Beginning with early fact-finding investigations this paper outlines the emergence of a distinctive sociology of Wales and relates it to changes occurring in the Welsh university system. It traces the tensions between emphases on language and culture, and on class and economy, and shows how the focus of sociological work has shifted over time, reflecting changes in Welsh society and political structures. Early preoccupation with community studies and the fate of the Welsh language gave way to questions of economic decline and structural inequality. Themes of uneven development, social and economic restructuring and internal colonialism were explored. The nature of Welsh identity was problematised. Devolution of political powers to Wales has opened up new questions about national belonging and civil society. It has brought Welsh sociologists closer to government and helped strengthen the research base in Wales, at some risk to the critical independence of social science.
AaronJ.WilliamsC. (eds) 2005. Postcolonial Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
2.
AdamsonD.1988. ‘The new working class and political change in Wales’, Contemporary Wales2: 7–28.
3.
AdamsonD.1991. Class, Ideology and the Nation: A Theory of Welsh Nationalism. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
4.
AitchisonJ.CarterH.2000. Language Economy and Society: The Changing Fortunes of the Welsh Language in the Twentieth Century. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
5.
BallardP.H.JonesE.1975. The Valleys Call – A Self Examination by the People of the South Wales Valleys. Ferndale: Ron Jones Publications.
6.
BalsomD.1985. ‘The three-Wales model’, pp. 1–17 in OsmondJ. (ed), The National Question Again. Llandysul: Gomer Press.
7.
BeynonH. (ed.) 1985. Digging Deeper: Issues in the Miners' Strike. London: Verso.
8.
BeynonH.2011. ‘Engaging labour: British sociology 1945–2010’, Global Labour Journal2(1): 5–26.
9.
BowenE.1959. ‘Le Pays de Galles’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers26: 1–23.
10.
BrennanT.CooneyE.W.PollinsA.1954. Social Change in South-West Wales. London: Watts and Co.
11.
ChaneyP.HallT.PithouseA. (eds) 2001. New Governance – New Democracy? Post Devolution Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
12.
ChaneyP.MackayF.McAllisterL.2007. Women, Politics and Constitutional Change. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
13.
CharlesN.DaviesC.A.HarrisC.2008. Families in Transition: Social Change, Family Formation and Kin Relationships. Bristol: Policy Press.
14.
ClokeP.GoodwinM.MilbourneP.1997. Rural Wales: Community and Marginalization. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
15.
CookeP.1983. ‘The regional division of labour’, pp. 72–87 in WilliamsG, (ed.) Crisis of Economy and Ideology: Essays on Wales, 1840–1980. BSA Sociology of Wales Group.
16.
CouplandN.BishopH.2006. ‘Ideologies of language and community in post-devolution Wales’, pp. 33–49 in WilsonJ.StapledonK. (eds), Devolution and Identity. Aldershot: Ashgate.
DaviesC.A.1989. Welsh Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: The Ethnic Option and the Modern State. New York: Praeger.
19.
DaviesC.A.2010. ‘Nationalism and the Welsh language’, pp. 159–95 in MackayH., (ed.) Understanding Contemporary Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
20.
DaviesC.A.JonesS. (eds) 2003. Welsh Communities: New Ethnographic Perspectives. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
21.
DaviesE.ReesA.D.1960. Welsh Rural Communities. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
22.
DayG.1998. ‘A community of communities? Similarity and difference in Welsh rural community studies’, The Economic and Social Review29(3): 233–57.
23.
DayG.2002. Making Sense of Wales a Sociological Perspective. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
24.
DayG.2006. Community and Everyday Life. London: Routledge.
25.
DayDunkerleyG. D.ThompsonA. (eds) 2006. Civil Society in Wales: Policy, Politics and People. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
26.
DayG.ReesG. (eds) 1991. Regions, Nations, and European Integration: Remaking the Celtic Periphery. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
27.
DunkerleyD.ThompsonA. (eds) 1999. Wales Today. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
28.
EmmetI.1964. A North Wales Village: A Social Anthropological Study. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
29.
FevreR.1989. Wales is Closed. Nottingham: Spokesman.
30.
FevreR.ThompsonA. (eds) 1999. Nation, Identity and Social Theory: Perspectives from Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
31.
FrankenbergR.1957. Village on the Border. London: Cohen and West.
32.
FrankenbergR.1966. Communities in Britain. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
33.
HarrisC.C.1987. Redundancy and Recession. Oxford: Blackwell.
34.
HechterM.1975. Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development, 1536–1966. London: Routledge Kegan Paul.
35.
JenkinsD.1971. The Agricultural Community in South-west Wales at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
36.
JenkinsD.1980. ‘Rural society inside outside’, pp. 114–26 in SmithD., (ed.) A People and a Proletariat. London: Pluto.
37.
JenkinsG.WilliamsM. (eds) 2000. ‘Let's Do Our Best For the Ancient Tongue’: The Welsh Language in the Twentieth Century. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
38.
