wales, but the book is of wider interest and offers methodological starting points for the examination of national identities in a wider British context . . . This significant volume draws together a wide-ranging collection of essays.’ Patterns of Prejudice

‘ . . . an important contribution to recent academic debates on the nation, nationalism and national identity . . . A key strength is its ability to blend together social theory with a rich source of case-study material relating to Wales.’ Progress in Human Geography

‘ . . . very useful collection of essays . . . this significant volume draws together a wide-ranging collection of essays.’

(Patterns of Prejudice)

Questions of nationalism and national identity have assumed an extraordinary prominence towards the end of the twentieth century. This resurgence has astonished most social theorists. Associating nationalism with immature democracies, they had assumed that the forces of globalization would lead to an erosion of differences between peoples rather than their reaffirmation.

Nation, Identity and Social Theory draws on some of the most recent developments in social theory to examine the different dimensions of nation and nationalism in contemporary Wales. The contributors consider whether or not people have a clear sense of what a national identity might be and discuss the confused and conflicting associations of different ideas of nation and nationality with history and place.

All discussion of the issues of nation and identity within the UK must now be considered within the context of the movement towards European union and devolved government. This substantial and challenging volume draws attention to the way in which these issues are integral features of social life in Wales, offering an insight into the confused web of feelings which surrounds them and showing the need for a rethinking of social theory which will take such feelings into account.

Ralph Fevre is Professor of Social Reseach at University of Wales, Cardiff and Andrew Thompson is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Glamorgan.

Contents and Contributors: * Ralph Fevre and Andrew Thompson, Social Theory and Welsh Identities; * Andrew Thompson and Graham Day, Situating Welshness: ‘Local’ Experience and National Identity; * Dave Adamson, The Intellectual and the National Movement in Wales; * Charlotte Williams, Passports to Wales? Race, Nation and Identity; * Charlotte Aull Davies, Nationalism, Feminism and Welsh Women: Conflicts and Accommodations; * Brian Roberts, Welsh Identity in a Former Mining Valley: Social Images and Imagined Communities; * Ralph Fevre, John Borland and David Denney, Nation, Community and Conflict: Housing Policy and Immigration in North Wales; * Pyrs Gruffudd, Prospects of Wales: Contested Geographical Imaginations; * Huw Thomas, Spatial Restructuring in the Capital: Struggles to Shape Cardiff’s Built Environ-ment; * Dave Marks, Great Little Trains? The Role of Heritage Railways in North Wales in the Denial of Welsh Identity, Culture and Working Class History; * Bella Dicks and Joost van Loon, Territoriality and Heritage in South Wales: Space, Time and Imagined Communities; * Andrew Thompson, Nation, Identity and Social Theory.