Overview

Welsh Communities is a critical examination of the diverse Welsh experiences of community: rural and urban; traditional and alternative; inward and outward migrations. The essays in the volume - the first collection of ethnographic writing on Wales for a number of decades - advocate a contemporary theoretical approach to the study of communities. Each essay is based on original ethnographic research, using methods that involve a long-term and comparatively intimate relationship between researchers and their research subjects and locales. The contributors analyse the nature of community and explore how different groups symbolically construct and experience 'community' on a day-to-day basis. The groups and topics considered include: a former mining village in south Wales; traditional healing in mid-Wales; farming; incomers and alternative lifestyles in west Wales; two contrasting neighbourhoods in Swansea; and the London Welsh community. In the course of these studies, various questions are also raised concerning how or whether the contributors as 'native ethnographers' belong to those communities they are studying. Welsh Communities represents a major original contribution to the development of anthropological studies of Welsh society and culture.

Full Product Details

Author:   Charlotte Aull Davies ,  Stephanie Jones
Publisher:   University of Wales Press
Imprint:   University of Wales Press
ISBN:  

9780708317822

ISBN 10:   0708317820
Pages:   250
Publication Date:   30 January 2003
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Table of Contents

1. Conceptualizing Community-Charlotte Aull Davies; Section 1: Localities and Identities; 2. Supporting the team, sustaining the community: gender and rugby in a former mining village-Stephanie Jones; 3. Research on your own doorstep: Welsh rural communities and the perceived effects of in-migration-Emma James; 4. Family and social change in an urban street community-Martin O'Neill; 5. Being here and there in The Field: a look at insider ethnography-De Murphy; Section 2: Social Networks and Belongings; 6. Wool measurement: community and healing in rural Wales-Sue Philpin; 7. Family Farm businesses and the farming community: revisiting farm families in west Wales eighteen years on-John Hutson; 8. Vegetarian biographies in time and space: vegetarians and alternatives in Newport, west Wales-Janice Williams; 9. Constructing Communities away from home: Welsh identities in London-Jeremy Segrott; 10. Conclusions: reflecting on Welsh communities-Charlotte Aull Davies and Stephanie Jones

Reviews

"' ... fascinating insight into the diversity of lives that are Welsh ... highly readable glimpses behind curtains of a diverse range of ""communities"" ...' (Planet - The Welsh Internationalist) ' ... an interesting and enjoyable read ... a fascinating glimpse into modern Welsh culture.' (Regional Studies) ""This volume is a thought-provoking and welcome addition to the long tradition of Welsh community studies."" D. Douglas Caulkins, Grinnell College, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Vol. 13"

' ... fascinating insight into the diversity of lives that are Welsh ... highly readable glimpses behind curtains of a diverse range of communities ...' (Planet - The Welsh Internationalist) ' ... an interesting and enjoyable read ... a fascinating glimpse into modern Welsh culture.' (Regional Studies) This volume is a thought-provoking and welcome addition to the long tradition of Welsh community studies. D. Douglas Caulkins, Grinnell College, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Vol. 13

Author Information

Charlotte Aull Davies is senior lecturer in sociology and anthropology in the School of Social Sciences and International Development, University of Wales Swansea. Among her previous publications are Welsh Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: The Ethnic Option and the Modern State (1989) and Reflexive Ethnography: A Guide to Researching Selves and Others (1999). Stephanie Jones completed her doctorate in social anthropology at the University of Wales Swansea and is now an associate lecturer at the Open University.

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