The Welsh Way: Essays on Neoliberalism and Devolution

Neoliberalism has firmly taken hold in Wales. The ‘clear red water’ is darkening. The wounds of poverty, inequality, and disengagement, far from being healed, have worsened. Child poverty has reached epidemic levels: the worst in the UK. Educational attainment remains stubbornly low, particularly in deprived communities. Prison population rates are among the highest in Europe. Unemployment remains stubbornly high. House prices are rising, with the private rented sector lining the pockets of an ever-increasing number of private landlords. Minority groups are consistently marginalised. All this is not to mention the devastatingly disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on working class communities. The Welsh Way interrogates neoliberalism’s grasp on Welsh life. It challenges the lazy claims about the ‘successes’ of devolution, fabricated by Welsh politicians and regurgitated within a tepid, attenuated public sphere. These wide-ranging essays examine the manifold ways in which neoliberalism now permeates all areas of Welsh culture, politics, and society. They also look to a wider world, to the global trends and tendencies that have given shape to Welsh life today.

Dan Evans is a former academic who is now a support worker, writer, and activist based in Cardiff. His book on Welsh identity in British Wales will be out in early 2022 with University of Wales Press, and he is currently writing a book on the rise of the petite bourgeoisie for Repeater Books. He is the host of the Welsh politics podcast Desolation Radio. Kieron Smith is a researcher and writer whose work focuses on Welsh culture and society. He has written widely on aspects of the English-language culture of Wales, including the monograph John Ormond’s Organic Mosaic (UWP 2019) and the collection New Theoretical Perspectives on Dylan Thomas (UWP 2020, edited with Rhian Bubear). He lives in Swansea. Huw Williams is a Senior Lecturer in Political Philosophy at Cardiff University. He is an occasional activist and has published essays, chapters, articles, and books on a variety of issues, from the Welsh language to global justice. His latest book is Ysbryd Morgan (UWP 2020), a volume on Welsh intellectual history.