JenningsH.1934. Brynmawr: A Study of a Distressed Area. London: Allenson & Co.
39.
JohnesM.2012. Wales Since 1939. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
40.
JonesG.E.1988. ‘What are schools in Wales for? Wales and the Education Reform Act’, Contemporary Wales2: 99–118.
41.
JonesG.E.1997. The Education of a Nation. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
42.
JonesM.1980. ‘Notes from the margin: Class and society in nineteenth century Gwynedd’, pp. 199–214 in SmithD., (ed.) A People and a Proletariat. London: Pluto.
43.
JonesR.FowlerC.2008. Placing the Nation: Aberystwyth and the Reproduction of Welsh Nationalism. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
44.
JonesR.W.ScullyR.2012. Wales Says Yes: Devolution and the 2011 Referendum. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
MacDonaldS.EdwardsJ.SavageM.2005. ‘Introduction: Communities and change’, Sociological Review53(4): 587–602.
47.
McAllisterL.2001. Plaid Cymru: The Emergence of a Political Party. Bridgend: Seren.
48.
MasseyD.1979. ‘In what sense a regional problem?’, Regional Studies13: 233–43.
49.
MasseyD.1984. Spatial Divisions of Labour: Social Structures and the Geography of Production. Macmillan.
50.
MichaelD.1983. ‘Before Alwyn: Early social thought, action and research in Wales’, pp. 1–34 in WilliamsG, (ed.) Crisis of Economy and Ideology: Essays on Wales, 1840–1980. BSA Sociology of Wales Group.
51.
MilbourneP. (ed.) 2011. Rural Wales in the Twenty-first Century: Society, Economy and Environment. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
52.
MooreR.2010. ‘The Welsh assembly government's social cohesion strategy. A world without sociology?’, Contemporary Wales23: 117–41.
53.
MorganK.SayerA.1988. Microcircuits of Capital ‘Sunrise’ Industry and Uneven Development. Cambridge: Polity Press.
54.
MorganK.MunghamG.2000. Redesigning Democracy: The Making of the Welsh Assembly. Bridgend: Seren.
55.
MorrisD.2010. Welsh in the Twenty-First Century. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
56.
NairnT.1977. The Break-Up of Britain. London: New Left Books.
RawkinsP.1983. ‘Uneven development and the politics of culture’, pp. 214–30 in WilliamsG., (ed.) Crisis of Economy and Ideology: Essays on Wales, 1840–1980. BSA Sociology of Wales Group.
61.
ReesA.1950. Life in a Welsh Countryside. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
62.
ReesG.ReesT. (eds) 1980. Poverty and Social Inequality in Wales. London: Croom Helm.
63.
ReesT.1988. ‘Changing patterns of women's work in Wales: Some myths explored’, Contemporary Wales, 2: 119–30.
64.
ReesT.1999. Women and Work: Twenty-five Years of Gender Equality in Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
65.
RobertsC.1983. ‘The sociology of education and Wales’, pp. 231–46 in WilliamsG., (ed.) Crisis of Economy and Ideology: Essays on Wales, 1840–1980. BSA Sociology of Wales Group.
66.
RobertsG.T.1998. The Language of the Blue Books: Wales and Colonial Prejudice. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
67.
RosserC.HarrisC.C.1965. The Family and Social Change. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
68.
RoylesE.2007. Revitalizing Democracy? Devolution and Civil Society in Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
69.
SavageM.2010. Identities and Social Change in Britain Since 1940: The Politics of Method. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
70.
TaylorB.ThomsonK. (eds) 1999. Scotland and Wales: Nations Again?. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
71.
WilliamsC.EvansN.O'LearyP. (eds) 2003. A Tolerant Nation? Exploring Ethnic Diversity in Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
72.
WilliamsG. (ed.) 1978. Social and Cultural Change in Contemporary Wales. London: Routledge.
73.
WilliamsG. (ed.) 1983. Crisis of Economy and Ideology: Essays on Wales, 1840–1980. BSA Sociology of Wales Group.
74.
WilliamsG.1984. ‘What is Wales? The discourse of devolution’, Racial and Ethnic Studies, 7(1): 138–59.
75.
WilliamsG.MorrisD., 2000. Language Planning and Language Use: Welsh in a Global Age. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
76.
WilliamsG.A.1985. When Was Wales? A History of the Welsh. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
77.
WilliamsR.1971. ‘Who speaks for Wales?’, pp. 3–6 in WilliamsD., (ed.) Who Speaks For Wales? Nation, culture, identity: Raymond Williams. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
78.
WilsonJ.StapletonK. (eds) 2006. Devolution and Identity. Aldershot: Ashgate.
79.
WincklerV.2010. Forty Years of Regeneration in the Upper Afan Valley. Merthyr Tydfil: The Bevan Foundation.
80.
YoungM.WillmottP.1957. Family and Kinship in East London. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
