Welsh Way

Dan Evans is a former academic who is now a support worker, writer andactivist based in Cardiff. His book on Welsh identity in British Wales will beout in early 2022 with University of Wales Press, and he is currently writing abook on the rise of the petite bourgeoisie for Repeater Books. He is the host ofthe Welsh politics podcast Desolation Radio.Kieron Smith is a researcher and writer whose work focuses on Welsh cultureand society. He has written widely on aspects of the English-language cultureof Wales, including the monograph John Ormond's Organic Mosaic (UWP2019) 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 CardiffUniversity. He is an occasional activist and has published essays, chapters,articles and books on a variety of issues, from the Welsh language to globaljustice. His latest book is Ysbryd Morgan (UWP 2020), a volume on Welshintellectual history.

With a foreword by Michael Sheen.This book argues for a new Welsh Way, one that is truly radicaland transformational. A call for a political engagement thatwill create real opportunity for change.Neoliberalism has firmly taken hold in Wales. The ‘clear redwater’ is darkening. The wounds of poverty, inequality, anddisengagement, far from being healed, have worsened. Childpoverty has reached epidemic levels: the worst in the UK.Educational attainment remains stubbornly low, particularly indeprived communities. Prison population rates are among thehighest in Europe. Unemployment remains stubbornly high.House prices are rising, with the private rented sector liningthe pockets of an ever-increasing number of private landlords.Minority groups are consistently marginalised. All this is notto mention the devastatingly disproportionate impact of thecoronavirus 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 themanifold ways in which neoliberalism now permeates all areasof Welsh culture, politics and society. They also look to a widerworld, to the global trends and tendencies that have given shapeto Welsh life today. Together, they encourage us to imagine, anddemand, another Welsh future.