1st Edition

Migration, Community and Identity Countercultural Lifestyle Migration to Rural Wales, 1965-1980

By Flossie Caerwynt Copyright 2024
    180 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Migration, Community and Identity analyses experiences of migration to rural Wales from 1965 to 1980. It focuses on people who were part of the era’s counterculture, looking for an escape from mainstream society. Using original interviews, the book shows why people moved and how the move shaped their lives and identities. Drawing together geographical and historical research, this book explores the significance of this migration phenomenon. It provides a unique insight into late-twentieth-century Welsh society and shines a new light on the counterculture itself. Through analysing the experience of life in Wales and ongoing developments in the migrants’ sense of identity, it argues that rather than being a uniform group, the counterculture encompassed a diverse range of beliefs and aspirations.

    The book will be suitable for upper-level undergraduates and above. The broad range of themes covered in this book is relevant not only to rural and historical geographers and migration researchers but also to those interested in sociology, anthropology, and the modern history of Britain and Wales. The theories and concepts discussed have global appeal and will be of interest to those studying similar migration phenomena elsewhere.

    Introduction

    PART 1

    Motivations

    1 Why leave? Reasons for joining the countercultural migration

    2 Making the move: why Wales?

    3 Finding a home: mainstream or alternative?

    PART 2

    Practices

    4 Living the dream? The reality of self-sufficiency

    5 Making money: employment and entrepreneurship

    6 Away from work: hobbies and interests

    PART 3

    Belonging

    7 Fitting into a new community

    8 Dych chi’n siarad Cymraeg? Living with the Welsh language

    9 Identity: balancing nation and culture

    Conclusion

    Biography

    Flossie Caerwynt is a Research Associate in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University. She has an interest in heritage studies and the impact of the past on the present, with a particular focus on alternative lifestyles and experiments in reimaging society.