Supervisors

Dr Pyrs Gruffudd, Swansea University

Dr Keith Halfacree, Swansea University

Project and aims

There has been sustained and significant countercultural in-migration into Wales since the later 1960s.  This project aims to survey this field, to understand numbers and types, to explore life histories and map out connections.  We will seek to understand how and why Wales became a place that attracted certain types of migrant.  In particular, we will focus on the environmental ideologies held and practised by migrants, and their contribution to activism (e.g. Centre for Alternative Technology) and to fractions of the business and tourism sectors (e.g the resurgence of organic food production).

The other key aim of the project is to understand this phenomenon within the cultural and political context of activism on behalf of Welsh identity.  Rural Wales has long faced the distinct challenges of depopulation, in-migration and associated cultural threats to the sustainability of language and community.  Groups such as Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) and Cymuned (‘Community’) have expressed concerns about these trends using the language of anti-colonialism and more lately anti-globalization.  There is also a long tradition in Wales of seeing environmental and cultural challenges as inherently linked.

The project will seek to address the following indicative research questions:

•  To what extent are countercultural migrants seeking to connect with locality in its widest sense? Could it be argued that they have strongly developed global linkages with other activists, but relatively weakly developed linkages with local society and culture?
• To what extent have the forms of environmentalism being practised by activists in Wales drawn specifically on place and locality? e.g. a revival of architectural and agricultural practices; a drawing on Celtic mythology; traditional forms of direct action such as the  ‘Ty Unnos’ and ‘Merched Beca’.
• To what extent has the presence of countercultural ideas over a sustained period informed or influenced the evolution of a distinctively Welsh communitarian politics, including a communitarian vision of rural sustainability.

Applicant requirements

The successful candidate will possess at least an Upper Second class degree in Geography or a related social science discipline. Candidates who possess a Masters degree are eligible for +3 funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Funding

This project is eligible for competitive funding through the ESRC (1+3 or +3 studentship). Other funding opportunities are available and self-funded students are always welcome. Contact your potential supervisor for advice and details of how to apply. The deadline for applications for the ESRC studentship is 12 April 2010 but candidates are advised to contact their potential supervisor well in advance of this date if they wish to enter the ESRC open competition.

Further information

For further details please contact Dr Pyrs Gruffudd (r.p.gruffudd@swansea.ac.uk) or Dr Keith Halfacree (mailto:k.h.halfacree@swansea.ac.uk).